Rodan (1956)

       "I have lost one plane, but we're still in pursuit!"

Rodan (1956) (空の大怪獣 ラドン) [literally: Radon, Giant Monster of the Sky], also known as Rodan! The Flying Monster!, is an early Japanese kaiju film and the first color kaiju film released by Toho. Rodan is directed by Ishiro Honda who directed the original Gojira (1954).

A group of miners in the outskirts of Kyushu go deeper than anyone has ever gone before, but when miners start to go missing or are found dead and mutilated they soon realize they've unearthed prehistoric creatures that haven't been seen on earth for millions of years.

[Note: this review is referencing the American, English-dubbed edit of the film.]

The English-dub for this film didn't bother me too much. It's a bit dramatic, which is in-line with the tone of many other American 50's monster movies. Unfortunately some of the main characters speak with a broken English, which today reads as pretty racist. And like any dub that tries to match the lips too closely, its got plenty of hilarious moments too.

Over all the effects in this film are pretty impressive. The color and lighting doesn't really compare to how well the black and white helped the believability of the original Gojira, and some of the models (mostly the tanks) didn't really work as well as some of the plane shots.

Unlike Gojira there's not a whole lot to Rodan. It's literally just a supernatural horror/survival film. No huge message, not a lot to it really. Now I'm not saying that's a problem, it is refreshingly simple, but this is a reason why a movie like Gojira is far superior, and will stand the test of time longer.

One of the best things about this film is the mystery and horror of it all. Rodan doesn't show up until the halfway point in the movie and the movie really builds super well up until that point! The horror of the people disappearing in the mines or returning as mauled corpses really plays well, and the mystery of what is down there is awesome. These are the things that really made me feel like Ishiro Honda was at the helm again. This film is like Gojira where the masterful editing storytelling really drags you into the film long before you even see a monster, and then even once you know what is attacking Honda is really good about only giving you brief glimpses of the monstrous kaiju initially and then gradually more and more.

One reason I really recommend people check out this film is the impressive dogfight scenes. There's a really impressive sequence about three-quarters into the film where a group of jet fighter pilots are perusing the Rodan, and the film really excelently is cutting between real stock footage, superimposed monster models and pilots shot on a set and it all works together super simply and well. I was amazed at how exciting is and well this sequence looks almost 60 years later!

Rodan (1956) is an often over-looked early kaiju film that really works well to this day, I highly recommend it!

4.5/5 Stars.

 Happy watching!



I'm tackling all or most of the early Toho Studios' Godzilla and Kaiju films in honor of the newest Godzilla (2014), check back next time to see my review of another classic Toho kaiju and her(pre-Godzilla battle) origin film; Mothra (1961).

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Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

NIGHT 30

     "Young people making the most of life... while it lasts."

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) (also known as Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein) is a loose sequel to the Universal horror films. Toward the end of the run of monster movies the studio was willing to try anything to revive interest in the classic monsters and this film proved to be an instant hit.

Chick and Wilbur work as freight handling baggage clerks where they get a strange delivery that they have to personally deliver to a 'house of horrors', wax museum. Unfortunately for them, the horrors in these crates are very real.

One of the things I really like about this film is it has a very simple good story. Dracula wants to put Wilbur's brain into the Frankenstein monster to make him completely obedient and Laurence Talbert knows Dracula is up to something but can't turn him in and has to quietly follow him because of his own dark monster side. All the while Wilbur is one of the few humans to catch on that something is up, but Chick and the others just think he's a babbling idiot so they don't listen. It really is a great idea of how to blend an Abbott & Costello story and a Universal monster movie.

