Tarantino Poll

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.

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Kill Bill 1
3. Reservoir Dogs
4. Kill Bill 2
5. Jackie Brown
6. Death Proof

all classics, tho

my underrated fav moment in death proof is when the jersey girl and the greaser dude are on the porch and it's pouring and she's laying down the law to him re making out in the car

That scene is incredible. Captures everything great about Tarantino.

OTM

I keep losing track of what got cut from DP in Grindhouse. I know the lapdance didn't make it (no great loss) but didn't that scene get truncated too?

That scene = porch scene, not car crash scene.

idk ive only scene the dvd version

i remember seeing grindhouse at a midnight show in a packed theater and everyone in the house was basically like O_O at that scene

It's kind of the most extreme conclusion of the ear-cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs.

so the main subplot of the first part is whether or not jersey girl is going to give a lapdance to kurt russell but they cut that scene from the OG? weird. also it's a pretty girl dancing to "jeepster"!

I mean it's why all the nonsense about DP being just a pure GH homage is just nonsense. The movie is Tarantino through and through to me.

car crash scene is super-cool and well executed, about as good as tarantino gets (as is the seqence building up to it, from pam & mike leaving the bar onward). on the other hand, the business with zoe on the hood - buildup and chase - is one of the best supsense/action sequences of any kind i've ever seen. so it's a tough call. wish the rest of the movie were as disciplined and effective as these two bits.

Pshaw to discipline.

hey btw can someone clear this up

a few weeks ago i watched reservoir dogs w/ a friend on dvd. id never seen it before and he hadn't seen it in a few years and he swore that the ear cutting scene was more vile than what we had on the dvd, which didn't show madsen actually slicing the ear off. the whole thing didn't seem that bad to me - except maybe the parts where you see the side of dude's head sans ear - but then i was reading how ppl walked out at sundance and shit and i was thinking that maybe the dvd got edited or something. what do u guyz kno?

^^yeah i mean it's got some vague grindhouse elements but i feel like other than the overall general concept and the poster for the film it's all tarantino. it abandons any grindhouse trappings pretty quickly. xxxp

nah the ear was never shown being cut off

ookay, thx u

Sure that's why Death Proof is the MOST extreme conclusion to that scene!

film festival crowds are notoriously weak when it comes to being able to handle gore imo

yeah basically you see our first-half heroine's face get ripped off by a tire