Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a stewardess for Cabo Air. She is intercepted at the airport by ATF agent Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton) while bringing her gun selling friend, Ordell Robbi (Samuel L Jackson), some of his cash which is stashed in Mexico. She is arrested and cuts a deal with the ATF to setup Ordell. Ordell arranges her bail with Max Cherry (Robert Forster) and devises a plan with her to bring back all his money, $500 thousand, and avoid ATF intervention. Ordell's friend from jail, Louis Gara (Robert De Niro), and his pot smoking, nymphomaniac, beach bunny Melanie (Bridget Fonda) are involved in the scheme too. The movie turns into a giant game of who's cheating who, leaving the viewer to ponder who will end up with the cash.
There you have it the whole movie summarized in what, two minutes. So why the almost three hour running time? I could have read Elmore Loenard's book Rum Punch, which the movie was taken from, faster. So you're saying with such a long movie we must get extensive character developement right? Sorry to disappoint, these are pretty superficial people, with the exception of Max Cherry who actually has some depth. Forster's performance was the highlight, he did a great job as the only genuinely interesting person in this movie. At times Jackie Brown comes across as a Pulp Fiction knock-off, chiefly Jackson's role of Ordell which is virtually interchangeable with Jules in PF. Tarantino's alleged genius is definitely missing. While this is a decent movie, at this lenght it is a bit lacking.
