Entertainment
Quentin Tarantino's Forgotten R-Rated Thriller Is Actually His Most Memorable
By TeeJay Small
| Published
As a budding film nerd in the late aughts to the early 2010s, no filmmaker fascinated me more than Quentin Tarantino. His use of over-the-top violence, foul language, and intricate storylines provided enough style, substance, and rule-breaking energy to make me seek out each and every one of his works. By the time Netflix started dominating movie-watching culture, I had already binged nearly every Tarantino flick via On Demand, Blockbuster video rental, or Playstation Store digital purchase.
While I enjoyed each of these films, one particular entrant into the Tarantino pantheon left me with more questions than answers. The film in question: 1997’s Jackie Brown. The movie is considered the third Quentin Tarantino project, since the filmmaker has a strange obsession with numbering his films and retiring when he gets to 10. It’s an excellent crime drama with a few humorous elements, and lots of the usual suspects for a Tarantino picture. Still, many elements of the film stand out like a sore thumb when compared to his other creations.
A Rare Tarantino Adaptation
For starters, Jackie Brown is based on a 1992 novel called Rum Punch. Tarantino rarely releases adaptations of existing works. When he does, he usually changes the source material so much that it becomes something new entirely. We’re talking about a guy who made a World War 2 movie that concluded with Hitler getting turned into Swiss cheese by a pair of machine gun-wielding American soldiers. In the case of Jackie Brown though, the only notable difference is the swapping of the title character’s race.
Jackie Brown is also a lot more subdued than other movies in the Tarantinoverse. Sure, there are guns, drugs, and bags of money changing hands, but there’s something much more subtle about the ways that the characters interact with each other. Samuel L. Jackson‘s Ordell seems to be a de facto guardian for a young woman, but hardly bats an eye when she’s killed off simply for being a nuisance. Robert De Niro also plays his role in a very stripped back, muted sort of way, free of the usual top-of-the-lung screaming that you’d find in a “best acting compilation” on YouTube.
Powerhouse Protagonist
One of the most jarring instances of restraint is the climax of Robert Forster’s growing attraction to Pam Grier’s title character. After a whole movie of flirting, longing, and stolen glances, the pair share a single peck on the lips and part ways, presumably never to see each other again. It’s raw, it’s genuine, and it’s distinctly unlike Quentin Tarantino.
The film doesn’t have buckets of blood raining from the ceiling like The Hateful Eight. It doesn’t feature a historical element that splits the narrative from our real world like Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. It does contain dozens of uses of the N word, a favorite for Quentin Tarantino, though even that is handled more tastefully than the director’s extremely awkward cameo in Pulp Fiction.
Not Your Typical Tarantino
None of this is to say that Jackie Brown is a bad movie. On the contrary, it’s actually fantastic, as long as you don’t go in expecting the usual over-the-top Tarantino insanity. I might have lamented how the shot composition feels dated in my teenage years, but today I can respect the film for creating a very distinct energy, which I haven’t seen captured anywhere else.
If you haven’t had the chance to see Jackie Brown just yet, now might be the perfect time, since it’s currently streaming for free on Plex. I wouldn’t necessarily place it among Tarantino’s greatest works like Inglourious Basterds or Django Unchained, but it has a very distinct identity that makes it well worth the price of admission. If you’re interested in getting into Tarantino’s back catalogue and don’t know where to start, this movie might actually introduce you to a few of his go-to tricks without wearing them out all at once.
Entertainment
Attention Apple fans: The brand new M5 MacBook Air already has its first discount
SAVE $49: As of March 12, the brand new Apple MacBook Air (M5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) is on sale for the first time in both the 13-inch and 15-inch models. Get the 13-inch for $1,049.99 (reg. $1,099) and the 15-inch for $1,249.99 (reg. $1,299).
$1,049.99
at Amazon
$1,099
Save $49.01
$1,249.99
at Amazon
$1,299
Save $49.01
The brand new Apple M5 MacBook Air officially has its first discount. It made its formal debut just yesterday, March 11, and is already on sale in both the 13-inch and 15-inch varieties.
The starting price for the M5 MacBook Air is $1,099 for the 13-inch model and $1,299 for the 15-inch model. Both base models feature 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. As of March 12, you can knock $49.01 off each laptop, bringing the starting price down to just $1,049.99 or $1,249.99. Sure, that’s not a huge discount. But considering the base models are already technically $100 cheaper than their predecessors, that’s pretty sweet value.
Mashable Deals
So what’s new about these laptops? Honestly, not a whole lot. Obviously, the M5 chip is a step up from the previous generation’s M4 chip. They now have the same wildly fast processor as the 14-inch MacBook Pro from last fall. They also start with more base storage, are configurable with up to 4TB (up from 2TB) for the first time, and have added Apple’s N1 wireless chip to bring support for WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.
