"Actors work" like performances delivered? I dunno - the guys in
RD were pretty amazing but everything down to Stoltz and Arquette and even smaller parts were a blast in
PF. Both are great there. And, yeah, I'll agree that
RD was definitely more focused - as far as having a pure and (relatively) simple heist/gangster flick it is better but one of my favorite things in
PF is the endlessly quotable lines - I think I'd deliver it in out-of-order snippets but I think I could probably write down most of
PF from memory - while
RD has great concepts and visuals it has far fewer memorable lines, I think.
Oh, and the soundtrack.
PF has one of the best soundtracks ever and, while I get the point, the
RD soundtrack is awful.
As far as the scenes, how close were they? I've heard he "stole a Mexican standoff from a Chinese film" or something which strikes me as silly - the whole thing of it being a "Mexican standoff" in a "Chinese flick" says it's common property. But, yeah, maybe the scenes are taken in detail. Thing is, Tarantino is kind of like a mashup thing - he steals from everybody but makes new stuff out of it all and, AFAIK, he'd be fine with people stealing from him - I haven't heard of him suing anybody for a scene or anything. And, most important to me, he shows me things that I wouldn't see otherwise - I'd never heard of most of the stuff he's swiped from but, by virtue of his doing so, now I have heard of them
As far as "even in Jackie Brown", I agree that that's probably the least of them - still watchable. As far as post-
Kill Bill, I actually liked aspects of
Death Proof, too - probably the next least of them and a little aside from the rest of his work to that point - but that's the last I've managed to see.