1- PULP FICTION: This will always be Quentin Tarantino's best movie and it's my favorite movie ever made. Watching this movie is akin to being stabbed in the heart by a needle full of adrenaline like Mia is in the film. The opening scene about robbing a coffee shop is a fantastic opener that leads to the awesome Dick Dale beach guitar jam on the opening the credits. There's almost too much great, memorable dialogue to even mention. And there's a ton of crazy, awesome set pieces. The Gimp and Samurai sword sequence? The date & dance? The exploding head in the car? It felt new, fresh, and alive when it came out. It twisted around with time in a unique way, had great characters, and had a note perfect ending with a great song. Just an all around exceptional picture. ****
2- RESERVOIR DOGS: Sure, Tarantino basically re-made the Hong Kong film, City on Fire. But Tarantino has never exactly been a great storyteller, anyway. Even Pulp Fiction has no story, it's just pretty much a bunch of random scenes mixed together. But why Reservoir Dogs is great is simple: it's so fucking cool. Like Pulp Fiction, it has great music. And like Pulp Fiction, it has some terrific dialogue exchanges like deconstructing Madonna's "Like a Virgin" or Steve Buscemi's character not tipping. The Michael Madsen scene when he dances to "Stuck in the Middle with You" is a classic and one of Tarantino's best scenes. It's brutal, bloody, and super engrossing. That Tarantino actually followed this up with an even better film still shocks me. ****
3- INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS: After the mild disappointments that were Jackie Brown and Kill Bill 1 and 2, I probably figured that Tarantino wouldn't be making another masterpiece like Pulp Fiction, but his WW2 film was, to me, anyway, a return to form. It's no Pulp Fiction, but it's a wild, bizarre, very entertaining film with a great performance by Christoph Waltz that won the actor an Oscar. There's, sadly, no great music nor classic/memorable dialogue like in his earlier films, but there are some excellent set pieces like the basement bar sequence and shoot-out and the memorable movie theater invasion that results in Hitler being blown away. The last shot isn't Pulp Fiction perfect, but it's a good ending to what will probably be Tarantino's last really good movie. ***
4- KILL BILL 1: I'm not the biggest fan of either Kill Bill movie...but the first one does have one of Tarantino's most exciting scenes; the sword fight in the dojo when Uma Thurman slices and dices about a hundred henchmen and one school girl assassin. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is a mixed bag. One of the reasons why none of his films after Pulp Fiction are excellent is that there's no good music in them. He started as my favorite director ever because his films had scenes, opening montages and endings set to glorious, catchy tunes that made you feel alive. For whatever reason, he stopped putting good songs in his movies and they suffered because of it. The epic fight scene is worth the price of admission here, though, and saves the uneven film. This is also the film that kind of flipped him around as being a better director than writer. Which, sad to say, was a bad thing in the long run. ***
5- JACKIE BROWN: After Pulp Fiction, this was a major letdown, although it's a fairly entertaining film on its own. The problem is that it doesn't have that boost of adrenaline that his first two movies have. This feels softer, safer, and almost by-the-numbers. He adapted an Elmore Leonard book, which meant he wasn't going to be having any super bloody, over-the-top sequences, nor crazy fun/ridiculous dialogue like in his first two films. It's a good film, just not a great one. ***
6- THE HATEFUL EIGHT: A lot of critics savaged this film, which I'm not entirely sure why. It has people talking for long stretches and tons of blood...so...typical Tarantino, right? I'm not entirely sure what people expected. This is an Agatha Christie type of locked room mystery film that I'm a huge fan of. Perhaps that's why I was entertained even though the film is almost three hours long. Walton Goggins and Samuel L. Jackson are great. The bloody finale is great. There isn't really a lot of memorable dialogue or classic lines here but the picture looks fantastic and the score by Ennio Marricone is awesome. ***
7- DEATH PROOF: This was part of Grindhouse, Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's ode to old-school, drive-in Grindhouse movies. It's basically about Kurt Russell killing people with his car. Which sounds stupid...and it is...but that's kind of the point. There are some excellent car chase and car racing sequences in this film. It's not particularly a good movie, but it's certainly an entertaining one and totally bonkers and wild. Like any Grindhouse film, it's the type that if you went and saw it at midnight with a rowdy crowd you'd have a total blast. ***
8- KILL BILL 2: This is the lesser of the two Kill Bill films, though it does have some interesting things in it. The trailer fight with Elle and The Bride is great. The training sequence with the wise old man is amusing. The film, like all of Tarantino's later features, looks great. The problem with both Kill Bill films is that there is a lot of dullness between the fight and action sequences. The last half hour with the conversation between Bill and The Bride is boring. And both Kill Bill films lack cohesiveness...they just feel like a bunch of random scenes stitched together that never unite into any sort of great masterwork. **1/2
9- DJANGO UNCHAINED: Christoph Waltz won another Oscar for his performance in this...but I thought his performance was cringeworthy and his character fairly lame. I think the idea behind this film is much better than the execution. Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be having a grand old time in this but Samuel L. Jackson's character doesn't entirely work. A former slave turns into a bounty hunter and ends up killing a bunch of people and blowing up a plantation? Sounds amazing! It's entertaining in spots but unfortunately it's one of Tarantino's lesser films. **1/2
10- ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD: Even Tarantino's worst films are still pretty good, so I can't say that this is awful or bad, it's just kind of an all over the map mess that isn't exactly well written in terms of story. Story? There is no story, it's basically just people driving around for two hours. The film is kind of about Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate murders...sort of. But it's mostly about an actor and his stuntman. I think the scenes with the actor and his stuntman work but the Manson scenes and the Tate scenes don't entirely work or mesh with the rest of it. There's an awkward sequence of Margot Robbie as Tate going to see a movie that she has a part in and literally just watching the film. Robbie is more a weird, ethereal specter than any kind of human being. Why we watch her going to a Playboy mansion party is beyond me. But that's just how this movie is...a meandering film with too many pointless sequences. DiCaprio as Rick Dalton is great, however, and his meltdown in his trailer is perhaps the films best scene. Brad Pitt apparently plays Superman, as he not only beats up members of the Manson family but also Bruce Lee (not to mention getting a blow job offer by a cute, young girl a minute after they meet). The big Spahn Ranch scene looks great but is sadly lackluster in its execution. The violent finale that people at my screening were laughing out loud at just feels weird, not cathartic or exciting like its intent. So that's the ending? Okay. The worst part of the entire film is the last shot. What made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction great were the excellent songs that kicked in when the credits rolled. Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood ends with a lame overhead shot of people standing in a driveway talking while the credits roll over the action and there's no fade to black. The ending music is a dull, slow, instrumental melody. So we don't get a great last line? A great last shot? A great last song? Ugh. **
