40/50: Pulp Fiction

I don't know what took so long for me to finally watch this. Despite thinking I knew most about the film itself, I was still blown away.

Pulp Fiction is basically the telling of a series of events, not exactly told in chronological order.

It was a lot less bloody than I was expecting, but that was ok because it didn't take anything away from the actual film.

As good as the story was, the best part about the film was the dialogue. I absolutely loved the dialogue in The Social Network because it was so smart and it seemed like each and every word was so important. I got that same feeling when watching Pulp Fiction. Most of the film really has no important dialogue, but the way it is spoken in the film - even about a stupid quarter pounder with cheese - it seems important.

Anyway, the film mostly revolves around a man that we do not actually see for most of the film. Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) is a crime lord, who employs two hit men, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson). Wallace also makes a deal with a boxer, Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), to take a fall in a match and make Wallace a ton of money.

Those are the two main stories of the film. Two other smaller stories involve Vega and Wallace's wife, Mia (Uma Thurman) - you know that iconic dancing scene, right? The final story is both the beginning and the ending of the film, featuring a couple of wanna-be criminals, Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer).

The absolute best part of the film are the scenes involving Travolta and Jackson. The dialogue between the two of them is amazing and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Just perfection in words.

This was my second Quentin Tarantino film (Jackie Brown being the other), and this was much better. I hope the other Tarantino films are as good as this one - I am very intrigued now and can't wait to see them.

Grade:

Bolt

I should be ashamed of myself, but I was completely unaware that Bolt was a Disney film. What was I thinking? The movie stars Miley Cyrus, of course it has to be a Disney film. Don't they own her?

Anyway, over the weekend we finally decided to watch this film. My son had seen it about a dozen or more times now, so he already knew everything that was going to happen. It was almost easier to watch that way, without the millions of questions he is accustomed to asking during movies - especially those I have never seen before.

So, Bolt stars Miley Cyrus as Penny a young girl who happens to make it big on a television series. Her co-star happens to be a dog named Bolt (John Travolta).

The Director (James Lipton) has managed to do every single shot of this television series in one take. As far as Bolt knows, he truly does have super powers and Penny continuously is getting in trouble and is now kidnapped by Dr. Calico (Malcolm McDowell).

At the conclusion of each day, Bolt is taken to a trailer with Penny and fed until it is time to shoot again the next day. On one day, however, the Director leaves the audience with a cliffhanger, as Penny is kidnapped. Bolt is taken to his trailer, but busts out in order to save Penny.

He accidentally gets shipped across the country to New York where he kidnaps/befriends Mittens the cat (Susie Essman), who begrudgingly volunteers to help Bolt get across the country and meet up with Penny. Along the way, Bolt still believes he holds his television powers. They meet up with a hamster named Rhino (Mark Walton) and the trio set out to finish their trip across country and rescue Penny.

This was a pretty cute movie. I was definitely surprised by the lack of voice talent, however. In these types of films I love going in not knowing who is voicing the characters so I can try and guess who each one was. I didn't even know who half of these stars were. With the exception of Travolta, Cyrus and McDowell the cast is a bunch of no names, and the inclusion of Lipton really threw me.

Overall, another great family film that had a handful of laughs, thanks to Rhino, and some adventure as well.

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