Shouldn't You Actually Start Filming Before You Have a Movie Poster?
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 at 11:00AM They're now officially counting Kill Bill as ONE feature so that The Hateful Eight can be Quentin Tarantino's official "8th" film. Convenient, eh? But that's okay because they should've been one film all along. And oh what gross film-splittings have occurred in their wake.
QUESTION: Shouldn't you start filming before releasing a poster?
The movie is not scheduled to start filming until 2015... and the poster assumes everything will happen on schedule and it will be out by the end of that year. Good luck, movie! This reminds me of Amir's rants about all those opening day announcements for secret movies. Hollywood has a preemie problem.
And may Quentin get this out of his system since this'll be his second consecutive nearly all male western. May he some day return to writing great female roles again because he's slipping into terrain that other writer/directors have covered sufficiently throughout time. Which is a bummer since he writes well for awesome actresses. (So cross your fingers that he's given Amber Tamblyn and Zoë Bell something interesting to do because he sure didn't offer Kerry Washington anything worthwhile in Django.)
FWIW my preference order of Tarantino's filmography
- Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
⇡ the ones i couldn't imagine life without - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- Inglourious Basterds (2009)
- Jackie Brown (1997)
- Kill Bill Vol 2 (2004)
⇣ and the only ones I dislike... - Django Unchained (2012)
- Death Proof (2007)
Reader Comments (27)
Oh, I'm with Nick (I believe) when he said on the podcast that Kill Bill 2 was more fascinating than KB1. That one, or the two combined, would be my favorite; I just love the end of 2 so much.
I also like Death Proof! But agreed re: Django.
I guess my ranking is like this:
(The only one that's completely non-negotiable is number one.)
Jackie Brown
Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Kill Bill Vol.1
Kill Bill Vol.2
Death Proof
Reservoir Dogs
Django Unchained
Who here wants Tarantino to just do the "female version of The Expendables" and give us something that puts the inspiring series to shame?
The best thing he could ever do would be the pilot episode of "Fox Force Five". Uma Thurman as Raven McCoy. Damn!
Tarantino was once a great filmmaker, but he hasn't matured as an artist or a person and that is apparent in his work as well. When I was 14 and saw Pulp Fiction in the movies, it really cracked my head open and made me fall in love with movies. It's a shame that he only seems interested in putting his own spin in everything he does now. I wish he would reinvent himself (like when he did Jackie Brown) a la P.T. Anderson…
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Jackie Brown
3. Kill Bill Vol 2
4. Kill Bill Vol 1
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Death Proof (some good writing as I can recall)
7. Inglourious Basterds (The "basterds" section is awful!)
8. Django Unchained
Volvagio--
I remember when they tried to do something like that with that all girl western BAD GIRLS starring Madeline Stowe and Drew Barrymore back in the 90's... remember that? haha
Sorry you're not feeling enthusiasm for The Hateful Eight. As a fan of Tarantino, westerns, Tarantino doing westerns, and cool teaser posters, you're basically having the Bizarro Universe response to mine (or vice versa).
My preferred hierarchy of Tarantino-ness:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Jackie Brown
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Kill Bill Volume 1
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Kill Bill Volume 2
7. Death Proof*
8. Django Unchained**
*The first forty minutes or so of Death Proof is maybe my favorite sustained section of any film he's ever made, like a grindhouse Eugene O'Neill play, but the rest doesn't match up.
**Considering that Django was the first big budget movie in 40 years to deal directly with the horror of slavery, I thought it was a pretty landmark film at the time - but 12 Years a Slave kind of makes it feel irrelevant now. Too bad. It's still a good movie, but flawed in many many ways.
The thing that always puts me off Tarantino is that it seems way too obvious how clever he thinks he is, when his priority should be making a good movie. A really good movie would be too involving to let the director's ego distract you.
Since it's the most atypical for him, my favorite is Jackie Brown. My guess is that this is his best film because the source material wasn't his.
