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Pulp fiction

12/19/2014

33 Comments

 

3.92
A

  • The Vincent and Jules portions are easily my favorite part of the movie. - Phil
  • It was a transformative film for me, the kind of experience that opens new avenues for joy. - Jon
  • John Travolta steals the show for me here. - Bryan
Initial Review by Phil

A while back, “Pulp Fiction” came up in a Side Piece I wrote where I ID’ed our most DIVISIVE movies.  The MMC gives it 4 A+’s, yet it can’t even crack our Top 50.  I was one of those dissenters, putting the movie at a C+ based off one viewing my sophomore year of college.  After a second viewing through older and theoretically wiser eyes, did Pulp Fiction reach another level for me?  Why yes, yes it did.

I can understand why I didn’t appreciate this movie in my youth.  It does meander, but it meanders with a purpose.  Mia Wallace herself puts it best when she says “Why do we feel it’s necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?”  We see this happen time and time again – fairly meaningless conversations intended to build tension or make us forget about whatever unsavory business is at hand.  Vincent and Jules spend quite a bit of the movie talking about nothing, all in the name of building tension.  The Vincent and Jules portions are easily my favorite parts of the movie – Samuel L. Jackson as Jules has already written his MMC acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor.  Quentin Tarantino is a master at building a scene where every character knows how it ends, but rather than getting to it, he fills the time with a meandering tension that captivates the audience and holds their attention.  The scene where Jules and Vincent are retrieving the briefcase is a damn-near perfect scene.  We have the predators calmly enter, essentially toy with their prey, and then, only when they are ready, unleash hell on the poor fools who betrayed them.

Every conversation in Pulp Fiction is like this.  The scene is about everything except what is actually being said.  Vincent and Mia at Jack Rabbit’s captures this very well, as both characters are consistently caught in awkward moments of silence.  Vincent has to spend the entire time attempting to read Mia while remaining on his toes thanks to the specter of Marcellus Wallace hovering over the night.  Mia is a very difficult character to draw any conclusion about.  Is she happy with Marcellus?  Is she happy in general?  We don’t get much interaction with her outside of that evening, making it difficult to tell.

It’s mystery like this that Pulp Fiction delights in, almost to a fault.  Yes, we all know the briefcase theories and whatnot, but it’s the mystery of individuals and relationships that I was drawn to.  Vincent and Butch in particular intrigued me.  We only see them interact twice.  The first time is Vincent brow-beating Butch, and the second time is Butch wasting Vincent.  Whatever bad blood already existed, there was enough for Butch to blast him to shit without a second thought.  (Poor Vincent, nothing good happened whenever he was in the shitter.  Put that book down sir!)  Many of these mysteries were harmless, such as the briefcase, and seemed to be there just to annoy the audience and eventually provide endless fodder to theorizing.  It’s a situation where it feels like the movie is a little to in love with itself.  This sort of stuff irks me.

One other thing that irked me in my younger days was the movie timeline.  The third story (The Bonnie Situation) occurs before the first two in the timeline, yet is held to the end.  Why is that?  Truth be told, I still cannot come up with a good reason for it.  The best reason I can think of is that it allows Tarantino to flip from using foreshadowing to references we are already aware of or using a sort of reverse foreshadowing.  For instance, Vinny in the bathroom is a clear callback to Butch killing him, but in the proper order, it would have been sloppy foreshadowing.  So in a way, we wind up with a future event foreshadowing a past event.  Maybe I just explained the reasoning to myself.  I did really like starting with Pumpkin and Honeybunny and then hearing the conversation we had heard already in the background of Jules & Vincent’s conversation.  Little touches like this can always be appreciated.

