Tarantino Movies, Ranked!

[Ryujin]

I am very much with you here. I get why some people might not like him. There are great directors I am not that into. But the man literally changed cinema. There is a bright red line of pre-Tarantino and post-Tarantino, and you can visibly tell the difference. And he is a craftsman, he makes well crafted films, his dialogue is extraordinarily good (and people can check out breakdowns of his scene on youtube where this explored in terms of the techniques he is using). The music that you hit on is also key. He makes it look easy but so many other film makers get this wrong. It isn't for everyone. His tone is often on the comedic side. And again that is really hard to do. He is threading a very fine line there. Just look at other movies from the 90s with any amount of goofiness to them and compare them to Tarantino films. His stand out as particularly well crafted. And if you have familiarity with the movies he is drawing on, the homage aspect is quite interesting (he is doing it in a very artful way). Also he continued to be relevant.

Much of what he is credited with is a return to the stylistic elements of 1970s Pulp and Noir cinema. The musical elements, for example. Robert Rodriguez has a similar style. It was the stuff of low budget matinee and "Blacksploitation" films back then, that people like myself loved, for all its schlock.

 

[payn]

I rarely see movies more than once but I went to see Pulp Fiction in theaters twice. The second time I went, there was a couple in front of me, and as we were sitting waiting for the lights to grow dim another couple walked down the aisle to the seats below us with their 3-4 year old little girl in tow. The couple in front of me observed this, and the woman turned to me and asked, "This is Pulp Fiction, right?" I looked past them at the couple with the kids, shrugged, and just said, "Yeah."

I've been to a few movies that definitely were not for kids with kids in them. Though, if the parents give proper context, who am I to judge? My old man didnt take me to a lot of movies as a kid, but we watched a ton of violent action flicks that im not sure id show my kids at a young age.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

My folks took little me (6 y.o. and under) to see such films as The Outlaw Josey Wales, Cleopatra Jones, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, Damnation Alley, Jaws, and The Rocky Horror.

I grew up fine. OK, there was about year after Jaws when I would not go in the ocean but I got over it.

 

[Mannahnin]

I rarely see movies more than once but I went to see Pulp Fiction in theaters twice.

I went two or three times. The second time I was evangelizing more friends to go see it with me. I paid for two of them because they were broke and I felt they HAD to see it.

 

[Meech17]

I want to preface this by saying I'm a poor movie critic. The bar a movie has to clear for me to say I enjoyed it, is very, very low. I've seen quite a few movies, and there have only been one or two occasions where I've walked out of a theater wishing I had chosen to spend my afternoon differently.

Tarantino also holds a pretty special place in my heart. He's not my favorite filmmaker, but I think he's the reason I love going to the movies.

Lastly, I haven't seen Death Proof, Jackie Brown, or either of the Kill Bill films. So they won't be included in my ranking.

6. Reservoir Dogs: This was the first Tarantino movie I saw. I didn't know who the man was, I wasn't familiar with his work, and honestly, I wasn't super into movies at this time. My co-worker who was obsessed with QT learned that I hadn't seen any of his movies and loaned me both this and Pulp Fiction on DVD. Great movie. What hooked me the most was that it was the first time I'd ever seen Buscemi in a non-Adam Sandler movie. This may have also been the first time I'd seen a movie use non-linear story telling and it kind of blew my mind as a teenager. I feel bad ranking it so low.. But I guess that's not so much an indictment on the film, as it is a praising of the rest.

5. Hateful Eight: This is one I was really excited for, and then ended up putting off for a long time. I struggled to find friends to go see a nearly three hour movie with me, and at this point in my life I wasn't comfortable going to the movies alone yet, so I didn't see it until a many years later. This movie was a roller coaster. It was not at all what I was expecting, and it surprised me in the best ways. Ultimately I agree with a few others here.. I don't know if I'll ever re-watch this one.. But I'm glad I did watch it.

4. Pulp Fiction: Again, I was a teen watching this.. And I had never experienced much like it before. Bouncing back and forth between the various stories that all tied together, it just slayed me. I felt like I was having a religious experience. I'm sure I was insufferable for months afterwards, going around evangelizing the glory of St. Tarantino to anyone who would listen. Harvey Keitel as the Wolf in this movie was possibly the coolest dude I'd ever seen. I immediately rolled up a rogue in the D&D game I was in and tried to play him off as a sly fixer inspired by him. I was nowhere near as cool..

3. One Upon a Time in Hollywood: I love this movie so much. I think Pitt and Dicaprio's characters played such fun protagonists. The pacing in this one is really fun too. I feel like the Film Lot/Commune scene in the middle of the movie can feel like it drags a little bit, but it almost seems intentional. It kind of brings the movie down a few levels, which allows it to just ratchet back up to 110% which had a climax that made me laugh so hard my sides hurt. I saw it with a friend of mine, and we went out to eat after the matinee showing, and then went back and watched it again that night.

2. Inglorious Basterds: I, like many others it seems came to adore Waltz after this movie. How can a man be both so terrifying, and also so pathetic in the same movie?? This was such a satisfying movie. I heard, that apparently Eli Roth's character was written with Adam Sandler in mind.. I really wish I got to see that version of the film.

