Tarantino Poll

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 :(

xxxp: While we're at it, we could poll the complete discography of Elvis Presley.

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.

It isn't like a 70s grindhouse flick at all - its a relatively unimaginative homage to 80s zombie/horror movies...

that's what i mean about planet terror's exploitation bona fides, though. it doesn't give a shit about what grindhouse movies actually were, or even what we fondly remember about bad 70s culture. it just dedicates itself to providing maxiumum dumb-fun exploitation thrills for geeks, cannily referencing "super fun!" 80s pop rather than hard-sell 70s grit. it just gets in there and does the job: pandering crassly to move concessions and fill seats.

tarantino's approach is much more academic (and thus "correct"), but scrupulous academic formalism is anathema to the production of cheap, bullshit exploitation movies. tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear, while rodriguez made a cynical & loving pulp/trash exploitation flick.

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

― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:30 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah there's like 20 mins total of action - if you're into his characters you'd dig the fuck out of the first half of the movie, i think

http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Fanboys/fanboys_image__1_.jpg

i think there is a huge and intentional setup going on with the kind of obnoxious vapid conversation the first group of women have and the way it contrasts with the second group, and it is done totally in service of making the second group (ok maybe not the cheerleader) real fleshed out characters. xposts

I voted Pulp Fiction, with Jackie Brown a close second. I always look forward to the cartoon square appearing when it's drawn in the air by Uma Thurman's character.

wait morbs i thought this was the part where you say that we all watch movies stoned

"tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear"

It wasn't that accurate. It was definitely a Tarantino film, just filtered through a particular template (which you can argue all his movies are basically.)

tarantino made an accurate & loving homage to the trash of yesteryear, while rodriguez made a cynical & loving pulp/trash exploitation flick. - I can get with this. OTM!

also the callback to that in KB1

xp, i mean the "square" thing

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

― From Rax to Rich's (jjjusten), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 12:30 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah there's like 20 mins total of action - if you're into his characters you'd dig the fuck out of the first half of the movie, i think

― nascar jesus (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Yeah those were unrelated statements (the second being more about my ranking). I didn't see Death Proof because I had no desire to sit through the RR half and because I have no knowledge of or attachment to "grindhouse" cinema. the trailers just seemed lame to me.

"because I have no knowledge of or attachment to "grindhouse" cinema"

I don't think this important to enjoying either half of the film. Most of us didn't grow up watching movies in Times Square either.

yeah i was really just annoyed at how it was marketed with the fake-damaged film reels and dated trailer style and stuff, there was just a bit too much of a knowing wink to it all. i like some movies but i don't really like 'cinema.'

A Tarantino mixtape would be the best thing. All the best sketches (scenes) from his movies strung together o make an enjoyable 90 min film.

It wasn't that accurate. It was definitely a Tarantino film, just filtered through a particular template (which you can argue all his movies are basically.)

― Alex in SF

"accurate" may not have been the best word. my point is that tarantino's approach was more reverential.

there is a huge and intentional setup going on with the kind of obnoxious vapid conversation the first group of women have and the way it contrasts with the second group, and it is done totally in service of making the second group (ok maybe not the cheerleader) real fleshed out characters. xposts

― jjjusten

i think this is true, but only true to a limited extent. 2nd group is clearly supposed to be more relatable/heroic than the 1st, but tarantino clearly lavishes a LOT of time, attention and even affection on the 1st. in death proof's first act, we're forced to put up with an incredible assload of superdetailed "obnoxious vapid conversation", and if it only serves to other conversations sound better later on, then it's bad strategy and should have been cut WAY down.

main deal: i just don't think QT's working at the top of his game in death proof. his strategy of using stereotypical tough-guy characters to give voice to authentic geek-boy dialog just doesn't work with female characters. he's not in love with steretypical cinematic femininity, and he's nowhere near so clued in to how contemporary geeky girls actually think/talk. so it comes across awkward, forced & stagy.

feeling contenderizer's summation of Death Proof big time

i would vote 'reservoir dogs' because all of the pop culture talk seems pretty natural and integrated into all of the dialogue scenes really nicely, and the directing and style are so impressive, but i still think the best scene in any tarantino film is the 'hold tight' scene in 'death proof'.

and kurt russell was GREAT

the car crash at the end of the first part of is better imo

yeah Kurt Russell is so amazing. and its funny/ironic that Tarantino got him to be in his half, as opposed to RR's Carpenter-lovefest.

that was the part i was talking about

ok ok well u otm then

That scene is incredible. Captures everything great about Tarantino.