My list:
1. Pulp Fiction (one of my faves of all time)
2. Kill Bill Vol.1
3. Jackie Brown
4. Reservoir Dogs
5. Kill Bill Vol.2
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. Death Proof
8. Django Unchained
His last 3 movies are my least favorites, but Django is the only one I can't decide if I really like it or not...
Adore:
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Love:
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Hit and Miss:
Jackie Brown (needs a revisit)
Django Unchained
Inglorious Basterds
No Thanks:
Death Proof
Ugh.
I'm going to go against the grain and admit I'm a big fan of Django Unchained. Here's my list:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (by a hair; they need to be seen as one, complete amazing movie)
3. Kill BIll Vol. 1
4. Django Unchained
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Reservoir Dogs
7. Jackie Brown
8. Death Proof
I like them all, but I'd have to say "Jackie Brown" and "Death Proof" are the two I don't LOVE LOVE LOVE. The "Basterds" section may be a bit problematic, but Tarantino does not get enough credit for how wonderful and tension filled the Soshanna parts are. One of my favorite ever Tarantino characters played beautifully by Melanie Laurent.
As for "Django," I did feel that it was a unique, interesting and ambitious film that really tried a lot of things with the story and characters that made it more than just a slavery film. I don't think "12 Years a Slave" diminishes it for me, as they are both wildly different films.
Mine, having not yet sat down with Death Proof:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Jackie Brown
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Kill Bill Vol. 2
7. Django Unchained (It makes a kind of interesting triple bill with 12 Years and Jackie Brown and there's interesting aspects (Samuel L. Jackson even being flat out great in something fairly atypical for him), but on an overall cohesive level, it's a less intelligent, less mature and less funny movie than Jackie Brown, a movie that covers a fair bit of the same themes. If you don't even like Pulp Fiction, you're pretty much guaranteed to LOATHE every second of this.)
I really hate the reaction I tend to get when I tell people Jackie Brown is my favorite Tarantino movie, because they either roll their eyes or automatically assume I'm just saying it to be different since it's probably his least seen movie. But it really is my favorite, mainly because it feels the most controlled. I think that has to do with the fact that it's based on preexisting source material, so even though it's still filled with Tarantinoesque touches, I don't think he gets as carried away as he does in his other movies. For diehard Tarantino fans I'm sure it's considered the least Tarantinoesque of his movies, but for someone like me who is lukewarm on Tarantino, I think it's his best because of it.
My ranking:
1. Jackie Brown
2. Pulp Fiction (would be #1 except that I honestly don't like the Bruce Willis segment all that much)
3. Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Inglourious Basterds
7. Django Unchained
8. Death Proof
I don't really have a problem with advance marketing. That's how the game is played when every movie must be a known quantity in order to have any chance at the box office. Even a director as well known as Tarantino has a very difficult time opening a movie. I think that's one reason--aside from his inherent showmanship--why he's played along with the hype machine for each of his recent films.
Here's my top ten. Despite the order, I don't outright dislike any of his films. He's just seemed off his game in the last decade; too much style, too little attention to creating three-dimensional characters. Django was entertaining but it felt woefully slapdash.
1. Jackie Brown
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Kill Bill Vol.1
5. Kill Bill Vol.2
6. Death Proof
7. Inglourious Basterds
8. Django Unchained
I couldn't live without, or choose between, Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies. That's one of my favorite runs on anyone's filmography.
The other four, though? Reservoir Dogs is good, Death Proof is effective, Django mostly works, but there isn't much to it.
And Basterds... There's so much to love, but the Brad Pitt stuff kind of kills it for me. The inglorious basterds are what's wrong with Inglorious Basterds. I rented it once and made my own edit, basically skipping any scene that includes Brad Pitt unless it also includes Diane Kruger, and I thought my version was pretty fantastic.
Ranking:
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Jackie Brown
3. Reservoir Dogs
4. Django Unchianed
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Kill Bill vol. 1
7. Kill Bill vol. 2
Haven't seen Death Proof.
