British Comedy Guide

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Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 12:28 PM GMT

Then it's a coincidence when Avery left (Pulp Fiction?) Tarantino's quality plummeted, Maybe it was a coincidence? Who knows?

Certainly Avery's first big post Tarantino film Killing Zoe is not very good. I don't think anyone said Avery wrote the scripts but maybe he just restrained QT? Certainly after Pulp Fiction the quality drop was very sharp.

I found Basterds well just dull unimaginative and leaden. Where as all the golden era QT films got me in the first minute.

I would say that if you really think the quality dropped, then it is a coincidence. Like I say, Avary didn't write Dogs, and that is possibly the best thing Tarantino's ever done. The only film had a big hand in that Tarantino actually directed was Pulp. Did you not care for Jackie Brown then? Superb film. Tarantino has just, as any artist does, changed and developed over the years; obviously that's not always going to be to everyones tastes. I think if you look at the Avary's post-Tarantino work, Killing Zoe, Silent Hill (Based on the computer game) that Beowulf cartoon from a few years back, then he is hardly an underappreciated genius. The Rules Of Attraction I think was sort of ok, but he hasn't really produced anything worthwhile.

Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 12:28 PM GMT

I found Basterds well just dull unimaginative and leaden.

Really? That opening scene with the Jew Hunter didn't get you going? That was terrific! I also liked the way T completely ignored history for the end of the film, making it clear the film is not supposed to be set in reality. I thought it was quite a daring film, really. Certainly better than Death Proof!

To be fair, most artists have a golden age then go off the boil. It's true of Tarrantino, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, George Romero, John Carpenter, Steve Coogan... If we're lucky, they have ocassional returns to glory.

For me Tarantino is still producing the goods though, I don't think he really has gone off the boil. I'll be surprised if he ever produces something as culturally all-pervading as Pulp and Dogs, but I think he's still making really great movies. I've only found Death Proof to be a bit duff.

Which ones? I liked Jackie Brown, but Kill Bill for all the fuss was just vicious and lacking in any wit. Some nice setpieces like the battle with the Crazy 88s, but not enough.

I still get excited at the prospect of a new QT, but they just lack that killer edge of the early stuff.

Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 12:49 PM GMT

Which ones? I liked Jackie Brown, but Kill Bill for all the fuss was just vicious and lacking in any wit. Some nice setpieces like the battle with the Crazy 88s, but not enough.

Well, he hasn't made all that many, so there isn't a whole lot to choose from, but post-Pulp, I've very much liked Jackie Brown, Basterds, and Kill Bill. I found Kill Bill to be a great, cartoonish thrill ride. Death Proof is his only duffer to my mind.

Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 12:28 PM GMT

I found Basterds well just dull unimaginative and leaden.

You should probably watch more than 30 minutes of a 2.5-hour movie before making a statement like that.

Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 16 2010, 12:42 PM GMT

Really? That opening scene with the Jew Hunter didn't get you going? That was terrific! I also liked the way T completely ignored history for the end of the film, making it clear the film is not supposed to be set in reality. I thought it was quite a daring film, really. Certainly better than Death Proof!

Not really the last 2 minutes where he described the soldiers as daughters was a return to form. But preceded by a confused and dreary interaction right out of Commando comics.

Quote: DaButt @ January 16 2010, 1:01 PM GMT

You should probably watch more than 30 minutes of a 2.5-hour movie before making a statement like that.

Do I have the excuse that if felt like 2.5 hours?

And just how was it going to improve on that awful start? Tarantino's best stuff was stuck in the grimy, gritty real.
Low level gangsters, idiot discussions about foot massages, grungy heroin dealers and overly serious chats about Madonna songs. That stuff just sang and was phenomomeal peopled with real characters.

Once he moved onto plots from Z movies; super Judo-Commandos, stripper vampires with big boobs, and a 5 hour film that seemed to be about nothing more than his masturbatory fantasies over big feet and swords.
Mnyah Elvis had left the building.

Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 1:08 PM GMT

Do I have the excuse that if felt like 2.5 hours?

It fairly zipped by for me, I was a bit surprised when it ended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QvEba1cDyQ&feature=related

Intro from Dusk to Dawn one of the last things he did I really liked.
It's freaking hilarious and tense.

If you've paid to see a film, makes sense to watch it all. I don't think I've ever walked out of a film.

I still have Inglourious Basterds to watch and Death Proof.

I'm just not into films like I used to be, so the enthusiasm isn't there.

Quote: chipolata @ January 16 2010, 2:45 PM GMT

If you've paid to see a film, makes sense to watch it all. I don't think I've ever walked out of a film.

It was on pay per view where I watch most of my movies.

Jackie Brown is fab and a classic. I think his best is either True Romance or Pulp Fiction.

Basterds just didn't do it for me.

I still don't think of True Romance as a Tarantino film.
My favourites are Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, so I don't think he's lost it at all.

Quote: sootyj @ January 16 2010, 3:28 PM GMT

Jackie Brown is fab and a classic. I think his best is either True Romance or Pulp Fiction.

Agreed. True Romance is something special. Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown are just straight up fantastic pieces of film.

Reservoir Dogs was the film that got me interested in what goes on behind the camera, and is probably the reason I'm here today, trying to be a screen writer.

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