1. Django Unchained: This movie.. Not only is it my favorite Tarantino movie.. It's in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Maybe top 5. This is the movie that got me hooked on going to the movie theater. The journey we get to witness here is incredible. Django get's an amazing zero to hero, back to zero, to redeemer story the likes of which you don't see too often in action flicks. Seeing Christoph Waltz go from the monstrous Landa to the sagely Dr. Schultz was super impressive. I adored him after Basterds, but I fell in love with the man in Django. I grew a beard because of this movie.

So many emotions in a single movie.. Some scenes are down right meme level.. The camera zoom in on Dicapro's face when Waltz offers to buy his disappointing slave off him. "You will?" So goofy and funny.. And then they're bookended with hyper intense moments or genuinely scary moments.

Fun story.. I was fresh out of highschool, having graduated the year before Django came out. At the time I had re-connected with a girl I had known from band and we were going on a few dates. She's a great person, and no shade against her, but it wasn't a good fit.. It'd never have worked out. I'm a video game and D&D playing, tech junkie dork, and she was a horse riding country girl. The biggest thing we had in common was we both had cats, and loved them very much. Regardless.. She liked western movies. I say "Oh, there's a new Quentin Tarantino movie coming out, it's a western." She says she didn't know who Tarantino was, and I... Should have known better.. But I took this poor girl in blind.. (To be fair I hadn't seen it yet either.. But still.. I should have known better) and she spent half the movie with her hands over her eyes. That was our third, and as you might expect.. Last date.

I know we're not including it in this ranking.. But I'd put Four Rooms at 4.5 as an honorable mention. It was such a fun idea, and I love how it came together. I think it's also Tim Roth's best performance out of all the QT movies he's in.

 

[Mannahnin]

I know we're not including it in this ranking.. But I'd put Four Rooms at 4.5 as an honorable mention. It was such a fun idea, and I love how it came together. I think it's also Tim Roth's best performance out of all the QT movies he's in.

Tim Roth is pretty hilarious in it, but I think he's perfection in Reservoir Dogs.

 

[CleverNickName]

Hmm. Tarantino, eh? Well, I've seen more than a handful of his films, and I'd rank them thusly:

• Pulp Fiction is my favorite. I think most people would say that it is his best work, so it will be the standard by which all other films of his will be judged. For example:
• Kill Bill Vol I is my second favorite. I enjoy it almost as much as Pulp Fiction, so I rate it 0.9 Pulps.
• Kill Bill Vol II is next, at 0.88888 Pulps, for the Crazy 88's fight scene alone. It's just such a good action film.
• Inglorious Basterds, 0.75 Pulps. Like Snarf said: it's a war movie that isn't about war, and that's hard to pull off.
• Django Unchained, 0.74 Pulps. It's hard to watch at times, but it is so rewarding.
• Jackie Brown, 0.7 Pulps. One of my favorite heist movies, good dialogue and good scene-building.
• Reservoir Dogs is a good film, but I think it's overrated. I didn't hate it, but I liked it about half as much as Pulp Fiction so I give it 0.5 Pulps.
• Death Proof made a lot of promises (so many tropes, too--Chekhov's Gun, anyone?), and just didn't deliver. But at least I remember watching it. 0.1 Pulps.
• Planet Terror was a Tarantino movie. That's about all I can say about it; it's pretty forgettable. 0.05 Pulps.

 

[Mannahnin]

Hmm. Tarantino, eh? Well, I've seen more than a handful of his films, and I'd rank them thusly:

• Kill Bill Vol I is my second favorite. I enjoy it almost as much as Pulp Fiction, so I rate it 0.9 Pulps.
• Kill Bill Vol II is next, at 0.88888 Pulps, for the Crazy 88's fight scene alone. It's just such a good action film.

Point of clarification- the Crazy 88 fight scene comes toward the end of Vol 1.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I know we're not including it in this ranking.. But I'd put Four Rooms at 4.5 as an honorable mention. It was such a fun idea, and I love how it came together. I think it's also Tim Roth's best performance out of all the QT movies he's in.

I have only seen this movie once (back when it first hit VHS). I remember really liking Tarantino's segment.

 

[the Jester]

I really like the Tarantino films I like, which is most of them. From worst to best, of the ones I have seen, my rankings would be:

9. Death Proof (takes too long to go anywhere)
8. Reservoir Dogs (great, but it is agonizing to watch)
7. Jackie Brown (I fell asleep during it, but like scenes when I rewatch them)
6. Django Unchained (great performances, but I just prefer the rest listed below)
5. Kill Bill vol 2 (poetry about violence)
4. The Hateful Eight (moody, tense, escalatory, nowhere to go- this earns every minute of its build up)
3. Kill Bill vol 1 (a ballet of violence)
2. Pulp Fiction (almost a perfect film, with so many iconic moments that left indelible marks on our culture)
1. Inglorious Bastards (a masterpiece from start to finish, with what might be Christoph Waltz' best performance ever)