Top 7 Quentin Tarantino Films

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            Quentin Tarantino is hands down my favorite filmmaker. Ever since the early 90's he's become the only director today that still makes original films, as well as adding his personal blend of hardcore violence and twisted black comedy. Some say he's a sick motherfucker, but I say he's a sick motherfucker with TALENT. He knows how to get the right shots, create such quirky and well developed characters, and have a story that adds a lot of suspense, drama, and comedy in one film alone. I could go on for hours explaining why guys like me appreciate him as the definitive worker in Hollywood, and the kind of person only hacks like John Moore and Paul W.S. Anderson wish they could be him, but I feel I should do something that isn’t AS straining. So to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Tarantino himself, it’s time I finally talk about which of his films I find to be least good to his absolute best. Depending on how these films are ranked, here are the following rules:

#1: Story - While all his films have great stories, not all of them have a strong pulling sensation that gets me into it immediately. They do show much interesting details to them, and it’s only through how well it’s told that it gets us sucked in.

#2: Characters – Tarantino has made some really memorable characters since day one, having dialogue that’s just as memorable as they were since. Depending on how memorable they are and how they contribute to the story will determine where the film stands as a whole.

#3: Keep in mind that this is all MY opinion. If you have different selections, then that’s fine, but don’t go and trash me, just because there’s one film lower than the other. Besides, it doesn’t take away from the fact this man is a genius. Why would you want to complain about that?

#4: I'm only counting films he's written…and DIRECTED. If I include films he had ANY involvement in, then I'd have some mean things to say in a list that's positive (I'm looking at you Hostel!). Sadly, that means I'm not going to be talking about “From Dusk 'Till Dawn,” “Four Rooms,” “Sin City,” and “True Romance.”

            But without further ado, let's count down the Top 7 Films of Quentin “Motherfucker” Tarantino!

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#7: Death Proof – Back in the 60’s and 70’s, there was a subgenre of films, called exploitation films, that were incredibly infamous for their amount of violence and sex, and usually shown as midnight screenings in theaters called “Grindhouses.” And what better way to pay tribute to it, than with a double feature of modern day Grindhouse flicks; one of them, was “Death Proof,” a slasher film that features a stuntman killing people in and out of his car. And let me just say, it sounds better than it really is. This is the film that Tarantino admits to being his worst film, and it really does show. I know that’s the intention of a Grindhouse flick, that it’s suppose to be bad…but the main problem is it's BORING. That’s the best way I can describe most of the movie. The conversations that go on between  characters aren’t the least bit interesting, half of the time I left to get something, there wasn’t anything that I missed that was important.

There’s also a point in the film where it doesn’t feel consistent with the film format; it starts out looking grainy as hell, like a typical Grindhouse flick, but then it switches that for a black & white look, only for them to switch to the typical look of today just five minutes after. It really does get distracting, and I wished they had just stuck to the grainy format, if it wants to keep being a Grindhouse tribute. It also feels like two separate films, with one side being a slasher film, and the other being about strong female characters, but doesn't know which side to truly stick with.

But despite it being boring, is there anything enjoyable about it? Luckily, there is. We do occasionally get some funny lines from the cast, who they themselves give good performances. One of those people happens to be the killer, Stuntman Mike; and let me just say, Kurt Russell owns this role. His charm, demeanor, and everything about him spells out that he’s having fun with this character with every second. Originally, Sylvester Stallone was consulted for the role, but Russell got it and made the role work at its finest. That, and the car chases in this film are absolutely stunning. These scenes really make up for most of the pointless dialogue. The way characters are killed, and the fact that Zoe Bell is actually hanging for dear life on that car, make the scenes all the more tense as it goes on. It really does stand as the best movie car chase in a long time.

If you plan on watching this movie, I recommend getting it on either the “Grindhouse: Double Feature” blu-ray, or the “Tarantino 20 Years of Filmmaking Celebration” box-set. Trust me, either one is worth having as part of your collection…at least for the good parts.

#6: Inglorious Basterds – A film about American Jews hunting down Nazis? Yeah, that sounds awesome! And that’s how I’d describe “Inglorious Basterds,” because it’s the fantasy that many Jewish people dream of doing, if time travel became possible. What makes this film work is just how much the people are having fun with this film. It’s basically Tarantino’s way of saying “Fuck history, I can have Hitler shot by Eli Roth if I want!” The attitude and sheer joy that these people have in their eyes is simply great; or should I say it’s…GLORIOUS?

