Jackie Brown

Quentin Tarantino's first adaptation has a complicated but conventional plot: it's about a couple of small-timers--flight attendant/gun courier Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) and bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster)--who join forces to turn the tables on various authority figures, on both sides of the law, who threaten Jackie's future happiness. (They also fall in love, though it's a remarkably bittersweet romance.) After all of the hullabaloo attending Tarantino's three-year semi-hiatus, it's a relief to see that he still has the touch--there's plenty of killer stuff here--but his lazy, hey-what's-this-over-here-in-the-corner style is all wrong for an Elmore Leonard movie, which should be fast and dirty and a lot shorter than two-and-a-half hours; because Leonard, unlike Tarantino, makes you anxious to know what happens next. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that this movie draaaaaags. Various scenes feel sluggish and pointless...as, indeed, does the entire project. Hollywood is crawling with people who can adapt popular novels; the last thing we need is for one of our few real innovators to waste his considerable talent on frivolous regurgitation. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)[Blu-ray Review—Oct. 11, 2011—Lionsgate, 154 min., R, $19.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1997's Jackie Brown boasts a fine transfer and features a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Blu-ray extras include “A Look Back at Jackie Brown” interview with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (55 min.), a “Breaking Down Jackie Brown” critics' roundtable on the film (44 min.), a “How It Went Down” retrospective featurette with Tarantino, costars Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton, writer Elmore Leonard, and crew (39 min.), deleted and alternate scenes (16 min.), “Jackie Brown on MTV” promos (15 min.), a Siskel & Ebert: At the Movies review (5 min.), a “Chicks with Guns” in-movie clip (5 min.), a marketing gallery with trailers and TV spots, a stills gallery, a trivia track, and radio spots. Bottom line: a lesser Tarantino film, Jackie Brown nevertheless makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray in an extras-packed edition.]