This film has some really great situational humor. Director Charles Barton was the main director of Abbot & Costello sketches through out their careers and this film is a fine example at how good they were with those. I love the way they incorporate the "horror movie-ism"s into some more classic Abbott & Costello style sketches like the revolving door with the trick candle and the part where they're trying to run away from Frankenstein's monster and Dracula at the same time and they end up and down the castle stairs and into and out of rooms and even barricading a door in a room only to have Frankenstein's monster just open it in the opposite direction. Also the fact that they have Bud Abbot dressed in just a black dress shirt and grey slacks with his costume that just consists of a wolf mask, and Lon Chaney is wearing the same thing before he transforms into the wolf man makes for some really smart and well planned out mistaken identity. It's brilliant and hilarious stuff.

As an audience today we're really not used to comedies like this anymore and some of the skits (like the ones mentioned above) can seem a bit long-winded when viewed today. I think the problem is we're so used to quick faster paced movies that when you watch a film like this where they spend ten minutes on a revolving door gag or even five minutes with Lou messing around with luggage our brains just kind of belittle the comedy in-front of us.

Probably my favorite thing about this film is its dialogue and verbal jokes. This film has some hilarious comedy via puns and jokes that crack me up every time. This is of course amplified by Abbott & Costello's mastery of comic timing and facial expressions. I love the running gags with Wilbur's inability to speak when he's frightened so he has to pantomime the Dracula and Monster walks.

And I gotta mention the performances of Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. This film is a must see for classic monster fans because of these two, they really just give it their all and really don't hold back even though this is just a silly comedy. Lon Chaney Jr. reprises his magnificent role as the troubled and tortured Wolf Man (1941) like it was yesterday for him and even though it had been far longer since Lon Chaney donned his cape and fangs you can still really see here why his performance is still considered one of the greatest adaptations of Dracula (1931). Both of these actors just loved the characters and there is no greater proof than their performances in this film.

While Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) may have just been a studio's grab at helping a dying franchise, it's proof to me that horror and monsters can be used in more ways than just to scare people. This is ever so proven in present day where we still get "monster mania" at least once a year.

4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




Tomorrow is the final night of this year's 31 Nights of Macabre Movies! I'm gonna send it off right with a great animated zombie film from last year!

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The Borderlands (2013)

NIGHT 20

     "Don't believe everything you see."

The Borderlands (2013) is a brand new British independent horror film and the first feature of writer director Elliot Goldner.

The film follows a group of Vatican investigators whose job it is to investigate and record miracles and acts of God and weed out fraudulent cases.

I really like the premise of this film. It's super simple and clever that I really found myself in awe of this indie horror flick right off the bat.

I'm really not a fan of handheld "shakey-cam" found footage films like this but I gotta say, I think this was very watchable. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the cameras they used were attached to headsets, and since we naturally keep our head upright when walking, I'm thinking this may have helped the watchability of this film quite a bit.

And I must admit I was pleased with the ending. I of course won't ruin it here, but I think it's very original and unlike anything I've seen before in these types of films. Whether or not it pays off for the film is debatable, but it was highly original.

This is already considered one of the most accurate found footage films ever made. And while that is true for the most part (they set up every single camera and use them all), it still makes the mistakes that a lot of these films make, in that they set up unnecessary cameras that would be uncalled for by these characters. Primarily I'm speaking of the CCTV cameras that they set up inside the place they're staying, this is something you just wouldn't film, there'd be no need to do this, from the character's mindset. I think the director wanted it just to give a wider range of shots, which I understand and appreciate but I think he needed to find a better reason to do so story-wise.

The most enjoyable thing about this film are the characters. All of the characters are very interesting on their own and work even better with the characters they interact with. These are very believable and likeable characters that really make the film enjoyable to watch. I found the first act really slow in this film (necessary to seem like every other found footage film, and really pay off in the end) but it was the really interesting characters and some great writing that really makes the first part of this film watchable. There's something really great about these characters and their faith and what they don't believe that they get into a bit also. I love how the most religious people in this film are also the most skeptical and first to dismiss something as a fake.