Mashable Deals
Otherwise, the new M5 MacBook Air is largely the same as the M4 MacBook Air — same 60Hz Liquid Retina display, 12MP Center Stage webcam, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, and 18-hour battery life. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing (we loved the M4 Air), it certainly makes it a non-essential upgrade unless you’re rocking a MacBook that’s a few generations old. Still, there’s no denying what a great value the laptop is, particularly now that it’s $49 cheaper in both sizes.
Entertainment
Stay prepared for anything with the Growatt Helios power station — now $400 off at Amazon
SAVE $400: As of March 12, get the Growatt Helios portable power station for just $1,199. That’s $400 off the power station’s $1,599 list price.
$1,199
at Amazon
$1,599
Save $400
Portable power stations are essential devices whether you spend most of your time indoors or outside. Not only can it serve as a back-up power source in the case of an emergency power outage, but it can also accompany you on all your adventures. If you’re headed out on a camping or RV trip this summer, a power station might just be the companion you need for keeping your devices charged.
If you’re looking for a great power station, let us steer you in the direction of the Growatt Helios portable power station. As of March 12, it’s on sale at Amazon, saving you $400 on its $1,599 list price. That brings it down to $1,199 for 25% off. It’s not quite the power station’s lowest-ever price of $1,099, but it’s close.
Mashable Deals
The Growatt Helios portable power station with 3,600W output and 3.6kWh. Let us translate that. It can power heavy duty devices including air conditioners and refrigerators. When fully charged, the Growatt Helios generator can power your fridge for 24 to 72 hours. It supports USB, DC, and AC power so you can charge multiple devices at once. Plus, you can power it up fast with solar.
Mashable Deals
Get the Growatt Helios Portable Power Station at Amazon for $1,199.
Entertainment
Stephen King's Forgotten R-Rated 80s Hit Led By Star Trek's Most Evil Seductress
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
There’s been a lot of Stephen King adaptations over the years. In the early 90s, King decided to write a story as a screenplay first, and the result was the insane Sleepwalkers, about a mother and son pair of vampiric werecats terrorizing a small town in Indiana.
It’s one of those films that has to be seen to be believed, especially for a pre-Borg Queen performance by Star Trek: First Contact’s Alice Krige as one of the sleepwalkers. The 1992 horror film recently arrived on Netflix, making it even easier to play “spot the famous horror director” from among the many cameos jammed into the brisk, 89-minute runtime.
Don’t Think Too Hard About Sleepwalkers
Stephen King has been very upfront about the copious amounts of drugs he consumed during the 70s and 80s, particularly cocaine, which helps explain Sleepwalkers’ plot. Alice Krige is Mary, the mother of Charles (Charmed’s Brian Krause), and the two happen to be energy-draining werecats who feed off the energy of female virgins. Tanya (Twin Peak’s Madchen Amick) is targeted by the two after Charles fakes his way into the local high school, but the elaborate plan, which consists of make out in a cemetery, is thwarted when Tanya fights back using a corkscrew.
The two sleepwalkers may be powerful night creatures, but they have one weakness, and it just so happens that Tanya’s bonded with one of the beings who can easily kill them in a fight: Clovis the housecat. Sleepwalkers is very simple in its storytelling, and absolutely insane with its bizarre face-morphing CGI (at the time, it was cutting edge), cats flying in off the side of the screen, cars blowing up with a single bullet, and an “interesting” mother-son relationship.
Sleepwalkers Was A Surprise Box Office Hit
Alice Krige manages to again be off-putting, terrifying, and charming at the same time, similar to her later performance as the Borg Queen, the original “hear me out” meme of the 90s. Her performance helped propel the off-kilter feature to top the box office the weekend it debuted on the way to earning $30 million, unadjusted for inflation, that still tops the 2025 box office for horror films Him and The Woman In The Yard.
One of the fun parts of Sleepwalkers comes from director Mick Garris’ mission to include as many horror directors as possible, leading to cameos from Stephen King himself, John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Scream), and Joe Dante (Gremlins). Mark Hamill and Ron Perlman also pop in for brief appearances.
Sleepwalkers was savaged by critics and still only has a 29 percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an equally low audience rating of 32 percent. Those people clearly don’t know how to have fun. King’s story may have, allegedly, been drug-induced, but it’s so weird and off the wall that the film is a blast. While it’s special effects aged like milk, Krause and Krig managed to create some great scares, and in an era of bloated runtimes, 89 minutes makes it feel like it’s ending as soon as it gets going.
Sleepwalkers is now available to stream on Netflix, and we suggest you sit down with your cat to watch it.
Attention Apple fans: The brand new M5 MacBook Air already has its first discount
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