And the little touches are what Tarantino does best.  I’ve never considered myself a huge Tarantino fan, but there are so many little things he does so well.  The building of tension through conversation was already touched on.  He always uses some interesting camera angles (I’m sure there’s a reason so many shots of Vincent in the Mia story were diagonal from the floor).  He also uses quite a few really good long takes here.  My personal favorite was walking with Vincent and Mia around the Jack Rabbit.  I’m always impressed with the amount of coordination it takes to pull off a scene like that with so many people.  It doesn’t exactly crack my top 3 long takes (Atonement, True Detective, Y Tu Mama Tambien are probably my current top 3), but it’s very impressive nonetheless.

Also impressive was damn near every performance.  I’ve already talked about Samuel L. Jackson as the highlight for me.  Everyone delivers though.  The others that stood out in particular are Uma Thurman and, of all people, Eric Stolz, both of which were fantastic.  Even Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel, who were basically only in one scene each, were memorable and made the movie better.

Consider me a convert to the cult of Pulp Fiction.  There’s so much going on here that 2.5 hours might not be enough.  I wouldn’t mind seeing this get the mini-series treatment someday, but that seems unlikely at this point.  I’m very happy I picked this movie now, because it was one I needed to see with a new perspective.

+ Masterful building of tension through distraction

+ Really not a bad scene in the movie

+ Tarantino at the top of his game

+ Every performance is great

- Maybe a little too in love with itself

Grade: A

33 Comments
Jon
12/21/2014 06:12:25 pm

This review is going to be positive, to the surprise of no one. I've long professed my love for this movie and QT in general to members of this group. I want to stress how genuine this adoration is. Set aside the Palme d'Or, the universal acclaim, the place at or near the top of all the critics' lists, both of 1994 and the 90's and the last 25 years, it's place on the Sight and Sound Best Film list of lists, the lack of a negative reevaluation so many other supposedly-great films experience, all the imitators it spawned, and the industry it revived. Pulp Fiction is deeply personal to me. To the best of my recollection, it was the first movie I ever fell head-over-heels in love with when I first saw it in the fall of 2002. I memorized long stretches of it, typing them out on my graphing calculator when I should've been paying attention in Calculus (I got a D). This is my Star Wars, the kind of movie a kid buys all the merchandise from. My 19-year-old self kept it together, but my inner 6-year-old wanted Jules and Vincent Underoos, five dollar milkshakes for dinner, and footie pajamas with watches all over them. The rest of the Hughes crew and I watched Pulp Fiction repeatedly for the bulk of my freshman year. It was a transformative film for me, the kind of experience that opens new avenues for joy. I don't think I knew til that point that movies could be this great.

Luckily for the tastes of 19-year-old me, Pulp Fiction still holds up and then some. I love the monologues, which have only gotten richer. I love that a movie I've seen dozens of times still makes me laugh, and at new places. The soundtrack is one of the best ever assembled, the king of QT movie soundtracks twenty years later. I love the performances, the directing, the dialogue, the plot structure, everything. I even think QT does passable acting here, though that part was surely written for a black man, and in the movie's only negative, all the N-words Jimmy uses are hard to listen to. This may have been surpassed by Kill Bill, but Pulp Fiction is still in my all-time top ten, and justifiably so.

I want to directly mention some of the things I love the most. First, Captain Koons's speech, delivered so well by Christopher Walken. The arc of that monologue is fantastic, and could've single-handedly won QT all the accolades he received for the entire film. There's a complete journey from relief to despair to dark comedy. The storytelling technique involved has to be called out. Koons would've heard of the first two generations from Butch's father, so the WWI story is short and to-the-point, probably because it has a happy ending. The WWII story is inflated with rousing emotion and sacrifice because Butch's mother would've heard about it from Winocki, who then would've used it to convey greatness to a son who would never know his father. The Vietnam section has none of the gravitas of the WWII section because Koons was there. He saw what it was like in that prison camp, shared beatings, mended wounds, watched as Butch's father slowly shit himself to death. There's no room for anything else but the truth. That whole scene is layered so many times over with the transmission of memory and history, I could make the rest of the review about it and still need two-three comments to fit it all in.