There are some really memorable scenes to pick out from this film, and it has a great ensemble cast to perform it in. You got Michael Fassbender, Diane Krueger, Mike Myers, and Til Schweiger, all giving performances that really shine through, adding more to how insane some of these situations can get. Not to mention, Brad Pitt plays a lead in the movie that I DON’T hate.

There are about three characters in this movie that stand out the most here: One is Eli Roth as “the Bear Jew,” and boy does he have fun here. I find it weird, because this character was originally written for Adam Sandler, which to be honest, I’m glad he turned it down. Mostly for one reason: if you’re going to have a psycho Jew beating the shit out of Nazis, you can’t think of anyone who enjoys torturing people, better than Eli Roth. Another character that stands out is Melanie Laurent, who plays a surviving Jew that plans to wipeout the heads of the Third Reich in one go. How does she do it? Burn them alive in a movie theater, that’s how. With how she handles her character, it shows different sides of the battle. However, the role that steals it all is Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa, the Jew Hunter. Where do I even begin with this guy? He’s slimy, he’s crooked, he’s polite, and he enjoys the game that he’s in. He’s a character that is aware he’s a scumbag, but has fun with it, each passing second. I completely understand why this guy was given the Oscar for this role, and there was no one else who was just as good that year.

My only complaint with the film is amount of foreign speaking. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing at all, in fact it does make me want to go study German, French, and Italian; the problem I have is that for most of the film I’m reading the subtitles. I know it’s a bit of nitpicking, but when you have scenes of the actors suddenly switched over to English without notice, it gets distracting, especially when some of the scenes drag on too long. Aside from that, nothing else is that bad about the film, as it still has some of the classic trademarks of Tarantino. The witty dialogue, the violence, and the feet of women…oh yes…the feet.

#5: Jackie Brown – In 1997, Tarantino unleashed something that will seem rare to his audiences later on: the only film he’s made that’s an adapted screenplay. Based on Elmore Leonard’s “Rum Punch,” this film is a tribute to black-sploitation films of the 70’s, as well as giving it a modern feel to it. “Jackie Brown” is a really slick film that showcases how good a writer Tarantino can be when it comes to adapting novels to the big screen. Out of all the films that he’s made, it may in fact be the least bloody, as half of the kills are off screen, off in a distance, or has something blocking the body. When you look at Tarantino’s filmography today, there’s always a great body count and maximum carnage there, except for this one. But when you start to think about it that may be the film’s strong point. It’s a film that focuses more on the reality of situations such as these, instead of making a big Hollywood spectacle climax that everyone is used to. It uses its dialogue and characters to move the story, rather than graphic imagery and violence, and we wonder why he hasn’t attempted to do that again. Not only that, but the soundtrack is simply a sugar rush through your ears, with the song “Across 110^th Street” opening and closing the film.

The casting is incredible, as they really delivered some very heartfelt and entertaining performances. Pam Grier as Jackie Brown does a magnificent job, and she steals the show with her attitude, the way she handles the situations around her, and just how she always knows how to get through really enduring problems when given the right chance. The fact that Tarantino specifically wrote the screenplay just to work with her, along with the fact that it revived her career into many other things since then, just shows you how much passion someone will go just to work with you. Robert Forster as Max Cherry delivers a performance that was most definitely worth the Oscar nomination, as the film shows that he’s capable of helping his clients if he feels that it works the best way. In fact, the best part about this film is the on-screen chemistry between Grier and Forster, as the two work off each other, line after line, seeing the development build. I have to give credit to Tarantino for making the ending so mixed, but at the same time incredibly satisfying. Now, we can’t have a great Tarantino film without our main man, Samuel L. Jackson. He plays Ordell, the black market gun salesman, and he delivers a great performance as always, giving out a really antagonistic performance, which we don’t see too often from him. To see BMF Jackson take on the role of a sort of bad-guy is as enjoyable as it can get, showing no mercy to whoever tries to weasel him out.

We also get to have some great moments, featuring Bridget Fonda and Robert DeNiro’s characters, as it ranges from them either smoking weed to kitchen sex, and just waiting for DeNiro to reach that breaking point in the third-act. Not to mention, we also get Michael Bowen and Batman himself, Michael Keaton, as they play the duo of cops that tend to harass Jackie on whether or not she’ll help them on catching Ordell red-handed.

