Grab a Big Kahuna burger, blast K-Billy's Sounds of the Seventies, and enjoy this review of the career of Quentin Tarantino. With The Hateful Eight being released later on this year, and me wanting to review the exact opposite of Pixar (my last Career Review), and the fact that he has only directed 8 feature films (although the poster for The Hateful Eight says that is his 8th film, which I guess means he considers Kill Bill one movie, but I don't, so he's made 8.), I decided Tarantino would be the best choice for the next Career Review.
In All Seriousness:
Quentin Tarantino's films:
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
It's not Tarantino's best film, but the most important film in his catalogue of films is his cool-as-the-other-side-of-the-pillow debut. For as much criticism that Tarantino gets for imitating aspects of films he has a fondness for, this film along with Pulp Fiction after it has been influential on countless films. Regarded as one of the greatest independent films to ever be made, it's success has inspired independent filmmakers to make films as well as studios to take the risk of releasing those films. It's success can be attributed to the snappy writing, the quality acting, and the overall coolness of the film. Many of the motifs (trunk shot, talking in a diner/restaurant, use of popular music, slow-mo shots, etc.) that Tarantino would go on to use throughout his career can be seen in their first appearances in Reservoir Dogs.
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Favorite Performer: Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink
Favorite Scene: Opening diner scene
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction I think is Tarantino's most fun movie. Not a scene or word of dialogue is wasted. It's exciting during every minute of this film. Each actor in the film gives arguably the performance of their careers. I think the true longevity of this film is proven by the fact that my favorite scene and performer usually changes each time I watch it. And it's really just one of the most quotable movies out there, and if that ain't Kool and the Gang, then I don't know what is.
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Favorite Performer: Samuel L. Jackson as Jules
Favorite Scene: The Bonnie Situation
Jackie Brown (1997)
I watched this movie for the first time almost three years ago, I was very on the fence about it. Upon re-watching it for this blog post, I realized it's brilliance. It has elements of a Tarantino film sprinkled throughout for sure, but it's definitely the oddball of his canon, being the only of his films that's adapted from a novel. Tarantino favorite Samuel L. Jackson gives another great performance here, Pam Grier is cool and perfectly cast (because he wrote the role for her), Robert Forrester is wonderful and deserving of his Oscar nomination, but it's Robert De Niro's stoner who really won me over. The subtlety of his performance and the moments of him that Tarantino shows are hilarious, and the brightest spot of this very good film.
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Favorite Performer: Robert De Niro as Lewis
Favorite Scene: The real money swap
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 1 is incredibly entertaining, and that's primarily owed to the brilliant choreography and editing of each and every second of these fight scenes. Tarantino's choice of music, and his quirky dialogue is a lot more fun than I remembered. The animated sequence and the crazy 88 fight and fight with O-Ren are among my favorite scenes of the entirety of Tarantino's filmography, and they are all packed into volume 1, which is why...
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****1/2
Favorite Performer: Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii
Favorite Scene: Crazy 88 Battle or the anime section.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
... I'm not as big into Vol 2., as against the grain as that might be. It has a lot of great moments, for example the training with Pai Mei, and the entire last 30 minutes. However, the rest of the film is less exciting to me than the purely entertaining and intense Vol 1. Also of all of the violence that is scattered throughout all of Quentin Tarantino's films, the only instance of it that I can never watch it the eyeball squishing scene. Eye stuff grosses me out.
Rating (out of 5 stars): ***1/2
Favorite Performer: Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo
Favorite Scene: The training with Pai Mei
Death Proof (2007)
Even Tarantino has acknowledged the fact that this is his worst film. It's a bit of a fun little experiment to try and capture the look and feel of Grindhouse films for his dual-film collaboration with Robert Rodriguez called Grindhouse. Kurt Russell brings a nice enthusiasm, and some of "The Girls" give pretty good performances, but that's the best I can say about the film. It's a fun experiment with some enthusiasm. This was my second time seeing this film, and I'm not sure if there will be a third time, at least not for a very long time.
Rating (out of 5 stars): **
Favorite Performer: Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike
Favorite Scene: The end chase.
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Oddly enough, this was the first Tarantino film I ever saw. It was around the time where I was first starting to be allowed to watch rated-r movies, and I got this on blu-ray hoping it would be interesting, and it blew me away. I had never seen a movie before this that mixed english and foreign languages, had longs scenes with tons talking, and jumped around with timelines a little bit. Then I watched this film and became interested in the person who made it, which led me to Pulp Fiction and then Reservoir Dogs afterwards. So this film means a lot to me in terms of introducing me to Tarantino. I also think this movie has the best writing of his career (slightly edging out Pulp Fiction), and a great ensemble cast of actors who would later become much more famous (Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Bruhl, etc.).
Rating (out of 5 stars): *****
Favorite Performer: Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine
Favorite Scene: The basement bar scene.
Django Unchained (2012)
Django Unchained and it's countless references to the Western genre's classic make this a very enjoyable watch for me. It's a genre I probably admire more than most, and Tarantino's take on it is very fun. The soundtrack has been frequently played on my iPhone, and Tarantino achieves his best-looking film with Django. The only thing keeping this movie from being on the same level as a Pulp Fiction or an Inglorious Basterds is that it is a little too long. At 2 hours and 45 minutes, it can be slower at times than I want it to be. Also the mandingo fighting scene is another one that's hard for me to watch (again, I can't do eye stuff).
Rating (out of 5 stars): ****
Favorite Performer: Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie (Favorite small performance: Don Johnson as Big Daddy)
Favorite Scene: The raid on the dentist wagon.
Overview
The films of Quentin Tarantino seem to be either loved or hated by anyone who has seen them. There is rarely, if ever a middle ground. Some, like myself, enjoy the hyper-stylized, dialogue-heavy, shockingly-violent, sometimes pretentious work of the director. Many others believe he is overrated, and don't like him for those reasons. Others might like him or not like him for a variety of different reasons (for example: they hate feet). The one thing I'm sure of, is that I like his films. I eat up all of the dialogue, I think the characters he writes and the music choices he makes are cool as hell, and I'm always excited when I hear about his latest project. He has stayed pretty consistently good throughout his career, with one blip. Besides that, his movies are pretty easy to lend multiple viewings to, and will receive multiple viewings from me for as long as I'm watching movies.
Side Note: For anyone who is interested, although I didn't include them on this list, Tarantino directed a portion of the film Four Rooms, and also wrote the movies True Romance, From Dusk Till Dawn, and conceived the story for Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.
Final Ranking:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Reservoir Dogs
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1
5. Django Unchained
6. Jackie Brown
7. Kill Bill Vol. 2
8. Death Proof
Keep and eye out for the next Career Review, which will be a look at either Stanley Kubrick or David Lynch's careers. I haven't decided yet, but if you would like to help me decide, please let me know in the comments.
-Ryan
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