March 9, 1998 -- Quentin Tarantino has done it again. Hollywood's wunder kind has scored another fine movie with "Jackie Brown," a worthy follow up to his earlier crime dramas "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction."

His first movie based on a novel (Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch"), the film nevertheless bears the Tarantino stamp. There is clever dialogue, quirky characters and a complex story conveyed cleanly.

While not as polished as "Pulp Fiction," his best film, "Jackie Brown" does have one thing his earlier films lacked, a couple of characters with brains. The title character, Jackie Brown (played well by Pam Grier) and her friend and bail bondsman, Max Cherry (Robert Forster, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in this film) are both people of intelligence, if not wisdom.

Brown has gotten herself in a bind as the story starts. She is being pressured to talk by a couple of federal agents played by Michael Keaton and Michael Bowen. Her boss, for whom she has been delivering money, Ordel Robbi (brilliantly played by Samuel L. Jackson who also starred in "Pulp Fiction"), wants to kill her to make sure she doesn't talk.

With the aid of Cherry, she comes up with a plot to rid herself of the feds, Robbi, and to get her hands on $500,000 that she is supposed to deliver to him. There are a couple of tricky money drops in the film, which is basically a caper movie with a love story, but the final caper wasn't quite tricky enough.

Although this movie is doing quite well at the box office, it will probably never come to Laramie. If you want to see it on the big screen you may have to go out of town to see it as I did. It is worth the trip. The acting by Jackson, De Niro and Forster is outstanding. But if you don't like foul language you might want to avoid this film. It is chock full of obscenities. There is also some sex and violence. This film rates a B+.

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