Another thing worth shining light on is the sense of how much this world is continuing outside of the confines of the movie. Pumpkin and Honeybunny are immediately introduced as thieves with a long history together. There's the saga of Tony Rocky Horror, Mia's failed acting career and her hooking up with a crime boss, Butch's boxing career, his romance with the adorable Fabian, the torture movie in Maynard's basement, the Wolf's reputation and how he earned it, Jules's relationship with Jimmy, and so on. The way Vincent pulls his gun out when Jules starts in on the Ezekiel verse says so much about how many of jobs like this one they've pulled off together. This is just one of many movies that could've been made about these characters at this moment in their lives, praise I also lavished on Y Tu Mama Tambien. All movies are essentially that, but so often, there isn't enough world-building to make the audience care about those unshown exploits. Pulp Fiction is most definitely not one of those.

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Jon
12/21/2014 06:13:33 pm

The last thing I want to single out is how much of this movie's dialogue I've appropriated into my own way of speaking and internal monologue. I can't hear the name Butch without saying it like Esmerelda Villalobos. Boootch. I see a women with a bunch of piercings, she becomes the one with all that shit in her face. I call things 'bold statements' all the time, just as I say mimic Jules's admonition to 'Be cool' or don't even have an opinion. When I find myself in a silent moment with another person, I wonder if I'm comfortable enough to just share a silence. QT surely wasn't the first writer to put some of these lines in a film, but I credit it with a lot of my mannerisms, whether I intentionally know it or not.

So, what is all this about? Is it simply a bunch of characters having inane conversations? A glorification of violence, as Bob Dole called it? Is Pulp Fiction just cool and nothing else? Is it a perfectly calibrated plot without anything to say? I certainly don't think so. I think the central theme is simply, choice. There is a god in this movie, one that is constantly giving characters an out. One of my favorite lines in Deadwood, amidst a sea of great lines, is Calamity Jane relaying a dream she had in which she is asked, "Don't you know at some point we know these things? Don't you know the world says its fucking name to us?" Jules hears the world's name and changes accordingly. Continue on this path and die a violent death. He witnesses what could be a miracle and chooses to leave his line of work. He uses this newfound wisdom to indulge in a 'moment of clarity' and spare Pumpkin and Honeybunny's life. He is rewarded by not being with Vincent on the stakeout of Butch's apartment. The bullets missing Jules and Vincent is one of the chronological firsts. Everything that follows is informed by that event.

Other characters choose poorly and are punished, Vincent especially. After denying the value of avoiding death, he immediately causes a freak accident when he shoots Marvin in the face, whose last words are, "I don't even have an opinion." Sides must be chosen in the face of a miracle. Passivity gets one's head blown off. He almost gets the boss's wife killed due to his lust, but still doesn't change himself. He chooses to continue as if, and dies because of it. Jules gets to wander the earth like Caine in Kung Fu, but Vincent gets cut in half by machine gun fire.

Butch gets to make choices, too, though he listens to what the world is telling him. By hearing the ghosts of his ancestors and acknowledging his need to fight in his own war, he roots out a predatory evil and wipes his slate clean. However, all this could have been avoided if he correctly interpreted what the world was telling him. In his apartment, Butch has the extreme good fortune to walk into his apartment and grab his watch with no one being the wiser. However, he mistakes that good fortune for ability and stay to make a pop tart, which tips him off to Vincent's presence, which keeps him in his apartment long enough to put him at the intersection, where Marcellus sees him and tip off the whole sex dungeon misadventure. Butch's pride and narcissism put that ball gag in his mouth, but his escape and subsequent freeing of Marcellus are enough of a battle to earn his birthright and a life free from fear.

To recap, for myself, Pulp Fiction is a deeply personal, layered, brilliant, moral universe that probably has a few too many N-words in it. That last bit isn't enough to take the + off this A+. Everything is phenomenal, with iconic scene after iconic scene. I could talk endlessly about each of them, but we'll cut it off for now. My name's Pit and I love Pulp Fiction. Now, to pour myself a bowl of Fruit Brute and smoke a Red Apple while I flip through my little black medical book.