That being said I think the actors themselves have a lot to do with the believability of these characters as well. All of the actors really do an amazing job in this film and really help to make everything else in this film work as well as it does. Hard to come by in a low budget indie film.

The Borderlands also is just a really good mystery. It builds beautifully with lots of unexpected character turns and keeps building toward a beautifully original pay off in a way that just captivates you, and will have you really on edge and waiting to see what comes next, through the entire film.

The Borderlands (2013) is one of the best recent horror films in years, and in a style I don't even care much for too, so that's saying something!

4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




Tomorrow on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies we continue with a much older British horror film ;)

Be sure to check out Daimeon's review of this film too!

This film doesn't have an American distributor yet, so I can't share a link with you. But when it does come out, I highly recommend you check it out.

Blow Out (1981)

Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.

So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list and there's no particular order to these either. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.

DAY 8: Blow Out (1981)

Blow Out is Quentin Tarantino's third favorite film of all time. This film is the reason he chose to cast John Travolta as a lead in Pulp Fiction (1994) and his performance in this film is uncannily similar actually. Brian De Palma does a lot of things in this film that Tarantino would later incorporate into his own "style" like the 360 shot to show confusion and this film also drops lots of references to De Palma's previous films but also to other films, sound familiar? Also Tarantino used a piece from this film's amazing score in Death Proof (2007).

"First it's a drink, then it's my place, now it's a hotel?" Things are moving a little fast, aren't they Sally?"

Blow Out is a conspiracy thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. When Jack Terry, a sound designer for low budget films, randomly saves a girl's life from drowning he finds himself wrapped in a huge conspiracy, and his job comes in handy more than you'd think.

This film has a really simple story and a great premise. I also like how the film starts like a neo-noir film, I thought this was an interesting spin on the typical noir film. The simple story makes it easy to follow and allows for a lot of suspense. There's some very suspense-filled parts in this film, and that's a sign of a good film.

The acting in this film is pretty good too. Nancy Allen plays Sally, who is actually a bit annoying but it works for the film. John Lithgow plays the killer in one of his earliest feature roles, and although this is against type for him retrospectively, it actually works pretty well in this film, you've just got to get over the initial shock the first time you see him. And John Travolta has this very dark and moody performance that really adds a lot of depth and makes the role a lot cooler than it would have been otherwise.

The film has some less-believable parts in the end: like the car chase though a parade, (SPOILERS:) the fact the killer hesitated to kill Sally and decides to take her to the roof of a building when he was going to do it in a subway in front of a lot of people only minutes before, and the fact that the cops believed the victim killed the killer while somehow still getting killed? I believe all of this could have been stronger if De Palma didn't let the neo-noir aspects of the film dwindle about half to three-quarters of the way into it only to turn into a more traditional thriller film.

And this last part is a nitpicky thing that most people wouldn't notice, but it bugged me so I'm gonna mention it, there's a part where Jack makes an animation of the car crash with the magazine pictures and he does it totally wrong, to play at a normal speed the pictures would have need to be photographed at least twice and they would have needed to be lined up a hell of a lot better than he did otherwise the finished film would have been very shakey. True this doesn't really matter that much, but it shows a lack of attention to detail and then made me wonder how truthful the sound design parts actually were!

If nothing else, this film is proof that Brian De Palma is an amazing director. The cinematography stands out with it variety of shots and beautiful shot choices. I especially liked the high angle shots and the split screen shots (like the image at the top of this post) and the use of lots of quiet moments combined with the (fittingly) good sound design show great skill.

(SPOILERS:) Also the ending really showed a sign of great skill, I thought "well this is predictable, he's going to get there right in time and save her," but when he doesn't this really made me like the film that much more. It kind of saved a lot of things I didn't like about the second half of the film.

And lastly I got to mention the great score to this film, every song in this film is really great! A tiny bit of it seems rather dated, but it still really helps achieve some great emotional parts and some very chilling thriller parts too.

