SOURCE: "Return of a Foxy Mama," in Rolling Stone, January 22, 1998, pp. 61-2.

In the following review, Travers offers high praise for Jackie Brown.

Sorry to disappoint those who longed to see Quentin Tarantino fall on his famously flashy ass, but the overlong, overindulgent Jackie Brown—the Q man's first feature as a writer and director since Pulp Fiction, in 1994—scores a knockout just the same. Loaded with action, laughs, smart dialogue and potent performances, Jackie Brown is most memorable for its unexpected feeling. Tarantino adapts Elmore Leonard's 1992 crime novel, Rum Punch, without losing the author's compassion for compromised characters who defy the reduced options that come with age.

What's this—the graying of Reservoir Dogs, raunch tinged with rue? A little bit. But before you get medieval on Tarantino's ass, consider the insinuating premise: Jackie Burke, the book's white stewardess, is now Jackie Brown and played by that...