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Drew
12/23/2014 09:11:27 am

I have seen this film many times and every time it ends, I think the same thing - "Sure it's good but why do people love it like their first born?" Unlike Phil, that did not change.

I have a few chief complaints about Pulp Fiction that need to be brought to the eyes of the blind. This is a crazy uneven film. Its sporadic timeline is something unique about the film but its disproportion goes beyond that. In its storytelling, Tarantino is too inward and self – centered and too broad when it engages the audience. If a storyteller attempts to do that, it needs to be done on a fine line and Tarantino, in his green way, fails to achieve it.
Jon mentioned it in his review about the dialogue. It bothered me. These characters talk about the most mundane things – e.g. foot massages, theology, philosophy – and why? To show some sort of “other side” of the characters? That they are not just beauty and brawn? Let us face it. Vincent and Jules are romanticized hitmen who like to act that they can do something else if they truly desired it. Please.

Another big problem I have is Tarantino. Yeah, he can make an action film but that is it. He has great teleplay skills and that is one (of two) of his strong suits. While the dialogue is routine and the acting is good, he is predictable. Tarantino is not the greatest director of all time because of his repetitiveness. What is in nearly every film he directs? Violence – heavy violence. Gratuitous violence and shock value are the lifeblood of Tarantino – not to mention plagiarism. That is ever so evident in Pulp Fiction.
One of the last problems about the film is the craptastic films it influenced. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and The Big Hit just to name a few are Fiction’s inspirational duds. If this film is so iconic, then why so many terrible spin offs? Probably one that is a spin off but made the critics mad while inspiring a huge cult following is Boondock Saints. To me, you cannot like one and hate the other. Boggles my mind if someone is like that.

I almost vetoed this film because I did not want to read Jon’s five page fellatio to Tarantino and the film. He loves it, I get it but there needs to be objectivity. I am glad I am here for to provide that in this instance. Pulp Fiction is good movie and I like it. I will watch it when it comes on and enjoy it but it is not worthy of “A+” - even “A” – praise. It is not better than Forrest Gump or The Shawshank Redemption.

Grade: B+

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Shane
12/24/2014 02:55:41 pm

How is the failure of those attempting to emulate this film a failure on this film's part? That makes no sense. That's like saying me trying to emulate Pedro Martinez on the mound somehow diminishes Pedro. It doesn't. Pedro remains a bad man.

And sure, the violence is foreseeable, but that's not the storyline. I don't want to give away other QT plots, but there have certainly been some results I wasn't expecting.

Are you saying that a hit man is incapable of giving a foot massage? We get two hitmen. One is looking inward and saying fuck this life. The other is just buzzing along with his head in the clouds. There is a difference between Vega and Jules. Do you not agree?

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Bryan
12/26/2014 05:56:23 am

"Gratuitous violence and shock value are the lifeblood of Tarantino – not to mention plagiarism. That is ever so evident in Pulp Fiction."

1) Can someone point to a QT film worth watching that doesn't involve violence and vulgarity?
2) Plagiarism is a mighty sword to swing. Can you be more specific?

"Sure it's good but why do people love it like their first born?"

I love this line. I'm in that same boat. Maybe if you're super into philosophy, deeper meanings, and dissecting every line then this movie is for you. I think that describes Phil, Jon, and Shane perfectly given their previous reviews and word counts - my goodness, so many words.

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Jon
12/26/2014 06:01:45 am

Jackie Brown is not that violent, and is the only QT movie that isn't an original script. He still wrote it, but it's based on an Elmore Leonard novel.

Shane
12/26/2014 06:05:05 am

QT movies are open about their borrowing from previous works. Everyone in Hollywood does it, which is neither a good nor bad thing. It is just how media is created. What sets people apart is how they use it.