Blow Out (1981) is an unexpectedly thrilling story with amazing direction, and a great score. 4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!





This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.

The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!



Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these links:

The Killing (1956)

Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.

So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list and there's no particular order to these either. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.

DAY 6: The Killing (1956)

The Killing is the main inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's first film Reservoir Dogs (1992). Like Reservoir Dogs, this film revolves around a heist carried out by complete strangers who are working together. This film is also told in a non-linear fashion not only like Reservoir Dogs but like a majority of the films in Quentin Tarantino's career. (SPOILERS:) This film also ends in a very similar fashion as Reservoir Dogs with a foul up in the plan, leading to everyone getting killed except for one man getting caught by the police.

“Five years have taught me one thing, if nothing else, anytime you take a chance you better be sure the rewards are worth the risk because they can put you away just as fast for a ten dollar heist as they can for a million dollar job.”

The Killing(1956) is a heist, film noir from early in director Stanley Kubrick's career. It revolves around a group of strangers who come together to pull off a robbery at a horse racing track.

The characters in this movie are really interesting. I like how they're all seemingly normal people who each have their own personal reasons for committing the crime. This adds a lot of drama to the heist because for some of these guys you're really rooting for them. Some of the characters are pretty simple but they're all distinct and very interesting.

Most of the actors are good in this film but the ones who's performances really stand out to me are Elisha Cook, Jr. who plays the nervous bet teller, and Marie Windsor the teller's wife who doesn't love him but attempts to get in on the money and also Sterling Hayden has a really solid performance as Johnny the recently released criminal who is the mastermind behind the whole heist. These three add a lot to the film to ground it emotionally and their performances are really caught my interest in the movie.

I liked the plan for the heist, it's a bit complicated and could have been simplified (as Reservoir Dogs (1992) would much later do), but it's very intricate and well thought out, which makes it very interesting to watch as it playing out.

Although the ending is satisfying I think there's one too many coincidences in the end for my taste. The one that really sticks out to me is the one involving the random dog at the airport.

The best thing about this film is how the non-linear storytelling enhances the heist. At the beginning of the film this is intentionally confusing, to bring your attention to it. But by the end it's used to show a wider picture of the whole crime. It's pretty genius actually. And this really helps to enhance the drama of the story as you watch each of the puzzle pieces fit into the larger crime.

And lastly I want to mention the direction of this film. It's no wonder to me that this film is what really put Stanley Kubrick on the map early in his career because this is a film that could have easily not worked half as well if it had a lesser director at the helm. A lot of the camera moves are simple but interesting and the film really does a whole lot with a very little budget.

The Killing (1956) is a great low budget heist movie that is an early example of Stanley Kubrick's genius direction. 4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!





This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.

The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!



Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these links:

His Girl Friday (1940)

Intro
While pouring back through all the Tarantino films recently I realized a couple things:
1) There's not that many of them. I mean he's only one guy and he pretty much only works off of his own material that he wrote... which takes time, and thus this is very understandable.
2) His films make reference other movies constantly. Now call it what you want homage, reference or just plain theft but I'm thinking that a lot of people don't catch the majority of these references to other films because frankly, we don't have the film same exposure as a young Tarantino did going to the grindhouse theater constantly in his youth or working in a video rental store. However, hypothetically with the vastness of the internet and Amazon, Netflix etc. these films should be easier to get a hold of today, if you know what you're looking for that is.

So I figured there's probably more people out there, like me, who crave more Tarantino constantly and I could showcase some films that I'd consider essential viewing for Tarantino fans. And thus the 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans was born. Now let me warn you this is in no way a comprehensive list. There's probably hundreds of films that Tarantino references in his own films, and I found enough films I could write about to probably do this series again but that will have to wait until next time there's another big Tarantino release.

