When Quentin Tarantino made his wildly acclaimed directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs, his distinctive homage-driven filmmaking style was noted for blending references to Jean-Pierre Melville, Sergio Leone, and Elmore Leonard into something entirely new and unique.
Ironically, Tarantino’s pulpy dialogue and stylized aesthetic have since inspired a slew of their own homages. For the most part, “Tarantino-esque” movies only serve to demonstrate how creative Tarantino himself is because the homages have all the style and none of the substance. But a select few, like Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, stand out.
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Martin McDonagh followed up his debut feature, existential crime caper In Bruges, with a movie that can only be described as “Adaptation meets Reservoir Dogs.” There’s an inherent Kaufman-esque self-awareness in Colin Farrell’s protagonist being a screenwriter named Marty, struggling to come up with a new script after his first major success, but McDonagh executes his meta screenwriting fable with gun-toting Tarantino-style action.
With nonlinear storytelling, flowery monologues, and long dialogue scenes punctuated by stylized violence, Seven Psychopaths is a quintessential Tarantino homage – and it also happens to be a meditation on screenwriting theory.
Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead (1995)
One of the most notable Tarantino homages that came about in the ‘90s was Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead. As an ex-gangster named Jimmy the Saint tries to go straight, this movie wears its influences on its sleeve.
With an ensemble cast including Andy García, Steve Buscemi, and Christopher Walken, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead was dismissed by critics as a Pulp Fiction knockoff – but it has some great moments.
Go (1999)
After the release of Pulp Fiction, a bunch of movies emulated its style of cross-cutting between a large ensemble of intertwining characters. But few Pulp Fiction rip-offs have pulled off this gimmick as effectively as Doug Liman’s Go.
Revolving around grocery store clerks caught up in a drug deal, Go is a well-crafted crime caper. Liman’s energetic direction brings John August’s surprisingly original script to life.
2 Days In The Valley (1996)
The lives of two assassins, two cops, and a handful of other characters converge when the hitmen are hired to kill an Olympic athlete’s husband in Hollywood in 2 Days in the Valley.
The movie has been described as “Reservoir Dogs meets Short Cuts,” because it transplants the pulp archetypes of Tarantino’s debut feature in the hyperlink anthology structure of Robert Altman’s masterpiece.
The Way Of The Gun (2000)
Long before directing Tom Cruise’s death-defying antics in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Christopher McQuarrie made his directorial debut with The Way of the Gun. Ryan Phillippe and Benicio del Toro star as Parker and Longbaugh, a pair of gunslingers ripped straight from a western and planted in a modern-day border town.
McQuarrie’s disparate range of influences – from westerns to John Woo “gun-fu” action thrillers – puts this movie right in the Tarantino homage stable, while Phillippe and del Toro’s banter in the dialogue scenes is comparable to Jules and Vincent’s bickering in Pulp Fiction.
Palookaville (1995)
Before directing episodes of such critically acclaimed TV series as The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, Alan Taylor refined his own filmmaking voice with his 1995 debut feature Palookaville.
The movie’s blend of crime and comedy, telling the story of three wannabe criminals planning a heist, drew comparisons to Tarantino. It’s also been compared to Wes Anderson’s debut feature Bottle Rocket, although it actually predated Bottle Rocket by a year.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
The pinnacle of Tarantino homages that strip away the dramatic substance and dial up the hyper-stylized violence is writer-director Troy Duffy’s action-packed gem The Boondock Saints.
Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus star as a pair of gun-toting twins who kill two members of the Russian Mafia in self-defense. After experiencing an epiphany, they become vigilantes with the goal of wiping out all the crime in Boston.
Dog Eat Dog (2016)
With intense, character-driven scripts like Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, and Light Sleeper, Paul Schrader has defined a storytelling style of his own. But in 2016’s Dog Eat Dog, he evokes the stylized aesthetic of Tarantino’s movies.
Starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe as a pair of ex-convicts hired to kidnap a baby, Dog Eat Dog has a fun blend of brutal violence and dark humor.
Dobermann (1997)
With ultraviolent action, fast-paced editing, and archetypal characters, Jan Kounen’s French crime thriller Dobermann is one of the most stylish Tarantino imitations out there.
Vincent Cassel stars as the titular gunslinger, who received his first gun when he was christened, while Monica Bellucci co-stars as his girlfriend. The plot concerns a ruthless, amoral police commissioner coming after their gang.
Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Guy Ritchie burst onto the scene as British cinema’s answer to Quentin Tarantino. After Tarantino reinvigorated the American crime film with dark comedy and nonlinear storytelling, Ritchie brought the same modern edge to the stagnating British crime film.
Ritchie’s debut movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels inevitably drew comparisons to Tarantino with its sprawling ensemble cast, snappy dialogue, and pitch-black humor. But Ritchie brings enough of his own voice to stand out, bolstered in his follow-up movie Snatch.