This is hardly plagiarism and that is indeed a serious word to throw around.

Jon
12/26/2014 09:00:11 am

The disliking of the banter is a fine, subjective complaint and one I don't really have a problem with. I disagree, but I get it. The violence and the 'plagiarism,' though, I want to challenge.

I do not think the violence in Pulp Fiction is gratuitous at all. It has consequences, it informs the characters, and there isn't that much of it. Only eight people die in the whole movie. The most violent death, Zed's, takes place off-camera. Three of those deaths, the ones in the apartment, are bloodless, and come at the end of a long build-up, something Tarantino does well in all of his movies. Bubba's death in Forrest Gump is just as gory as anything here. The difference is that violence here is shocking and causes pain, which makes it more real, which makes it more uncomfortable. If anything, Tarantino is clear-eyed about what violence really is instead of indulging in it, which he very much does in Kill Bill.

Speaking of Kill Bill, the whole plagiarism thing that Tarantino gets accused of is one way to put it. The other way would be homage. When he puts the Bride in a yellow jumpsuit, he's paying tribute to Bruce Lee. When he has Elle Driver whistle that tune, he's honoring a 70's horror film. In his own words, Tarantino didn't go to film school, he went to films. He's formally untrained, but he's watched everything and he has a great memory. Some of the things he loves most find their way into his movies. I don't think he's doing that as much in Pulp Fiction, but I wouldn't really care if he was.

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Drew
12/26/2014 12:54:42 pm

Got a few questions that I should address.

1) Shane, Pulp Fiction is considered by many to be one of the most, if not the most, iconic films of the 1990s. I don't know why but it is. Why is someone or something considered iconic? A chief reason is influence. What it caused was an explosion of violent movies that failed to pan out. Your analogy of Pedro, however, is simplistic because you looked for an easy reason to refute my claim. You can better than that.

2).The plagiarism of Tarantino. If a student openly told you that he/she used other sources but never cited them in the piece, is that not an act of plagiarism? It is to me.

Also, outside of Grindhouse (except for its concept) I don't think Tarantino had an original thought. He stole the theme of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for another film. As for Django Unchained, who never thought of a slave getting revenge? Killing Nazis? Ugh...I could drone on but I'll spare you.

3) Why have Jules kill the kid in the room? He didn't pay up? Why not beat him up? The car scene with Marv is another example. He gets shot in the head because Vince is a moron and Tarantino thought an accidental shooting would be shocking. Why have the cornhole scene? Shock value. Why the adrenaline shot scene? Shock value.

Jon, the death of Bubba is not nearly as gruesome as any of the deaths in Pulp Fiction. We don't see Bubba get hit with anything but see the effects of it, unlike Marv and Vince.

4) Again, I like Pulp Fiction but it seems like for every reason you all love it, I do not.

Sean
12/28/2014 06:29:23 pm

QT is open about his influences and when he sees something that he just has to put into a movie. Homage is the right word

Sean
12/28/2014 06:28:05 pm

You're criticizing QT because he makes action films? Do you say the same about Nicholas Sparks or Tyler Perry? What directors make a wide array of films of all kinds of genres? Dialogue is routine? If anything he's dialogue heavy, and it's not to show the "other side" of characters you question, it's to show the line of work they are in is simply that, their profession. Just like I ignore the guy in my office who always wants to talk about his fantasy team instead of financial aid, sometimes two coworkers may gossip about a foot massage instead of spending their whole day discussing the finer points of Ezekial 25:17.

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Shane
12/24/2014 02:51:08 pm

In the sake of avoiding the repetitive, inane commenting that plagued so many Fiji meetings, I’ll just say simply that I agree with Jon. Every word. But I’ll add some thoughts.

