Tarantino Poll

True Romance was terrible and i hated it. Reservoir Dogs all the way.

true romance? - a flawed movie with one utterly classic scene ("You, you look like an eggplant") & a great ensemble cast. I always wondered how it would have turned out, had Tarantino directed it.

lol, "you look line an eggplant"? Might want to rescreen that, buddy.

Jackie Brown, as it has actual characters.

One of the problems I have with RD/PF I associate with that entire period of 90s indie flicks that being overly talky and constantly dropping pop culture references were the heart of the flick. The guys who wrote _Generation Ecch_(which came out right as PF hit) had a great line about this, saying something about the problem of using pop cultural signposts to contribute a sense of imagination or creativity but not having near the level that those referred to icons might have had.

i liked death proof. but then ill still watch pretty much anything he makes and find something good about it.

"you look line an eggplant" - ah yes, "you're part eggplant" amirite

constantly dropping pop culture references were the heart of the flick.

if that seems like that heart of the movie to you, you're watching it wrong. seems like received "wisdom" based on very little actual evidence.

What struck me about reading Rum Punch, with Jackie Brown fresh in my head, was just how thoroughly Tarantino rewrote Elmore Leonard from top to bottom. He actually made the film feel MORE like an Elmore Leonard novel as a result--and Leonard said it was his favorite adaptation. My friend Joseph calls JB a long coffee break of a movie, and that's really more the feel of Swag, my favorite Leonard, which would be a great Tarantino movie set in '70s Detroit--hey, Michigan needs the money.

I'd rank 'em:

Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill Pt 1
Death Proof
Kill Bill Pt 2 (the only one I wouldn't watch again)

"Death Proof", easily, as it's the most fun and vibrantly alive for me. and also the only one I would consider watching again from time to time. I could easily never watch the others ever again, although I've all liked them, more or less, at their release, KBs being the worst. Second could be PF because I really liked it at the time, or JB.

I really don't trust ppl who hatr "Kill Bill", possibly because of the stupid argument we had with Momus about it.

I'd have voted "True Romance", I got it out on Video to some very puzzled looks from g/friend based on the title, but...!

I know it wasn't directed by the man, but hey.

? I missed the momusness - can ya recap?

Kill Bill part 1. I've not really liked any of the others, Jackie Brown was okay.

True Romance doesn't belong on this poll for the same reason Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Til Dawn, Mr. Destiny Turns On the Radio, and whatever else don't belong on it

This poll is impossibly hard for me, but I guess I need to pick one in the next few hours.

"Jackie Brown" easily

? I missed the momusness - can ya recap?

Come anticipate Kill Bill with me

RECAP: A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.

Momus otm

A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.

Is it the pitch for the following tarantino movie ?

what's cool about the pop referentiality of first couple tarantino flicks is how it allows him to create these vibrant, oddly authentic-seeming (though clearly artificial, contrived) movie-movie tough-guy characters -- while at the same time speaking very honestly, if indirectly, about the language, culture & fantasies of untough, geeky, media-obsessed, twenty-somehing fanboys. it's a nice trick, in that it seems to be an arch stylization of something that was unreal in the 1st place, but underneath that is observationally authentic, both sides of the equation informing and deepening the other.

pulp fiction is my favorite, followed by kill bill 1

voted death proof. with the exception of res dogs moving into place after kill bill 1, i rank these in exactly reverse chronological order. odd.

haha Morbs, you may agree with Momus in not liking the movie(s) but i SERIOUSLY doubt it's for the same reason

it used to be jackie brown, but i'm up for watching kill bill 1 at pretty much any moment

RECAP: A bunch of people get excited about the announcement of "Kill Bill". Momus does not.
― nosotros niggamos (HI DERE), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:48 AM (4 minutes ago)

Momus otm
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 11:49 AM (2 minutes ago)

That's like the ILX equivalent of those YouTube "[Insert Movie Title] in 5 Seconds" videos.

