Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 17, 2012

Note: This box set contains previously issued standalone releases coupled with two new discs of bonus content. See below for links to our already existing reviews of the films. The bulk of this review will deal with the exclusive supplementary content.

Can it really have been twenty years since Quentin Tarantino first burst upon the mainstream film consciousness with Reservoir Dogs? Tarantino’s oeuvre remains one of the most fascinating (perhaps the most fascinating) of any auteur of his generation, and he certainly seems poised to join the ranks of the most distinctive writer-directors of all time, if he hasn’t already. This nicely packaged new box set collects eight of Tarantino’s films (mostly but not exclusively directed by him) along with a couple of discs of new and semi-new content. Those who haven’t been rabid completists of the standalone releases may well want to check this new collection out, as it offers a relatively inexpensive way to attain an instant collection of some of the most memorable films of –well, the past two decades.

This new box sets provides eight previously released titles along with two discs of bonus features (see below). I personally did not have all of the films in this set in my personal collection, but I can confirm that the ones I do have are identical to the releases in this set, although it should be noted that some bonus content, like the digital copy of Inglourious Basterds that was included in that film's two disc release, is not included here. For Blu-ray.com's reviews of these individual films, go to the following links:

Reservoir Dogs Blu-ray review

Pulp Fiction Blu-ray review

Jackie Brown Blu-ray review

Kill Bill: Volume 1 Blu-ray review

Kill Bill: Volume 2 Blu-ray review

Death Proof Blu-ray review

Inglourious Basterds Blu-ray review

True Romance Blu-ray review

Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For assessments of the video quality of the individual films, along with screenshots from each of the films, please go to the review links provided above.

The bonus content is all encoded via AVC with either 1080p or 1080i transfers (see specs in the Supplements section for details), mostly in 1.78:1 (some archival footage is in 1.33:1, while the Django Unchained Trailers are in 2.35:1. Video quality here is about what you would expect. Those of you who have seen the Critics' Roundtable supplements on standalone releases like Jackie Brown will know exactly what the unedited version on the first bonus disc looks like. Colors are very nicely saturated and clarity is decent, as is fine object detail. The documentary on the second bonus disc has some variable quality due to its use of archival footage, but the contemporary interview segments look just fine. The Jackie Brown Q&A is pretty soft looking by comparison, while the Django Unchained trailers look very sharp and well detailed.

Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For assessments of the audio quality on the individual films, please see the review links above for further information.

All of the supplementary material features only lossy Dolby tracks (most 2.0, with the trailers in 5.1), which are fine for low scale talking head outings like the bulk of these are. Fidelity is fine and dynamic range is minimal, except in the trailers, which have some decent range.

Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

For the supplementary material contained on the individual films, please see the review links above for further information. This box set does include two bonus discs of exclusive content, including:

Bonus Disc One

• Critics' Corner: The Films of Quentin Tarantino (HD; 4:50:44). It's a little odd that Lionsgate included these as a bonus, since large swaths of at least some of these discussions have been included as supplementary features on standalone prior releases (and in fact are contained here on the individual film discs included in this set). These discussions offer critical analyses of all the films in this set. Elvis Mitchell moderates, with other participants including Scott Foundus, Stephanie Zacharek, Tim Lucas and Andy Klein. They start with Reservoir Dogs, talking about whan an unexpected experience it was at the time, including its use of non sequiturs and pop culture refernce. Some of the film's more gruesome elements are also mentioned. Pulp Fiction is lauded as a master filmmaker, even if Zacharek still doesn't like it very much. She feels its success is due to marketing and that the film is too self-conscious for its own good. Jackie Brown turns out to be one of the favorites of the bunch, including Mithcell. Lucas was especially impressed by the film's use of older actors who really hadn't been given many opportunities to really shine in their later careers, like Pam Grier and Robert Forster. Kill Bill turns out to be Andy Klein's favorite Tarantino movie, and he talks about how it's cobbled together from elements from a hugely disparate assortment of other films but which never seems blandly derivative. Klein continues to talk about the strong female at the center of Death Proof. Zacharek is kind of funny talking about not being able to assess whether Tarantino's violence turns off women since she loves violent films so much. Lucas avers that Inglourious Basterds is a film about language, mentioning how ironic it is therefore that the title is misspelled. Foundas discusses the film's odd "once upon a time" set up, contrasting it with the typical World War II "based upon a true story" approach. True Romance is covered as Tarantino's first produced screenplay. Lucas mentions the film's emphasis on comic books. While this is an okay assemblage of these round tables, it's also full of useless blather like "yeah, that was a really great moment" or "what a fantastic character!" There is some salient analysis here, but it tends to be on the chatty, pop culture side of things, which is perhaps a propos considering it's Tarantino, after all.

Bonus Disc Two

• Quentin Tarantino: 20 Years of Filmmaking (HD; 2:13:21) is a fantastic career retrospective that starts with Tarantino's early screenwriting attempts (there's a funny anecdote told by Lawrence Bender where he met Quentin and didn't believe that he had written True Romance, which Lawrence had read and loved). The early if controversial success of Reservoir Dogs gave Quentin something approaching carte blanche, though Robert Rodriguez imparts that Tarantino was actually kind of insecure about how Pulp Fiction would be received. Stacey Sher compares Tarantino to Roger Corman, at least in his desire to keep things on a tight budget. If Reservoir Dogs raised awareness of Tarantino (if also simultaneously raising a few hackles), Pulp Fiction completely opened the floodgates, and there is some really good content about the whole "wave" of independent film that seemed to follow in the wake of Tarantino's success. Pam Grier and Robert Forster on hand in very vocal appreciation for the opportunity Tarantino provided both of them when their careers weren't exactly totally on fire. What probably won't surprise some who love the director's eclectic approach in his films is the overwhelming knowledge Tarantino possesses about world cinema. Several talking heads here discuss Tarantino's seemingly inexhaustible love of all sorts of films, from chop socky to Golden Age Hollywood classics. One person jokes that Tarantino bought a screening room with a house attached. There's also a fantastic tribute to Sally Menke, Tarantino's longtime editor. Tarantino tells a great anecdote at an award ceremony about Menke's work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.


• Jackie Brown Q&A: A Film Independent at LACMA Event (1080i; 32:15). Elvis Mitchell hosts Pam Grier, Robert Forster and Quentin Tarantino himself. There's nothing really earth shattering shared here, but there's a very obvious and visceral camaraderie between these three that just as obviously translated into the film experience. Tarantino is very charming and quite funny, if also a bit manic, throughout this.


• Django Unchained—Coming Soon (HD; 10:43) is a collection of trailers for Tarantino's next project, including:

  International Teaser Trailer

  
  

  North American Teaser Trailer

  
  

  International Trailer

  
  

  North American Trailer

  
  

  Red Band Trailer

Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are quite a few people who can't stand Tarantino for one reason or another: he's too self-conscious, he's too arch, he's too derivative, he's too original, he's just too. And in a certain way, all of those epithets are true, but they don't really address the central issue that Tarantino is one of the protean creative forces in film, one with a completely unique and distinctive voice. In a world of cookie cutter entertainments and prefab moviemaking, I'll take Tarantino's particular brand of genius happily, despite its excesses. This set has a number of superb films along with some excellent bonus content. Highly recommended.