Watching this movie and thinking about it critically made me notice something about it. This movie is basically an essay. It’s it’s 5 paragraph essay form. Snazzy introduction that sets us up. Goes to a really strong paragraph. Then goes with the weaker paragraph. Finishes strong and then brings us to our conclusion. This isn’t to say that the middle parts are bad, rather, they just aren’t as interesting.

QT basically says fuck the way movies are traditionally filmed and gives us this story in the best way possible, chronology be damned. The characters are all better served by presenting the movie in a manner that isn’t linear. It’s not just a cheap trick, rather its the best way to build characters. (Really, the only character we don’t really get to know much of is perhaps the most badass character: The Wolf)

Of course, we’ve seen this countless times since, but that’s a credit to Pulp Fiction, not a negative. Pulp Fiction opened up a door for filmmakers to experiment with how they were making movies and telling stories. Really, there’s only so may gangster stories until they start sounding the same. Instead, Pulp Fiction gives movie-makers a way to be different while tell the same story. It allows for a more even story over time while letting us get to know the characters.

Aside from that, the details are just fantastic. (Like how they stole the dancing trophy, but it’s never really stated aloud. Love it.) QT lets you figure it out yourself, no need to spoon-feed you. The attention to detail also gives us great music and backgrounds. Who wouldn’t want to go to Jack Rabbit Slim’s? GOD DAMN.

I could see where violence might bother some, but it just never bother’s me. There’s not violence just to be violent here.

I could also see where the use of the N bomb would be bothersome. But to me, it’s another thing that brings the viewer out of their comfort zone. If someone of color said it was too much, I’d never fucking argue because that’s not my decision to make. But for me, I know people like that, so while it made me uncomfortable, it still made sense.

This is a no doubt A+ movie.

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Bryan
12/26/2014 05:57:50 am

The chronology was superb. But this story was more Where the Sidewalk Ends than The Odyssey in terms of flow.

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Shane
12/26/2014 08:30:47 am

Interesting. I guess I've seen it enough where I know where it's going. I'm interested once Blair gets the chance to review to see how she feels about it.

That I feel so strongly about what this movie did years later is a testament to how good it still is I think.

Bryan
12/26/2014 08:46:52 am

Feel strongly? What do you mean? I saw Homeward Bound 25 years ago and still feel strongly about it.

Shane
1/5/2015 06:47:58 am

Then I would argue that Homeward Bound would either be very good or very bad. Movies that inspire neither opinion probably end up as Cs.

Bryan
1/5/2015 07:20:40 am

Incredibly average movies can stick with you. Fight Club has stuck with me as to why this movie is praised so highly when I think it's relatively lame.

Jon
12/26/2014 09:02:28 am

Explain how you know they stole the dancing trophy. I always assumed they won.

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Bryan
12/26/2014 03:56:16 pm

I assumed they won as well. And while we're on secrets, who cares what's in the briefcase. That's something a 10 year old would write into a movie.

Jon
12/27/2014 06:48:52 am

The briefcase is making fun of MacGuffins in other movies, MacGuffins being an object the characters are chasing. The glowing things in so many Marvel movies are a perfect example. With the briefcase, the only reason for the viewer to care about it is because the characters care about it, which is enough. I don't care at all what's in it.

Bryan
12/27/2014 08:34:04 am

I think your comment illustrates the immaturity of including it in the diner scene.

Bryan
12/27/2014 08:34:43 am

^^^ the light up part

Shane
12/27/2014 01:40:02 pm

It's announced on the radio that the trophy was stolen later in the movie I believe. I had it on low this time around, so I disn't hear it and can't remember where.

Sean
12/28/2014 06:36:12 pm

It is announced to have been stolen over the radio, it's a quiet throwaway that I had never noticed until I read long after the fact about it. QT has also fingered Butch as having been the culprit who keyed Vincent's car.

Bryan
12/26/2014 05:42:53 am

I'm writing this review prior to reading any other reviews.

This review will be all over the place, just like it's topic...