"Shouldn't you actually start filming before releasing a poster?" No rules no problem when Tarantino is involved!
That's a tough pool to rank, but I guess I'd have to say:
Kill Bill
Inglourious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill Volume 2
Reservoir Dogs
Django Unchained
Death Proof
Mike - i love this idea. I would probably like the movie more too and i'm a huge Brad Pitt fan.
I haven't seen Death Proof, but of the others, my order is as follows:
1. Jackie Brown
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Inglourious Basterds
(those first three are almost neck-and-neck)
4. Reservoir Dogs
5. Django Unchained
6.1 Kill Bill Vol. 1
6.2 Kill Bill Vol. 2
I agree with what others have said that the last ten years haven't been great. The development from Pulp Fiction to Jackie Brown - i.e. following up a pop culture classic with a wonderfully mature and touching film - was thrilling to behold. But since then, he has overdosed on his own facility with style. The exception, I think, is Inglourious Basterds, which I think remains focused throughout on keeping the right balance between story, characters and style. I can see why people have problems with the sequences involving the Basterds, and with Brad Pitt in particular - but I think Pitt is very good: it's a weird performance, granted, but what makes it work so well for me is that, despite all his odd mannerisms etc., you can see in his eyes Aldo Raine's dedication to the task at hand.
Looking forward - hesitantly - to The Hateful Eight.
My list:
1.Pulp Fiction
2.Reservoir Dogs
3.Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. Django Unchained
6. Death proof
7.Jackie Brown
As a director, Tarantino's last two movies were without a doubt the best he's done, so there is improvement there. As a wriiter he hasn't been on his game though for nearly two decades. I liked Reservoir Dogs and am kind of indifferent on Pulp Fiction, but Jackie Brown is by far his best effort: so much more focussed than the rest of his output (thank you, Mr. Elmore Leonard). For me the big problem with Tarantino has always been self-indulgence. With the exception of Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof, all of his movies are at least 2.5 hours long (I'm counting Kill Bill as one movie, as it was originally conceived). So I'd argue that what Mr. Tarantino needs most is an editor.
Other than Kill Bill vol. 1, Jackie Brown is the Tarantino that I have revisited the most in the last decade - regularly even - after getting burnt out on Pulp rewind-replay-repeat in the 90's. Jackie Brown pulls me in every time with it's heart and soul and tinge of sentimentality (unique to this of all QT's films) pushing me right across 110th street. Does any other Tarantino work take quite the time to foster such love of its leads? Who can't picture in their mind at any moment exactly how Jackie Brown smokes a cigarette? (A testament to Grier's performance, as well.) While I appreciate the fantastical elements of his other films (anime movie within a real movie!), I also love the anchored-in-reality plausibility and truth of JB which is not present in his most recent efforts.
My rank of favorites:
1. Jackie Brown ("Where'd you park the car, Louis?")
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Kill Bill vol. 1
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Reservoir Dogs
6. Kill Bill vol. 2
7. Django Unchained
Oh, I forgot. My list:
1. Jackie Brown.
ah c'mon guys! Kill Bill is *one* movie, the two parts belong to each other (and so you can't really qualify one over the other).
also: Death Proof is highly underrated.... I remember actually getting out of my chair and cheering in the movie theatre when the credits rolled.
It is a little silly to have a finished poster already - the entire thing seems messy to me so far, from the cancellation after the script leak, to making another western so soon. I do have faith in him though, he's my favorite director and a consistent presence. I'd rank his work like this, but my preferences change a lot.
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Death Proof (very underrated imo)
Reservoir Dogs
Inglourious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Django Unchained
Tarantino is officially a loser. The Hateful Eight being conceived as a 70 mm production is a reaction to Paul Thomas Anderson and The Master. I know he likely threw a tantrum about the level of industry respect Anderson received for his choice in acquisition and exhibition format.