I feel pretty confident in saying that there are few directors that have enjoyed a career like Quentin Tarantino. Part of that is bias, as he is one of my favorite living directors, but he is so idiosyncratic, and yet he has proved time and time again that he can deliver quality. So often a director starts out strong, makes a couple promising films and then starts to slide. But Tarantino has kept his quality high since the very beginning, and with his 9th (and reportedly second-to-last) film Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood releasing in theaters this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to sit down, grab some Big Kahuna Burger, a Sprite to wash it down, and rank the movies of one of my favorite working directors, Quentin Tarantino, from worst to best.
Note: This list only contains films directed by Quentin Tarantino. So don’t expect to see Four Rooms or True Romance here.
Alright, here we go:
8. The Hateful Eight (2015)
For my money, Quentin is at his best when his characters are in a room talking to each other. The action and violence of his films are what he seems to be known for best by general moviegoers, but the real intensity of his films is found in the conversations that his characters have, particularly in The Hateful Eight. The movie is essentially a western spin on what Tarantino tried in Reservoir Dogs — a bunch of people in a room where no one trusts anyone. The characters are great and the story as a whole is good, but without longtime film editing collaborator Sally Menke, it suffers from being almost an hour too long and sluggish to get through. It’s a great film, but make sure you have the time with this one.
Signature Scene: Someone Poisoned the Coffee
7. Django Unchained (2012)
If there is a sub-genre that Tarantino just gets, I mean really gets, it’s the revenge movie. And Django Unchained, the story of a slave freed by a bounty hunter with whom he teams up to free his wife from a plantation owner is peak revenge movie. The movie is also probably one of Tarantino’s most gruesome, but it sure is a helluva lot of fun to watch. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz are both excellent as the co-leads and their on-screen chemistry is undeniable, but Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie might be, not just the best Tarantino villain ever, but could be in the conversation for Top 10 movie bad guys of all time. How’s THAT for a take?
Signature Scene: Dinner with Calvin Candie
6. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Reservoir Dogs is a classic. To think that it is Quentin’s feature film debut as a director is just astonishing and is a testament to his prowess not just behind the camera, but also behind the typewriter. A heist movie that shows nearly everything but the heist itself is a preposterous idea, and yet one that ended up putting Quentin on the map. The characters of Mr. Pink, Mr. Blonde, Mr. White and Mr. Orange all in a room together trying to figure out who sold them out to the cops and botched the robbery is just the setup. While Reservoir Dogs isn’t a perfect film, it showed us what Tarantino was capable of from the very beginning and set the stage for even better films to come.
Signature Scene: Mr. Orange’s Bathroom Story
5. Death Proof (2007)
There are those that think Death Proof is Quentin Tarantino’s worst movie, and I just can’t understand that. The movie is a little odd in that it was released as the second part of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s double feature, Grindhouse, alongside Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. While Death Proof feels at times like two movies in one, it boasts an excellent villain in Kurt Russell’s Stuntman Mike, heroines that you really, REALLY can get behind, and arguably one of the BEST car chase scenes ever. It also took Zoe Bell from Uma Thurman’s stunt double and put her front and center (on the hood of a speeding car). It’s gritty and gory and also something of a love letter to the old Hollywood stunt cinema that Quentin grew up on. While Tarantino tries to shoehorn in some of his signature stuff (the roundtable conversation is just a little too long for this size of a movie), if you haven’t seen Death Proof, it’s absolutely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it and the final shot is just *chef’s kiss*.
Signature Scene: Stuntman Mike vs The Final Girls
4. Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2 (2003 & 2004)
I think for a lot of people when they think of Quentin Tarantino one of the first movies that comes to mind is the absolutely delicious, over-the-top and downright bloody Kill Bill movies. Considered two parts of the same film, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 is the story of The Bride, who, after being murdered by her former assassin squad, seeks revenge by knocking them off one by one until she reaches their leader, Bill. Kill Bill has probably one of the most iconic scenes of Quentin’s entire filmography in his bloodbath fight between The Bride and The Crazy 88. The dialogue is superb throughout both films and features David Carradine delivering the best analysis of Superman you will ever hear.
Signature Scene: The Bride vs. The Crazy 88 in the House of Blue Leaves
3. Jackie Brown (1997)
Real ones know that Jackie Brown is top-tier Tarantino. It has just about everything you could ask for in a Tarantino movie: excellent characters, snappy dialogue, a bloody death here and there and clever plotting. Jackie Brown follows a flight attendant, a gun runner, an ex-con, a bail bondsman, a freeloading beach bunny and the Feds all in the hunt for half a million dollars in cash. Jackie Brown had the misfortune of being Quentin’s follow-up to Pulp Fiction, but it contains some of his best work and still, somehow, seems to get buried under his other films. Don’t sleep on Jackie Brown.
Signature Scene: Jackie Meets with Ordell
2. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
How glorious is Inglourious Basterds? In probably his most satisfying film, Tarantino sets Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt) and his gang of Jewish-American “Basterds” loose to hunt down Nazis and collect their scalps. Basterds might have the look of a wartime actioner, but it’s actually a steadily paced suspense film, with much of the plot developing through tense conversations between knowing and unknowing enemies. Basterds doesn’t have the memorable cast of characters that some of his other movies boast, but Tarantino did give us one of his best ever in Christoph Waltz’s unmatched Hans Landa, The Jew Hunter. It’s whip-crack smart, an entertaining film from start to finish and, again, soooooo satisfying.
Signature Scene: Hans Landa’s Dairy Farm Interrogation
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
What can be said about Pulp Fiction that hasn’t already been said about one of the greatest movies of all time? Few modern films are held to the same esteem as Pulp Fiction. It’s crazy to think about what Quentin did here. He created a non-linear story, unlike anything anyone had ever really seen at the time, where he killed John Travolta halfway through the movie, only to bring him back again 20 minutes later. Spawning plenty of imitators that just can’t quite compare, Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino in peak form. The dialogue is untouchable, the comedy is pinpoint, and the characters are phenomenal. The first time that I ever saw Pulp Fiction, I didn’t really get it, but I somehow restarted it on accident and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up watching the whole movie over again. It is insanely rewatchable and a movie that has become a pop-culture staple. I don’t know what a world without Pulp Fiction would be like, but I don’t want to know.
Signature Scene: Jules and Vincent Get the Briefcase