I'm not sure where to start with this one given how much trash talking I've done. Let's do this the opposite way I start a conversation I'm trying to control. The worst, first...

The credits at the beginning do not get this movie off to a good start in the cell phone age. 2 solid minutes of yellow text on a black screen, did they not how to overlay text on video in 1994?

Samuel L Jackson is the worst part of this movie. Why does he have to scream every sentence, does he lack voice inflection otherwise? When he would have a normal conversation, he was just fine - but that was maybe 20% of his dialogue. And speaking of bad actors - Quentin Tarantino looked like a young Bryan circa 2001 playing some forgotten role in The Elevator at South Putnam High School. He lack believability and seemed uncomfortable on the scene.

The Bruce Willis scenes were rather dull other than when he hits Marsellus with the car. The bondage scene wasn't a pleasant experience.

Did Amanda Plummer (Honey Bunny) get typecast as a crazy person in her first few years of acting? Her Fisher King character slid right on into the coffee shop.

From the moment Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin until the coffee shop is on again (outside of Tarantino) is easily the best scene. There's some drama, humor, and action.

John Travolta steals the show for me here. His character has emotion and is engaging. I LOVED the dance scene. I'm not sure if Tarantino was trying to play on Saturday Night Fever, but it was fun and funny. The $5 milk shake was great, especially in context to Jules screaming about a Royale with Cheese.

I'm not sure what this movie was trying to be. It has the vulgarity and style of a Casino or Goodfellas, but is piecemealed together. I'm not sure what is engaging the viewer from scene to scene. There wasn't much about this that left me wanting to know what happens next. Was it supposed to be a series of short stories? Why do mob movies have to be so vulgar? I think I'm out on a mafia invite given the number of times I'd have to use the F- word.

An A movie should never feel like it's dragging (i.e. Taxi Cab scene) or annoying me (Jules).

+The story was good, but many mob stories are better.
+Travolta killed it
+Humor here and there was good
=The gore was probably bad at the time, but seems tame compared to modern movies.
=Seemed piecemealed together
-Jules constant yelling
-Vulgar

Not as bad as I remember, I'm going to open at a B-

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Bryan
12/26/2014 05:45:41 am

Forgot a positive.

+Mia Wallace. Especially bringing up silence. I tell my students silence is peaceful, not awkward.

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Shane
12/26/2014 08:31:43 am

Not Bruce Willis but still Butch, but how did you enjoy the Walken scene?

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Bryan
12/26/2014 08:48:01 am

I don't see how it fit. I thought, "Who cares about this long, drawn out story that has little to nothing to do with anything going on here."

Jon
12/26/2014 09:05:14 am

I went on at length about the Walken story in my review. That scene is taking place in Butch's head before his fight. It sets up Butch as coming from a family of warriors, and he hasn't done anything to live up to that legacy. By killing Maynard and freeing Marcellus, he earned it.

Bryan
12/26/2014 03:58:25 pm

It seemed to me like Tarantino wanted Walken just for the sake of young, white kids like Walke. I thought that was a bottom 5 scene that didn't fit. Nothing about Butch fits into this film other than when he shoots Vincent.

Sean
12/28/2014 06:37:18 pm

A+
I'm drinking scotch and doing laundry at 1:30am.

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Shane
1/5/2015 06:49:18 am

Hard to complain about this review other than I prefer no starch in my whites. You should no better.

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Blair
2/4/2015 02:31:23 pm

A+

There's not much I'm going to say about this film. Samuel L. in his finest role, John Travolta getting blown up, Uma Thurman almost dying of an overdose, and Bruce Willis coming back to reign justice on those inhuman pieces of shit. Music is awesome, dialogue is awesome.

When I was a kid in 4th or 5th grade my dad bought the cassette soundtrack to this; we rocked out to this shit everyday: Jungle Boogie, Misirlou...and I can still quote every word to the Royale with Cheese bit (though I never typed it into my calculator).

I can't think of a single negative. Sentimental value included.

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