Several years ago a group of friends and I watched a handful of Quentin Tarantino movies as part of our film club. Being the quasi-cinephile of the group I was in charge of the selection process and the four picks we watched were Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and the Kill Bill double feature. The entire group had already seen Inglourious Basterds and The Hateful Eight had not yet been released.
At the time, my ranking of Tarantino's films from worst to best looked like this:
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Death Proof
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Django Unchained
Reservoir Dogs
Inglourious Basterds
Pulp Fiction
Last weekend my friend Danny and I were discussing Jackie Brown. He had recently watched Tarantino's third feature and liked it a lot. We talked about how I had left it off the film club's viewing lineup because of my disinterest in it. This conversation made me question what my most recent ranking would be of Tarantino's movies. With the release of The Hateful Eight, which I've seen twice, and a more recent viewing of Jackie Brown within the past year, I was able to reassess his nine films and make an updated list.
In addition to Danny having watched Jackie Brown igniting the fire to update my Tarantino directorial list, it was also prompted by the recent news that Tarantino has an idea for a new Star Trek movie. This will be the fourth film in the rebooted universe, labeled by many the J.J. Abrams-verse. Mark L. Smith, who penned The Revenant, has been brought on as the screenwriter. Paramount Pictures gave the green light for the project late last year and should everything work out we might have a new Tarantino film to include in his filmography that is part of an already-existing major studio franchise.
In regard to the current list, I've overlooked Four Rooms since Tarantino directed only one segment of the four. The most recent ranking, from worst to best, would be the following:
Death Proof
Jackie Brown
The Hateful Eight
Django Unchained
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Inglourious Basterds
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
There is certainly some change there from my initial arrangement. The Kill Bill movies got better with age and The Hateful Eight came in at a very low position. A minor alteration was Reservoir Dogs moving up one spot to become my second favorite.
A Tarantino-directed Star Trek film would be extremely weird so I have no idea how it would stack up against his other films. Yet, he hasn't really been a director that "stays in his lane" when it comes to genre.