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Jackie Brown
Miramax Films


8.4

based on 23 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 15 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong language, some violence, drug use and sexuality

Starring Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro, and Chris Tucker

What do a sexy stewardess (Grier), a street-tough gun runner (Jackson), a lonely bail bondsman (Forster), a shifty ex-con (DeNiro), an earnest federal agent (Keaton), and a stoned-out beach bunny (Fonda) have in common? They're six players on the trail of a half million dollars in cash! The only questions are ... who's getting played ... and who's gonna make the big score! (Miramax)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Comedy \| Crime \| Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Elmore Leonard (novel) Quentin Tarantino
DIRECTED BY:	Quentin Tarantino
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 20, 2002 Video: September 2, 2003 Theatrical: December 25, 1997
RUNNING TIME:	151 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Robert Forster was nominated for a 1998 Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in this film.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

You savor every moment of Jackie Brown. Those who say it is too long have developed cinematic attention deficit disorder. I wanted these characters to live, talk, deceive and scheme for hours and hours.

Newsweek David Ansen

Filled with funny, gritty Tarantino lowlife gab and a respectable body count, but what is most striking is the film's gallantry and sweetness. Tarantino hits some new and touching notes with Grier and Forster.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

The most exciting thing about Jackie Brown is the director's seamless transition to a less flashy, revealing style; it's well-suited to the more character-oriented focus of the film... an assured, accomplished, and very good film.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The film occasionally drags -- a money transfer scene set in a department store lasts longer than several geologic epochs -- but it's so funny and the plot twists are so sudden and violent it's great fun.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's a straight-ahead caper flick, very cool, and very, very Seventies (although it takes place in 1995), from production and costume design on down to the soundtrack.

USA Today Mike Clark

Between Jackson's opining and De Niro's hopeless alibis when he messes up, Jackie is good for a bundle of bloody ho-ho-hos.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Its greatest assets are imaginative camera work and top-flight performances from Pam Grier as the heroine, Samuel L. Jackson as the deadly boyfriend, and Robert Forster as the bail-bondsman who falls battily in love with her.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Each scene is staged methodically, overdeliberately, as if it concealed some payoff zinger. But the zingers don't arrive. All we see is a reasonably clever Elmore Leonard caper that needed to be treated as fast, trashy fun.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Happily, the climax races to our rescue... Beyond the grasp of most directors, this is tour de force stuff -- definitely meriting the price of admission and almost worth the three-year wait.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Tarantino keeps things moving along nicely, with a heavier dose of humor and less violence than in Pulp Fiction, but, on the whole, this movie seems more like the work of one of his wannabes than something from the director himself.

Film Threat Ron Wells

Quentin actually made a REAL movie, with believable characters and performances, rather than just repositories for clever dialog.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Tarantino puts together a fairly intricate and relatively uninvolving money-smuggling plot, but his cast is so good that you probably won’t feel cheated unless you’re hoping for something as show-offy as "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction."

Variety Todd McCarthy

Unquestionably too long, and lacking the snap and audaciousness of the pictures that made him the talk of the town, this narratively faithful but conceptually imaginative adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel "Rum Punch" nonetheless offers an abundance of pleasures, especially in the realm of characterization and atmosphere.

New York Magazine David Denby

Not revolutionary or even evolutionary but enormously .... methodical. Working from an Elmore Leonard novel, Tarantino has created a gangster fiction that is never larger than life and sometimes smaller.

Time Richard Corliss

At 2 1/2 hours, it all plays like the rough assembly of a 90-min. caper film--an anecdote told at epic length. Grier, foxy lady of '70s blaxploitation, is given little chance to radiate. [22 Dec 1997, p.80]

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The giddy, "anything could happen" sense that made "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" so viscerally exciting is missing here. But Tarantino's first picture in nearly three years is a faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch," and its melancholy edge is a wistful delight.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A raunchy doodle, a leisurely and easygoing diversion that goes down easy enough but is far from compelling.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

But for all its enthusiasm, this film isn't sharp enough to afford all the time it wastes on small talk, long drives, trips to the mall and favorite songs played on car radios.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

If Jackie Brown lost 45 minutes, it might have been a snazzy entertainment. As it is, it wears out its welcome well before the end.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The slow pace kills the sense of urgency, and the length and breadth of the film makes the story seem insignificant. Tarantino is still someone to watch, but Jackie Brown, before it's over, becomes a who-cares proposition.

Slate David Edelstein

This is ho-hum, straight-to-video material. And yet, even at its most crawlingly linear, Jackie Brown is diverting. If nothing else, I was diverted by the director's gall at stretching out those vacuous scenes.

Dallas Observer Peter Rainer

Except for a few of his trademark time-sequence zig-zags, Tarantino's storytelling is boringly linear. At a running time of two hours and 35 minutes, it often feels like we're slogging through a B-movie that got too big for its sprockets.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

It's the flat, self-exposing dud that fate often keeps in store for the initially overpraised. [26 Jan 1998, p.24]

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jon L gave it a4:
I can certainly see what Tarantino wanted to do--explore the characters, but these characters are so incredibly mundane that it's just painful at 160 minutes. I think Tarantino realized this and just padded it out, which is why every shot in the movie is held to an absurdity, which probably made it impossible to edit to something reasonable given the lack of weight in the material. The characters are boring rehashes (a waste of great talent), the dialogue Tarantino has so much obvious talent for is mediocre and the film is a good hour too long (maybe even more). What a shame.

Dan S. gave it a9:
This was a more mature and thoughtful film than the over-praised "Pulp Fiction". Violence was treated more seriously, and Tarantino took time in this one to explore the motives of the characters. The tale was really about everyone in the tale, not only Jacki Brown. All the actors were convincing, especially Robert Forster. Bravo !!

James M. gave it a10:
Only these words, written by Roger Ebert, can accurately describe how I feel about this film (and many other films too): Those who say it is too long have developed cinematic attention deficit disorder. How on earth you could call this masterpiece of writing, directing and acting overlong and boring I have no idea. Did you have too much red cordial before seeing the movie. Sometimes audiences have no idea what they're talking about, see The Green Mile, but in this case the people are right and the critics are just plain stupid.

Kyle A. gave it a10:
His best by far. An actual "movie" rather than a collection of scenes. And what a movie it is.

J. Ryan G. gave it a10:
Like the most enjoyable Sunday afternoon of your life, Tarantino's best storytelling to date unwinds slowly and gracefully, the end of the day inevitable and something to dread.

Dane S. gave it a10:
Great film. Even better than the masterpiece novel. Quentin Tarantino's worst... but it is better than a lot of films out there!

wongit gave it a7:
Good but not his best. it had great characters and great dialogue, but the story just isnt as captivating or interesting as tarantino's other masterpieces. its good but, its not tarantino's usual works of art. I did enjoy it however, it was still a very fun movie.

Jackie Brown Miramax Films

Jackie Brown
Miramax Films