So after I’ve said this film has many elements that do work from Tarantino’s excellent film-making to the on-par cast, what didn’t I like about the film? Just one thing: the pacing. The pacing in this film feels unbalanced, making it feel slow and dragging on for far too long. It’s disappointing, since the film does have genuinely memorable moments that stick out strongly, but for a film that’s two and a half hours long, it feels like this could have done better if it was shorter. Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t make the film bad, far from it; it just means it’s not as great as I expected it to be. I haven’t read “Rum Punch” and I hear it’s an excellent book, so maybe my opinion might change after I do, as it’ll give me a better standard of how well the film stayed true to the source material. But even then, it’s still amazing, no matter the flaws.

#4: Kill Bill – After the hiatus he took when he finished Jackie Brown, Tarantino's return became a 6-month long event that could not be missed, featuring not one but TWO films. It is the same movie, but split into two separate volumes, hence the titles of “Volume’s 1 & 2.” But when you put the two together, or you prefer one volume over the other, you can’t deny that “Kill Bill” is one of the biggest homage films you will ever see in your life. The reason for it is that it pays tribute to almost everything, from martial arts movies, to anime, even to old western flicks.

The saga is all about revenge…pure, sweet, agonizing, revenge. After being gunned down by her former boss and partners, Beatrix Kiddo re-awakens from her four year coma, and goes on a journey to hunt the people who took away her baby. And soon after, it’s great scene after another. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about this film was that it feels out of order, as they throw you into the story without explanation, only to have the blanks filled in at Vol. 2. While that is true, I feel like it fits for what they were going for. Remember, Tarantino IS the man who started out the trend of taking turns and twists with formulas, so I just go with the decisions made.

What really makes it interesting is that this is the only film that has no true connection to the Tarantino universe, other than being a movie. In fact, this is rumored to be the pilot that Uma Therman’s character in “Pulp Fiction” worked on. And that’s what really pulls this story to its fullest, being Uma Therman as Beatrix Kiddo. For most of the film, she has this stone-cold look on her face and a deadly stare, to where if she looks at you, you’re already dead. Then there’s David Carradine as Bill, who really showcases his talents here, without doing much until the end. It really is a shame he left us, because I could have seen him do so much other work with not just Tarantino, but films in general. There’s also great work from Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Lucy Liu as well. The only one I didn’t get much out of was Vivica A. Fox, who was good as well, but I would have loved to have seen more of her.

Other than that, the saga is still a blast. From what I’ve heard, there are no plans for a “Kill Bill Vol. 3,” which to some is a disappointment. Honestly, I’m okay with the decision, since it’ll allow Tarantino to give out much more original work in the future.

#3: Reservoir Dogs – That’s right, the film that started off the Tarantino generation had to be at least in the top 3. “Reservoir Dogs” is a film that shows no restraints, as it starts off the trends of disregard for simple storytelling, and has the film in an order that may seem a little disjointed at first, really kick in once you reach the thirty-minute mark. And it’s a very small premise too: a mobster wants to pull a heist, he hires some men, and then shit hits the fan.

For the most part, this film really only focuses on three guys, as their given the most descriptive stuff to them. For example, Orange is a cop, White’s an old friend, and Blonde’s a jail bird. Other than that, we’ve also got some intriguing mystery to other characters as well, particularly Mr. Pink, played by Steve Buscemi. You never find out his name, or any of that kind of stuff; all you know is that he does his job the way it needs to be done, and that his book reads “survival” every stretch of the way. Let’s not forget, we also have Mr. Blonde, better known as Victor Vega, played by Michael Madsen. Dear God, this guy is psychotic; by that, I mean he goes the extra mile just to get someone out of the picture, even if it means burning them alive or cutting off their ears. It’s brutal, but just how it’s performed is unintentionally hilarious. For a film that started out the trend of Tarantino’s traits of memorable dialogue and characters, it set off the future for what will soon be an Oscar winning writer. Speaking of which…

#2: Pulp Fiction – Yeah, you knew this was coming, and how could you not? This film became a landmark for all things that cinema will be willing to follow for the rest of the time past this film. Let’s go over the list: Memorable characters? Check. Scene after scene of fascination? Check. Quotable dialogue that almost everyone would get in almost any conversation? Was there any doubt? “Pulp Fiction” is a film that has an aura of amazement and ground-breaking achievement that up until then hasn’t been seen in films.

