What is the appeal of Quentin Tarentino?

[staylor]

(Climbs on Soapbox)

I have to admit that in my humble opinion Quentin Tarentino has got to be one of the most overrated directors in Hollywood; the only reason he is not the most overrated is that Tim Burton already has that spot clinched. His movies are overlong and deliberatly artsy gore fests to his own ego where he tries to both shock the audience with over the top violence that usually seems contrived and impress upon it just how artsy and renegade he is by having a long uniterupted scene of meaningless conversation just before everyone is killed for some reason that barely seems like a reason at all.
And of course his most annoying trait is putting the beginning in the middle and the end at the beginning in yet another attempt to show just how artsy he is. Its like he was running late to turn in his first srcipt in film school and was running to his professor's office to put in the dropbox when he tripped and scatterd the pages of his subpar manuscript across the hall. Not having enough time to properly reassemble his work he merely gathered it up in no particular order and dropped it off anyway in a hope that his teacher would be merciful. And when, several days later, the film professor told him he was a genius for jumbling his story so a monster was born who periodically reshuffles the ordering of scenes in a transparent effort to regain the glory of his film school days.
Nearly every Tarentino movie I have watched I had to resist the temptation to tear my hair at as I sat through yet another boring account of someone's personal life just before the scene explodes in over-the-top blood and gore that became more and more painful to watch with each passing movie. The one Tarentino movie that I watched and actually approached a level of enjoyment while doing so was Ingloriouse Basterds, every scene that had the actual basterds in it was pure gold and his normal practice of reordering the scenes was muted, and yet he managed to ruin it anyway with long coversations in foriegn languages that had me ready to devour my own feet and deliberatly artsy shticks that reeked of Sundance Film Festival smuggery.
All of this is not to say that the man is a bad director. He is actually OK in a independant film kind of way its just that I know too many people who seem to treat every one of his movies as the second coming of Jesus. The ironic thing is that most of them can only really point to Pulp Fiction as being a good movie, they may own the Kill Bills but they dont actually watch them. He is just overrated.
That is my honest opinon and this whole exercise has been highly cathartic for me. Now...

(Climbs off soap box and puts on Nomex Suit)

Flame away.

[Rod]

Why flame, I think any "genius" who is admired by the Hollywood elite is usually certain to have a brain that'd fit in a gnat's butt with room for a large bowel movement.

[randy]

The other night I noticed AMC was running Pulp Fiction. Given that they cut or otherwise censor anything stronger than PG-13, my reaction was "what's the point".

[workinwifdakids]

The only thing I ever liked about Tarantino was a violent, sexual modern-day cowboy movie called Desperado. It was filmed fifteen years ago, and Tarantino didn't direct it; rather, he was an amazing actor with about ten minutes of on-screen time.

You're right - his undeserved reputation has made him into something that no one will question. When someone disagrees, people say you're just not deep enough or artistic enough to really understand what he's doing. No, I get it. It's just transparent, cocky, and not that good!

As far as Tarantino (and others) getting awards, I have heard that the people who vote on these things are so over-stimulated and desensitized to Hollywood that only the most insanely different things get through to them. That's why, so the theory goes, they typically reward such inedible trash. It also explains why some films produce this gigantic disconnect between the Hollywood elite / movie reviewers on one side, and the general public on the other.

[Mud_Dog]

Death Proof was a really good one, but I think you are right on with the "Independent movie" feel to just about every one of his movies that I have watched. I also enjoyed Western Sukiyaki Django.

He's a pretty good actor, not great, but ok.

[staylor]

Why flame, I think any "genius" who is admired by the Hollywood elite is usually certain to have a brain that'd fit in a gnat's butt with room for a large bowel movement.

Becuase when I usually advance this opinion one would think that I had just called someone's mother a whore or something equally inappropriate. Things degenerate into personal insults very quickly.

When someone disagrees, people say you're just not deep enough or artistic enough to really understand what he's doing.

Goes kind of like that actually.

I bring this up because I am interested to see what the luminaries in this forum think of this guy's work as a director and hopefully find somebody who can provide some reason as to why he is so popular.

The only thing I ever liked about Tarantino was a violent, sexual modern-day cowboy movie called Desperado. It was filmed fifteen years ago, and Tarantino didn't direct it; rather, he was an amazing actor with about ten minutes of on-screen time.

He did do a good job in Desperado which I also rather liked, I also enjoyed From Dusk Till Dawn which he also in. Both of which he only acted in and did not direct and both of which made no pretension towards being high art like his movies do.

[Rod]

you just answered your own question, he didn't try to make art pictures with Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn. As soon as others started talking about how great he was and gave him big money to make movies, it went to his head.

[Dedicated_Dad]

Pulp Fiction is a classic, and would have been with or without tarantino.

Otherwise he strikes me as a proto-typical hollywood jerk too full of his own fumes.

DD

[TheIrishman]

Dialogue, good music, and good actors.

Basically that's it.

He is definitely one of the best for finding actors that fit the role and music even when it is only in the background.

He's not much of a visual or technical director frankly,

That is a little subjective and depends on your taste in movies. Personally I like most of the cinematography(different angles/close ups/wide angles used to convey a mood).

When you and your friends talk like characters in a Tarantino film naturally, you tend to like that in movies. As it happens, my friends and I DO talk like that, and have those discussions; so in his more dialogue centered movies anyway, I dig him.

It's humorous when people start into the "People don't really talk like that..." Just read some of the geekier threads on this board and you will soon see just how many people do, just only in their own way.

I love "Reservoir Dogs", and much of "Pulp Fiction"...

I also quite like the writing in "True Romance", and the performances are... startling.

Probably his two best movies. Also two of his lowest budget movies.

[mekender]

Personally, my two favorites of his are Reservoir Dogs and Four Rooms. I think that after Pulp Fiction, his movies started to fall short and go more into a horror genre than his previous films.