Pulp Fiction ( * * * * * )
I saw this 11 1/2 times in the theater (once I had to leave because my roommate was tripping) and I think I laughed with sinister delight each time. But nothing beats the first time, when everyone's laughing (and it's not, by the way, a comedy) and looking at their friends like, "Are we really seeing this movie?" Is it the best movie of the 1990's? If not, it's damn close. It's sure as fuck better than that piece of shit Forrest Gump.
The Acting: This is the movie that made Samuel L. Jackson a star, and John Travolta a star again. Bruce Willis solidified his indie cred, and Ving Rhames made a name for himself. But you can't help but benefit from being in a movie like Fiction.
The Story: As with most Tarantino movies, it's not what the movie is about, but how it's about it. He takes a chronologically twisted, novelistic approach to the pulp material, and makes one character the protagonist in one section, an ancillary character in another, and an antagonist in yet another, particularly Vincent Vega (Travolta). But all of the stories are about redemption, and how the characters grab their chance, or don't. There's more to be said, but entire film classes have deconstructed this movie frame-by-frame, and I'm not willing to be quite that thorough.
The Direction: Not bad for a sophomore effort. It made, like, 100 million dollars, which for a Miramax film, an indie film, was at the time unheard of. Quentin Tarantino has since shown himself to be inconsistent (Jackie Brown was, at best, average, and my mixed reviews of the two Kill Bill installments are listed somewhere below) but he is still an exciting voice and a director who only does what he passionately believes in, as opposed to, say, almost any of the rest of them out there working today.
Overall: My favorite story is "The Gold Watch" about Bruce Willis's character, and my favorite scene is the one where he decides what kind of hero he wants to be: Casey Jones, Leatherface, or Toshiro Mifune.
Tredekka Rules:
The Acting: This is the movie that made Samuel L. Jackson a star, and John Travolta a star again. Bruce Willis solidified his indie cred, and Ving Rhames made a name for himself. But you can't help but benefit from being in a movie like Fiction.
The Story: As with most Tarantino movies, it's not what the movie is about, but how it's about it. He takes a chronologically twisted, novelistic approach to the pulp material, and makes one character the protagonist in one section, an ancillary character in another, and an antagonist in yet another, particularly Vincent Vega (Travolta). But all of the stories are about redemption, and how the characters grab their chance, or don't. There's more to be said, but entire film classes have deconstructed this movie frame-by-frame, and I'm not willing to be quite that thorough.
The Direction: Not bad for a sophomore effort. It made, like, 100 million dollars, which for a Miramax film, an indie film, was at the time unheard of. Quentin Tarantino has since shown himself to be inconsistent (Jackie Brown was, at best, average, and my mixed reviews of the two Kill Bill installments are listed somewhere below) but he is still an exciting voice and a director who only does what he passionately believes in, as opposed to, say, almost any of the rest of them out there working today.
Overall: My favorite story is "The Gold Watch" about Bruce Willis's character, and my favorite scene is the one where he decides what kind of hero he wants to be: Casey Jones, Leatherface, or Toshiro Mifune.
Tredekka Rules:
- Rule 1: No Movie Can Get More Than 5 Stars, Not Even Deadfall. Or Pulp Fiction.
- Rule 3: Suck Actor Penalty--Kathy Griffin, -4 stars.
- Rule 4: Sweet Actor Bonus--Christopher Walken, +4 stars.
- Rule 5: Spitting = Good Acting, +1 star for Willis and Rhames, who suffered and drooled together.
- Rule 6: Over The Top Acting Award--I give +5 stars distributed however you'd like to the actors in the heart-stopping needle scene.
- Rule 16: The Paul Verhoeven "More Blood!" Award--goes to the scene where Marvin gets shot in the fucking face. +1 star. The glistening brain matter inside the glistening jheri curl really made it work for me.
- Rule 27: The Trunk Sees All, +1 star for Quentin Tarantino's signature scene.
- Rule 41 (NEW RULE): Stick A Needle In My Eye--Minus 1 Star To Any Movie With A Shooting Up Scene.
Tredekka Score: ( * * * * * )
posted by Tredekka at 9:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home