I'm glad there's some love for Death Proof on this thread cuz I was taking a lot of shit for arguing that it was the (far) superior half of Grindhouse on that movie's thread

Robert Rodriguez is such an unimaginative hack

lolz Momus Tarantino = IRAQ INVASION parallel that is some funny shit

planet terror is great! how could you dislike planet terror?

I dunno it was just kinda boring

"planet terror is great! how could you dislike planet terror?"

I didn't dislike it, but Death Proof was better.

i totally agree, didn't think it was far superior tho

there's a lot more going on in death proof than in planet terror, though it's still a huge mess. problem is that planet terror -- though cheap, trivial, obvious and dull-witted -- is a hell of a lot of fun. it's got about a hundred great bits, and moves from one thing to the next so fast that nothing has time to get old. death proof is much more hit-or-miss in this regard. only bits i really dug were stuntman mike & pam's scenes together, and the absolutely kick-ass final act.

in a way, planet terror is truer to the high-concept punchline. it shamelessly exploits the most low-com-denom vision of what a mod pop grindhouse flick might be. it doesn't concern itself with period authenticity or artistic objectives or any of that crap. it just dedicates itself to the delivery of maximum bang per buck. and there's something admirable in that, though the maxim/fratboy "attitude" annoys me. hated sin city for similar reasons

Can we do a Tarantino acting roles poll?

planet terror is truer to the high-concept punchline

see I don't think this is true at all. It isn't like a 70s grindhouse flick at all - its a relatively unimaginative homage to 80s zombie/horror movies (primarily John Carpenter)

Still would rather have gotten "Machete" - but I'm not a fan of RR generally.

OMG momus is hilarious on that thread

xpost ya shakey OTM about the fact that Planet Terror is straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe instead of 70's "Dawn Of The Dead".

Was the kill bill thread the first or greatest example of a momus-caused clusterfuck thread, or were there others?

straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe - absolutely nothing wrong with that

I was about to post a Danny Trejo poll, then realized he's been in ~200 movies.

Death Proof REALLy feels like a 70s road movie - the pacing is meandering, the action sequences are great, low-budget and go for a visceral kind of realism, there's a lot of subpar acting and weird dialogue, etc. By contrast 70s grindhouse horror films were not wall-to-wall stylized violence and laffs with two f's. They tended to be kinda creepy and seedy and also paced kind of slowly. The tone of Planet Terror is just all wrong.

x-post

My ranks would be:

Jackie Brown
Res Dogs
KBII
Pulp Fiction
KB1

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.

I was close to voting for Jackie Brown, but in the end I had to go for the far-from-perfect Pulp Fiction because the scenes that were great in that movie are the greatest he's ever done: Jules and Vega's conversation while walking up to the apartment, Jack Rabbit Slim's dance scene... the whole O.D. scene, the back of Marsellus's band-aid head w/ Al Green playing scene, the whole Bruce Willis story, starting with Chris Walken's watch.

These scenes are so vivid to me that they feel like memories. My opinion is that Tarantino has never come close to these scenes before or since. There is a lot to hate about Pulp Fiction, but I guess I feel like the highs in this movie are better than his more consistent stuff like Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs. Eff Kill Bill, and Death Proof should have been a 90 minute movie tops.

also... (and no challops intended):

1. Out of Sight
2. Get Shorty
3. Jackie Brown

all great movies, though.

I was about to post a Danny Trejo poll, then realized he's been in ~200 movies. - Why don't you run four polls simultaneously & then pit the top 12/13 of each against each other?

straight 80's "Return Of The Living Dead" vibe - absolutely nothing wrong with that

― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (1 minute ago)

oh no, not at all, it was just weird that so many people cited it as the more truly "grindhouse" half of the movie.

Did not see Death Proof. I like Tarantino as a guy that does characters, not as a guy that does faux-dated action.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:27 PM (36 seconds ago)

see the funny thing is that it is hugely character-driven, esp the second half

Because I'm only pretty stupid, not fantastically stupid.

xp

the only character I can remember in Death Proof is Kurt Russell who is awesome.

You didn't remember Zoe??!

no :(