I liked this movie too and I’m fairly hard to entertain. I think people had Vaughan/James fatigue.
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For me, I think it was that both characters were clearly very smart but did nothing but endless dumb things. I love Keke and SZA could become a movie star if she wants to, I just really disliked how much the writing undermined the characters overall even though there was some redemption by the end.
I think I also just feel starved for studio comedies since they’re so absent from the theaters these days. I want one of those damn things to be running all the time, for good or for bad, so that it becomes likely that at least a few hit during the year.
It’s more feast or famine, because I’m probably harder on a comedy that I hate than I am on another genre that I do (sometimes it’s really funny and sometimes it’s goddamn Deadpool), but I still want the option to be there a lot more often.
So it probably helped that I went, and it was a comedy, and my reaction was basically, “well, this is at least capably done. Score.”
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It’s not a movie, but if you haven’t seen it, watch Survival of the Thickest on Netflix. It’s one of my favorite sitcoms of the last 10 years at least.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Was overdue for a rewatch of this one. It feels like, over time, there has been a drift toward people wanting to start claiming that this isn’t peak Tarantino after all. And after recently finding a new level of love for Inglourious Basterds, I was at least open to the concept. Maybe this will have eroded a bit with time, and maybe IB actually is the best?
And…no. I think the notion of dethroning it comes from the same minds that brought us, “should we really give peak Michael Jordan the MVP every fucking year?” And the answer to that is yes. No, you don’t randomly give it to Karl Malone one year out of boredom. And you don’t take the QT throne away from Pulp Fiction either.
I don’t totally close the question off for myself forever, but only because IB was that thoroughly impressive last time I watched that I can’t rule out the possibility of yet another leap even higher up my list. It will have to REALLY convince me though, because Pulp hasn’t lost anything in the 30+ years since release.
5/5
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If you haven’t listened to the Rewatchables on it yet, you’re in for a treat.
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Just watched Usual Suspects for I think only the second time, the first being not long after it came out. It’s amazing how much of it I remember and how many iconic moments there are. I’m almost sure I only saw it once, because this was my first time watching it knowing the twist and asking a million questions.
What the hell was actually real? I’m very confused right now. Ok Reddit has me less confused.
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I definitely have. I’d seen the movie enough times in the past that I didn’t feel a need to freshen up before listening to the pod. This moment on video is especially funny to me.
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Zed in Pulp Fiction being Redfoot in The Usual Suspects a year later makes me think that guy must have had big dreams for a minute. Not sure if I’ve seen him in anything else.
I remember him from being the villain in The Mask.
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Ah, okay. I liked that movie and watched it twice, but still haven’t seen it since childhood for some reason.
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Just looked at his IMDB page and he peaked when he did Pulp Fiction, The Mask and The Usual Suspects back to back to back. Lots of credits after that but nothing that memorable.
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Blue Streak though
Underrated gem.
I also watched this recently and it was, of course, great. But any scene with Tarantino in it is so much worse than the rest of the movie.
Tarantino’s line deliveries themselves are brutal. Every time. But the only sequence he’s in has Samuel L. and Travolta, and they’re the ones who carry the movie the hardest. I can’t pretend I hate The Bonnie Situation just because of the Tarantino part of it.
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Even aside from Tarantino’s bad acting, I think the setup doesn’t make any sense. Like Tarantino can just treat Vincent and Jules pretty disrespectfully and somehow has enough pull to get Marcellus to send the Wolf so his wife doesn’t get upset?
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Rewatched The Insider on LKJs recomendation for the first time since it came out. Great movie and Pacino and Crowe were both fantastic and somehow not really the caricatures they have become which was refreshing. I was surprised when I looked up the Oscars for their year they got absolutely no love. LOL Shakespeare in Love.
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And Christopher Plummer might steal it out from under both of them. So gratifying to see him lay into Needlenose Ned from Groundhog Day before laying into the lawyer.
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