<<From: Tony Williams English SIUC On Quentin Tarantino. Don't you think this character is highly overrated on the basis of journalistic and self-generating hype put out at present?>> I'm not sure what that sentence means. Is there too much hype and ink spilled about him for most people? Probably. Is he overrated? Definitely not. <<His achievements are highly limited and dubious, a postmodernist auteur being a referent without any definable substance.>> Huh? Could you dumb it down a little for all us de-sensitized MTV babies? <<RESERVOIR DOGS is a blatant rip-off of Ringo Lam's exceptional Hong Kong movie, CITY ON FIRE>> So you've seen it? Lucky you. All I have is Film Threat's comparison of the two and smidge here and there. The article made it very clear that there was a great deal in City on Fire which was not in Reservoir Dogs and vice versa. Would you call The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars and My Fair Lady all "rip-offs" and therefore worthless? It was still his script, his casting, his camera-work and yes, his direction of the improvisation. Are you going to tell me the "colorful anecdote" was in City on Fire? That was probably the best sequence of the film. <<make viewers ignore the highly shoddy directing>> What are you basing this on? The camerawork and editing were at times invisible, sometimes (intentionally) jarring, and sometimes beautifully orchestrated. Now I know Sight and Sound has thrown his name around a lot but partially it's because of newsworthiness. The trouble with the Dog's British release and particularly it's being at the center of the revisited video furor in Britain makes it and him worth the ink. << a phony superstar without any major work>> Oh please, what decade are you living in? "Superstar" is meaningless and applied to more people than gold stars in kindergarten, get past it. It's not like he's Terrence Trent D'Arby or something. What does "major work" mean to you? Are you mad because he hasn't struggled enough before having such notoriety? Of course I loved Reservoir Dogs. I thought the story from True Romance was excellent. The dialog was probably mostly his and it was very well done. It would've been a better movie if he had directed it. As for NBK, it's not Quentin. It's definitely not his screenplay and it's hardly even his story. NBK is Oliver Stone's picture and it can in no way be a part of any evaluation of Tarantino except to say that he sure does like his violence. Maybe Pulp Fiction will be the movie to shut the naysayers up. I doubt it. If people can still think Spielberg is complete crap (and some do) then Quentin lovers have no hope of swaying those that disagree with them. I have heard good things about it and I am anxiously awaiting it (which seems like a strange thing to say about a movie with John Travolta and Bruce Willis in it.)