Quentin Tarantinomovies distinguish themselves from those directed by other filmmakers in several key ways. He’s a director known for his fairly frequent use of profanity, his penchant for featuring violent characters doing exceptionally violent things, his love of referencing older titles from cinema’s history, and his tendency to inject all his films with a certain amount of (usually quite dark) comedy.
Few Tarantino movies would be considered 100% comedic by the majority of viewers out there, and each has at least a couple of tense and/or alarmingly violent sequences. But it’s hard to deny that his movies can be pretty funny at times, with some featuring humor more frequently than others. What follows is a ranking of all 10 theatrically-released feature films directed by Quentin Tarantino so far, starting with the sporadically funny and ending with the ones that are often hilarious.
10’The Hateful Eight' (2015)
The Hateful Eightmight well represent Quentin Tarantino at his darkest and most nihilistic, with his trademark bloody violence being particularly mean-spirited here.It’s an epic-length Westernwith a surprisingly intimate scope, mostly taking place inside one confined location during a blizzard, and centering on a bunch of people stuck together, all of whom mistrust the others around them for various reasons.
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By no means does the lack of likable characters makeThe Hateful Eighta bad movie; it more just makes the tone fairly serious until bad things start happening to the bad people, at which point things get darkly humorous. It’s a cold film in more ways than one, and will likely only be funny - at certain points - to those with particularly dark senses of humor.
9’Inglourious Basterds' (2009)
An explosive World War II movie that’s arguably Quentin Tarantino’s most suspenseful movie,Inglourious Basterdsis also a little more serious than many earlier films from the director. It’s not a historically accurate movie by any means (it doesn’t have to be, of course), but it still treats the war - and the damage it caused - with a certain level of maturity in many of its sequences.
That plus the unbearably tense atmosphere for much of the second half rendersInglourious Basterdsas another Tarantino movie that’s only sometimes darkly funny. It’s got a range of emotions and a huge cast of characters, with alead villain played byChristoph Waltzwho manages to be a contributing factor to both some of the film’s tensest and funniest sequences.
8’Django Unchained' (2012)
LikeInglourious Basterds,Django Unchainedrepresents Quentin Tarantino putting his spin on another brutal and dark period in history: that of the Antebellum South. Its lead character is a former slave who wants revenge on those who enslaved him, and to rescue his still enslaved wife in the process, with him teaming up with a German bounty hunter to achieve these two objectives.
It’s a film that tends to be darkly hilarious and violent in a fun way when the violence is directed at the slaver antagonists - leading to much catharsis - while also being genuinely horrifying and not at all fun to watch when the violence is directed at characters who are slaves. It balances these tones surprisingly well, makingDjango Unchaineda relatively serious - but sometimes funny and exciting - look at this particular time in U.S. history.
7’Reservoir Dogs' (1992)
Reservoir Dogssaw Quentin Tarantino borrowing the general premise ofa Hong Kong movie calledCity on Fire, with each involving an undercover cop infiltrating a gang of jewel thieves. Tarantino shakes things up enough to make it distinct enough, however, and this is at least partly achieved by the humor injected into what’s an otherwise gritty (and gruesome) crime/thriller.
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There’s a great deal of banter inReservoir Dogsthat’s genuinely hilarious, with the pettiness of certain criminal characters (and their love of insulting each other) making things surprisingly funny. Of course, it’s also not shy about being suspenseful and quite grim at the end of the day, meaning that the humor here is certainly matched in intensity by the non-comedic stuff.
6’Jackie Brown' (1997)
After two movies that were relatively fast-paced, violent, and played around with non-linear storytelling a great deal, Quentin Tarantino dialed some of those trademarks back a little when he made 1997’sJackie Brown. It was based on a story byElmore Leonard, which may explain the changes, and centered on a flight attendant who’s forced to work for the cops after she’s busted for smuggling cash for a gunrunner.
It’s not laugh-a-minute stuff, but the relaxed tone - at least compared to many other Tarantino movies - does giveJackie Browna somewhat breezy feel. There are humorous exchanges alongside the more intense sequences, with bothSamuel L. JacksonandRobert De Nirogetting ample opportunities to flex their comedic chops in dynamite supporting roles.
5’Kill Bill: Vol. 2' (2004)
The second volume ofKill Billis a little less in-your-face than the first, and is also notable for being more focused on dialogue over big action scenes. It’s the second half of Tarantino’s revenge epic (that he himself generally counts as one film), continuing The Bride’s quest for vengeance while also featuring some compelling flashbacks, mostly around her history with the titular Bill.
It’s a more emotional film than the first volume, and naturally has less cartoonish/frequent violence, but it still manages to be fairly funny at times, in an expectedly dark way. After all, any movie that features a samurai sword fight inside a remarkably confined camper van has to have at least a decent sense of humor.
4’Kill Bill: Vol. 1' (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 1is all about providing spectacle and excitement, making it one of thevery best action movies of all time. It turns out the first stages of The Bride’s journey for revenge are considerably more bloody and overall faster-paced than the second half of said journey, with the violence here being over-the-top even by Tarantino standards.
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Those who don’t find cartoonish violence funny might not find it all as humorous, but it’s particularly ridiculous and fun here, especially during the extended action-packed climax. It pushes things far and often does so with its tongue in cheek, making it one of the most consistently amusing of the director’s films, at least for those who get a kick out of ridiculously violent action.
3’Death Proof' (2007)
ThoughDeath Proofis about a serial killer with a particularly powerful car who hunts down two different groups of young women, it’s a film that’s frequently comedic, perhaps to a surprising extent. This is mainly due to it being an explicit homage to - and affectionate parody of - classic grindhouse movies from the 1970s, appropriately being one half of the double feature that wasGrindhouse.
Robert Rodriguez’sPlanet Terrorwas the other half, and is perhaps even goofier, butDeath Proof’sintentionally rough nature still makes it feel oftentimes humorous. Viewers might have to be in on the joke to find it as funny as Tarantino likely does, but as the closest thing Tarantino’s made to a parody film, it has to count as one of his most comedic.
2’Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' (2019)
Undeniably,Once Upon a Time in Hollywoodis Quentin Tarantino’s least plot-heavy and most relaxing movie, as it’s largely concerned with being a hang-out movie set in Los Angeles during the late 1960s. It’s a slow-paced film thatintends to capture the end of an era, and an overall more relaxed lifestyle that stands in contrast to modern life.
Additionally, it does so in an idealized way, rewriting one particularly dark historical event from the era for comedic effect, and to make the film seem like the fairytale promised by the title. It has some heavy and more dramatic moments, but its relaxed tone and wholehearted embrace of the dramedy genre make it one of Tarantino’s funniest.
1’Pulp Fiction' (1994)
One of thegreatest movies from one of cinema’s greatest years,Pulp Fictionis a true classic in every conceivable way. It somehow topped the already fantastic crime film that wasReservoir Dogs, being an ambitious blend of three different crime-related stories that were all cut between and told in non-chronological order.
It’s certainly classifiable as a dark comedy through and through, with some hilariously quotable dialogue (especially from Samuel L. Jackson), a wildChristopher Walkencameo, and unexpected violence that’s sometimes (though not always) played for laughs. It blends crime and comedy to blistering effect, and due to the quantity of its memorably funny scenes, it arguably delivers the most humor of any Quentin Tarantino movie.