DAY 3: His Girl Friday (1940)

Okay admittedly His Girl Friday might seem like a stretch to try to connect it with Quentin Tarantino. But I didn't want to pick all the typical films you'd expect, and throw a couple, shall we say, "screwballs" in there to show that it wasn't just violent and gory exploitation films that helped form the filmmaker mind of Quentin Tarantino. It's worth noting that Howard Hawks is considered to be an idol to Quentin Tarantino, in fact recently he's been saying that as far as Director's filmographies go you can't top Howard Hawks. He considers the entire filmography of Howard Hawks to be great and would like future generations to look at Tarantino's own films the same way. And so, rather than choose something from Hawks' filmography that you might expect to be linked to Tarantino like the very stylish and (then) violent Scarface (1932) I opted for a less obvious influence, His Girl Friday. Tarantino even wrote in the first page of his script for Pulp Fiction (1994) that the two robbers who decide to rob the diner should talk quickly in a "His Girl Friday fashion" and apparently it's not unique to that film, apparently Tarantino also has shown this film multiple times to different actors on different films to explain that you can speak as fast as you want your dialogue as long as you hit your punchlines. You can find a video of him confessing this here.

AND if all that wasn't enough of a Tarantino-connection for all you naysayers, Tarantino constantly lists this film in his top five films of all time as you can see by these lists compiled by The Quentin Tarantino Archives.

"Walter, you're wonderful, in a loathsome sort of way."

His Girl Friday (1940) a screwball, romantic comedy directed by Howard Hawks and loosely based on the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. The story follows Walter Burns, fast-talking, do-anything-for a story head editor for a major newspaper who is just finding out that his ex-wife, and former top reporter is getting married to a much simpler man and settling down. Despite Hildy moving on, Walter is not over her yet and is going to do anything he can to try and get her back.

I like the characters in this film, they're all (even down to very minor characters) distinct and yet simple. Smaller characters are placed evenly through the story to service a couple of jokes each and they all are very memorable and funny. The characters with bigger parts each have pretty much one thing on their mind and this serves for even more humor throughout the story.

It does work, but plot of this film is very convoluted and complicated. This is only further muddled by the speed at which everyone talks, which makes it very difficult to follow and can be hard to catch what parts are important during a conversation. This wouldn't matter at all if the story was actually character driven, but no the film is story driven: the characters don't move forward without some prodding from the events of the story. However, said story definitely takes a back seat to the characters it's pretty interesting and unique how they work together like this. Unfortunately this plot is (as I said) treated as a very secondary part riddled with lots coincidences and highly unlikely turns.

The comedy in this film is gold. There's jokes that make me laugh out loud and some of them are admittedly very subtle, but I recommend you see this with an audience and you'll be amazed at how much you'll find yourself actually laughing out loud at. I also really appreciate how many different forms of humor there are, like there's a lot of really funny situational humor in this film that's built just through the way a scene is written or set up. This is a form of creativity that's completely lost on films today. For example a lot of the humor is built around the old-style phones with a separate receiver and there's little gags like Hildy trying to hold two conversations between two phones on different tables and having to run back and forth between them then as one of the conversations gets heated she quickly yells at the other one, "oh I wasn't talking to you!"

I love the dialogue for this film, it's written in the clever, spitfire fast, theatrical way that Hawks was known for but it's also accelerated in this movie because of the fact that they are newspapermen and this not only allows for an interesting medium to quickly release and setup multiple jokes at once, but also great situational humor between a third person trying to keep up in a conversation, and even groups of people talking to different people all in the same frame to convey something that happened off screen.

I firmly believe that this film would not be considered a classic without the two leads. Okay, Cary Grant is always great but I would argue that this early role for him is pretty unique: he's fast, he's rough, he's funny and he's even a touch of the flamboyant. Pretty far off from most of his roles later on in his career. But believe it or not, as much as I like Cary Grant, I almost prefer Rosalind Russell the female protagonist as Hildy in this film. She not only is a really great match for Grant but brings a lot of emotion and soul (and in an very efficient manner too!) to this role that a lesser actor probably would leave out. But both together make such a great team with great chemistry and sex appeal. Like I said, this film wouldn't have been as successful without these two in the lead.

