With Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs behind me I couldn't resist Quentin Tarintino's Jackie Brown.

My choice was made, as the director would want, based on his formidable reputation.

When you choose like this, however, it is unavoidable that comparisons are made.

Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown both made me want to get up and leave in the first 10 minutes.

I did hang in there only to find that by the end of the screening I loved the former but unfortunately never warmed to the latter.

Having said all that, the story does twist and turn unpredictably and has the potential for suspense yet never quite delivers, even though it came from the same pen that produced the pacey Get Shorty.

Ordell (Jackson) is an arms dealer who employs the street-wise Jackie Brown to carry laundered cash from Mexico into the US, until she is caught by the feds.

Ordell, who posted bail for another associate and then killed him, puts up the readies to spring Jackie (Grier) with the same obvious intent.

Her street smarts save her from a premature grave but she has to cut a deal with the feds to save her from jail.

Thus starts the elaborate sting, masterminded by Jackie, to nail Ordell.

The plot is presented to the audience on a platter yet you can never quite be sure which side is copping the short end of the stick as Jackie plays them one against the other.

De Niro plays the not-too-bright side-kick who spends more time sucking on a bong with Ordell's blond-bimbo-surfie-nymph girlfriend (Fonda) than actually doing (or saying) much.

Robert Forster took my vote as the affable bail bondsman who collects Jackie from jail and is obviously smitten by her from the first moment.

His was a gem amongst a lot of fine acting performances dulled only by the lack of pace in the storytelling.

The most memorable quote came from Jackson, describing the AK47, "if you got to kill every last motherf*!!* in the room -- accept no substitutes".

Pam Grier's past acting history is much talked about in the press, though I don't remember her in anything (too young I guess!).

But Forster has one of those familiar faces that, even now, torments me. Where have I seen him before? brian@bigirishgit.com if you can enlighten.