The cast in the film is one of the best ensembles I’ve seen, as they showcase their talents at their fullest. The biggest surprise to me in that regard was John Travolta as Vincent Vega, the brother of Vic Vega in “Reservoir Dogs.” This film gave me a second glance at Travolta as an actor, and is one of the few times I feel he deserved the award nominations he got…the good ones that is. However, it’s not just he who does extremely well in the film, but everyone else. We all know this is the film that really defined Sam Jackson’s career, despite appearing in a few Spike Lee films and “Jurassic Park”; the Bible preaching, the philosophy talks, and the amount of “fucks” that come out of his mouth is all in glorious Sam Jackson magnificence. It’s too bad he hasn’t received an Oscar yet, because he has showcased how talented he can be aside from the big budget blockbusters. Not to mention, Uma Therman also had a big jumpstart for her career as well, getting both Oscar praise and roles in future films, such as the Bride in “Kill Bill.” There’s also Ving Rhames, Eric Stotz, Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, and at one point, Phil LaMarr.

Now some may argue that Tarantino didn’t necessarily direct this film, as he just let the actors just do their shtick without that much restriction. In that regard…you’d be right. But my response is, “is it really that bad thing?” When you look at it, it’s not that often you get to see a film where you see actors really calm with what they do, and just feel free to let the moment direct itself. The main purpose of “Pulp Fiction” is its dialogue, as it’s what really makes a Tarantino film, which is why that might be the reason he got the Best Screenplay Oscar and not one for directing. For some of his other films, that’s where I think he should have gotten more recognition for it. However, whatever way you look at it, it doesn’t take away the fact that the film is an instant classic that’ll go down in history with greats, such as “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” and “Vertigo.”

Now I know what some of you are thinking: If neither “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Dogs” is #1, then does that mean...? And the answer is “yes.”

#1: Django Unchained – While some you might be outraged on why this is at the top, here's my response:

How could this NOT be number one?! This film just brings out almost everything that makes it an entertaining, tense, and well-developed story that makes it irresistible and exciting to watch. Even though I'm a person whose not to fond of the subject of slavery and usage of the 'n' word, Tarantino found a way to make it work for such a film as this. His style of film making shows the best written characters that he could possible write, especially for a story like this. It’s a revenge story, plain and simple, and we’re taken on the journey that Django and Dr. King Schultz travel along, killing some of the most ruthless of wanted men.

Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leon DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson really give it their all here, being either smart 3-Dimensional heroes, or just the most evil sons of bitches you'll ever see on film. Foxx has really evolved as an actor, showcasing he can do more than just impersonate Ray Charles. He’s cold, blood hungry, and the type of guy who will take advantage of his freedom to kill the men that wronged him in every possible way. Waltz also returns after winning his Oscar in “Basterds,” and honestly, I don’t think he’ll be able to top this performance. He always has words of wisdom about bounty hunting, and manages to always have an ace, or in this case a gun, under his sleeve in many situations. Not only that, but I’m really jealous of his beard; I mean, LOOK at that thing. While Kerry Washington isn’t in the film as much, she still manages to leave an impression on us, simply through her expressions than dialogue. We see the torment she goes through in her eyes, and it leaves us to the imagination of what torment she’s been put through off screen. Then there’s Leo; oh god, this performance he gives is quite possibly his best. He chews the scenery so much, that I couldn’t believe there was any of it left. This is also one of the few times that he’s given a performance that actually scared me out of my seat; I mean, the guy slams his hand onto a glass, it’s bleeding all over, and he STILL goes on his rant. That’s what I call dedication. Then we got Samuel L. Jackson once again, and he really brings up his a-game here. Honestly, since he’s in his 60’s, some actually figured this is what his age is supposed to make him look like. And that’s what really makes him intimidating, is that even though he’s an old man, he can really get under your skin and bring up the worst of fears in you, just from that cold-blooded stare of his. It really makes you think who the true villain is, DiCaprio or Jackson, and I was really disappointed none of them were nominated for an Oscar for these performances. Then again, it was a tough year, so I can’t blame them.

There's also the fantastic soundtrack, which out of all of the others on this list, this one fits the mark the best. It's a mix of old Western themes, two-in-one remix, and much more. This is the Tarantino film where I can’t find any scene in it that’s the least bit boring, and I feel that future viewings will prove the same.

In fact, all these films that he’s made prove that to me, even if there are some complaints that I have with them. I hope people can see why guys like me enjoy directors like him, and how much of an influence he can have on people.

Also, Mr. Tarantino, if you’re reading this, I hope these words will let you change your mind about “The Hateful Eight.” Even if the first draft was leaked, you can still change it around and still surprise people. If not, then I do hope that whatever you do next turns out as spectacular as ever.

I’m Eric Turpel, and my favorite Western of all time, is “Django Unchained.”

See you next time, Cowboy!