His Girl Friday (1940) is a fast-talking romantic comedy with great characters and a fun story. 4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!





This film is part of my month-long Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained (2012) and his 20-year career. If you've missed any of my reviews so far, be sure to check out his filmography and click on any film you've missed.

The 10 must-see films for Tarantino fans countdown continues tomorrow, so be sure to check back!



I'm always happy to recommend copyright-free movies. This film is currently in the public domain, so you can download or stream this film legally and absolutely free right here thanks to the Internet Archive!

Jackie Brown (1997)

"Half a million dollars will always be missed."

Jackie Brown (1997) is a crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino and based on the book Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. The film is Tarantino's tribute to blaxploitation films of the 70s. It follows a 47-year old flight attendant named Jackie Brown who is caught bringing cash into the country for a gun dealer named Ordell Robbie and the many different parties that would like to run off with Ordell's half a million dollars.

This film has an absolutely amazing cast. There's nothing better than a film with a character-driven story where every character has a great actor behind it. It's no surprise that this film revitalized Pam Grier's career because she is really great in this film. The only character I didn't really care for is Robert De Niro as Louis Gara, a bankrobber recently released from prison. He's not bad in it, but this is a pretty minor role and I kind of feel like its kind of a waste for Robert De Niro's talent.

A majority of this film uses actual lighting, in a world where every movie has fake "Hollywood lighting" this really stands out to me. Not just in mall scenes where it would have been hard to affect the lighting, but I love how Tarantino uses the very dark lighting inside apartments to it's full effect. This is such a simple way to increase the suspense and intensity in a film, but I'm completely blown away by its use in this film.

The plot in this film is too convoluted and complicated for my taste. It took me a couple viewings before I really appreciated how much is actually going on. But with so many characters and so many different plans and plots I just feel it could have been a lot simpler.

The film also seems incredibly long winded. I'm not sure if this is just because we effectively watch a money heist/exchange four different times or what. Also the structure is unusual to this film in that it takes almost an entire hour to set up all the different characters and their separate plans.

Also the cinematography seems a lot less meaningful and more random in this film than most other Tarantino films. For example this film has a lot of random close ups for seemingly no reason.

This film does a thing where it shows a money exchange three different times. Each takes place at the same time, nothing actually changes in the exchange, but each is shown with a different perspective and each gives the viewer more insight into what actually happened. It's kind of like Rashomon (1950) except the events don't actually change from each character perspective, it just takes advantage of the fact that not every character is going to see the same thing because they all enter and leave at different times. This is something that must have taken a long time to plan, but its masterfully executed really seamless and surprisingly easy to follow and figure out while you're watching.

And if for no other reason you see this film, I recommend you see it just for Samuel L. Jackson's character Ordell Robbie. Samuel L. Jackson hit's all the major ranges of emotion with this one character. I love how funny and humorous (and even dumb) he can be in one scene and yet completely menacing and sinister in another. He's really a treat to watch and makes a really convincing antagonist for the story.

Jackie Brown (1997) is probably Quentin Tarantino's least "flashy" film, but its a very solid film and has a great cast and amazing characters. 4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!

Check out this original minimalist poster design I did for this film, click through to buy prints/posters etc. OR check out other movie posters I designed here. :)

Want more Tarantino goodness? Check back all month for my Tribute to Tarantino in honor of his latest film Django Unchained.

Go back to Tarantino's first film with Reservoir Dogs (1992), check out the first script he wrote (but didn't direct) True Romance (1993), The smash hit that really put him on the map Pulp Fiction (1994), or another film written by him but in the hands of another director From Dusk till Dawn (1996).



Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film (and 8 other Tarantino hits from his 20 year career) in this new set (now on Blu-ray) through these links: