Tarantino on Blu-ray

I like Quentin Tarantino's movies. Pretty much all of them, in fact, although I thought Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds were poorly-structured, narratively. Still... from Reservoir Dogs through the Kill Bill films, I've found Tarantino's movies to be a lot of fun. When I got into laserdisc in the 90s, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction were among the first platters I bought. Yes, I know it's not considered cool to like QT nowadays, and yes, I know that his movies tend to be patchwork cinematic creations comprised of thinly-disguised homages and/or outright swipes from dozens of other films - but I actually like that. Part of the pleasure I derive from something like Kill Bill or Basterds is recognizing QT's influences and inspirations from my own obsessive movie-watching.

In the last year, as I've been compiling my Blu-ray collection, I've been rather surprised that probably his best-known film (after Dogs), Pulp Fiction, was not available on the format. Neither was Jackie Brown, which I think is a fine Elmore Leonard adaptation and probably Tarantino's most under-appreciated film. Apparently, it all has to do with the breakup of the Miramax label at Disney, and the redistribution of the various Miramax titles to different companies. (Including the unfortunate acquisition of many of the Miramax/Dimension Films sub-label's genre films by the crap merchants Echo Bridge Entertainment.)

Well, anyway, it's finally been announced that Lionsgate will be releasing Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown on Blu-ray on October 2nd, with transfers supervised by QT himself. Obviously, I'm eager to add these flicks to my HD library.