Review: Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection / Cert: 18 / Director: Quentin Tarantino / Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino / Starring: Various / Release Date: Out Now
Ten out of ten, obviously. Of the eight movies in this stupendously desirable box set, there’s not a single film that rates less than an eight out of ten. Quentin Tarantino’s very worst film is better than a lot of directors’ best. Hey, say what you like about Death Proof, but it’s the best scripted foot fetish movie ever made.
In chronological order, the films consist of Reservoir Dogs, True Romance (written by Tarantino, directed by the late great Tony Scott), Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds. Mister Tarantino, that is quite the oeuvre. That said, if we’re going to include films written but not directed by Tarantino, I would very much have liked to see Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn in there too. But then, that’s just me being greedy. It should be noted also, that the individual movies are repackaged previous releases, complete with the extras therein. But oh, what packaging. It’s the Blu-ray equivalent of a coffee table book.
Beyond those individual movies – each one indispensable in its own way – there’s a serious amount of extras and special features to wade through. The Critics Corner is a series of round table discussions, one for each of the films. As tends to happen when you put a group of verbose film nerds in a room together, the talk occasionally feels a little dry and exclusive. Downright rude, when you get to their talk of Death Proof, in which they accuse audiences of being too stupid and ignorant to ‘get’ the film. It gets rather snooty as they bemoan how nobody but them seems to appreciate older films. Kids today, eh. That said, the more enthusiastic the critics get, the more enjoyable their chatter is. It’s very nice to see Inglourious Basterds get the appreciation it richly deserves. The second disc of extras contains a career retrospective, a Jackie Brown Q&A and a collection of trailers for Django Unchained. A celebration of cinema’s loudest, most effusive voice, there’s enough extras across these discs to keep film fans busy for quite some time.
Celebrating twenty years of one of cinema’s most original voices, Tarantino XX is a must-have for any fledgling film collection. Fans will no doubt already own many of the films already, but those new to collecting – or looking to upgrade – would be well advised to pick up this beauty. Here’s to another XX years of the mighty Quentin Tarantino.
