Jackie Brown (1997)

This is a solid movie. Jackie (Pam Grier) earns a meager income of $16,000 working as a stewardess for a Mexican airline. She supplements her wages by smuggling cash into the U.S. for gunrunner Ordell (Samuel Jackson). However, she is busted one day at the airport when an ATF agent and a cop demand to look into her purse and find a stash of money. In order to avoid going to prison, she agrees to help them trap her boss. She decides to take advantage of the situation by playing both sides against each other.

I liked this better than Pulp Fiction. Based on calculations from the Consumer Price Index, $16,000 in 1997 is equivalent to $21,500 in 2009. The story was adapted from the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard and was the third film directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is also in homage of blaxploitation films. The main character's race was changed.