The Action Mutant…
says when the streets run red with blood, only then will the violence end.
Killing Streets
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
Here’s a new one for ya: The Action Mutant was censored on MySpace! During my recent inducting of photos on the TAM MySpace page, I put up a photo of Lisa Eichhorn (Opposing Force). It was from a play she did (entitled The Women of Lockerbie), in which her blouse was torn open and she was splattered with blood. It wasn't as nearly as bad as it sounds & I felt it conveyed the overall attitude that I try to convey in the writings. Of course, they stated that it was offensive and that “people as young as 13 visit MySpace pages”, which is funny because the age limit for an account there is supposed to be 14 & we all know how much luck the site has had in keeping track of real ages. Anyway, I put a tamer pic up but here is the original pic for all to see. You tell me if it’s a big deal to you. Now, on to bigger issues…like twin basketball players let loose in Lebanon! Is that Golan I smell burning on the stove?
The Plot, as it was:
Michael Paré (Streets of Fire, Eddie and the Cruisers) plays Chris Brandt, an Ohio high school basketball coach that’s told his twin brother Craig (also Paré) was killed during a covert operation in Beirut. Chris isn’t buying that load of goods so he decides to go to Lebanon himself & look for answers. Chris’ arrival is met with resistance from the U.S. Embassy, namely secretary Sandra Ross (Jennifer Runyon) and head man Charlie Wolff (Lorenzo Lamas). However, Chris finds out that his bro is being held captive with other hostages by Kasmullah militant Abdel (Alon Abutbul) & his regime. Aided by a legend spouting cabbie named Gilad (Gabi Amrani), Chris goes on the warpath & will not stop until his brother (and…oh yes, the hostages) is free.
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
The one fatal flaw within the Menahem Golan produced Killing Streets is that it actually tries to be serious. And if other Actioners involving twin lead characters (Double Impact, Double Trouble and Twin Dragons) have taught us anything, it’s that you can’t take them seriously. Unlike the three I just mentioned, the twins in Killing Streets are put against the backdrop of 1984 Beirut (filmed in Israel, actually), which is akin to putting The Wiggles in a Rob Zombie film (Note to self: Put in idea folder. Double Note to self: get attorney to talk to Norm MacDonald). Writers Stephen Cornwell & Andrew Deutsch try to add some messages to the fray but they usually fall along the usual jingoism of “Militants; bad. America; good. Um…USA! USA! USA!” Even when things come close to resonating (as with the subplot involving a young militant named Yahzi, played with conviction by Ishai Wureit), they don’t fully come together because they collide with the elements that make this pure escapism. The sad part is even those elements don’t inject the right amount of life into the film. Since Paré gets to play twins, he also gets to give two overly wooden performances. Flickers of earnestness permeate his actions at times but he often comes off as just too bland for an Action lead. It’s Lamas that hits parody-like levels as the CIA agent, sporting a Texan drawl that is a dead ringer for pro wrestler John Bradshaw Layfield. Seriously, watch this video of JBL and just imagine Lorenzo Lamas talking EXACTLY like that! Shudder-inducing, no? At least that train wreck provides some interest, which cannot be said for the majority of the film. Despite some goodwill in the form of Amrani providing light comic relief as the cabbie & a pretty decent car chase in the middle, Killing Streets lumbers along from one sequence to the next in fairly drab fashion. The final twenty minutes take the film from slightly ridiculous to horrendously bad, as the main resolution & finale involving a Lebanese informant (Menahem Einy) provide some laughable, head scratching moments. By the time the final credits rolled, I couldn’t help but think how entertaining this would have been if Chuck Norris was thrown in as the lead & all notices of pretension had been thrown out.
Body Count/Violence: 42. Things are actually pretty slow on the dead body front until the final third, where mucho soldiers are blown away with equally mucho bloody gunfire. Along with the car chase, fighting, explosions & stabbing, there’s actually a pretty sweet skull bashing scene that would have worked even better had Uncle Menachem handed out 3-D glasses during it.
Sexuality/Nudity: Two very brief tit shots by Runyon & Rahely Chimeyan during two very brief sexual scenes. Nothing to froth up about.
Language/Dialogue: Occasionally strong but not often.
How bad was it?:
It was nearly impossible to dig up any critical response for the film but the feedback on IMDB was not very complimentary, to say the least. Some say it was just overlong & boring, while others stated it was just very bad.
Did it make the studio’s day?:
Golan’s 21st Century Picture Corporation released Killing Streets on video in the States on 10/23/91. No budget or box office records were ever made public.
Film: *1/2/*****
Entertainment value: ***/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Black Fist
The Action Mutant…
thinks “Albino Fist” won’t float in today’s film market.
Black Fist
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
In lieu of anything new to write, here’s a reminder that the new TAM Hall of Fame class will be put up soon. Those that were passed over during the first inductions and those featured in films I’ve reviewed since then will be considered. Then, they will get the prestigious honor of being included in an online photo folder with strange pics of other people. It’s as prestigious as it sounds. Just like the Oscars (and here, we forsake the three hours of musical & comedy numbers for YOU, the reader!).
On a more serious note, I would like to send out my condolences to Francine Fournier (pro wrestling valet and MySpace friend on the TAM page), who lost her father & older sister to cancer within days of each other. I have seen people in my own family lose battles with cancer & I can only imagine what its like to lose two loved ones within a matter of days. If anyone reads this, please send her a kind word. Keep her & her family in your thoughts and prayers in this trying time.
The Plot, as it was:
Richard Lawson plays Leroy Fisk, a black street tough out looking to make some money by street fighting for white gangster Logan (Robert Burr). After proving himself, Fisk starts getting static from crooked, racist cop Heineken (Dabney Coleman), who expects Fisk to play ball and give him his cut of the winnings. Fisk continues to buck the system so the mob responds by blowing him up his car…only, his pregnant wife is in the car instead of him when said blowing up takes place. In short, some honkies are about to die horrible, horrible deaths!
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
Though it doesn’t turn the genre on its ear or anything (think Hard Times crossed with Death Wish, with a predominately African American cast), Black Fist is moderately better than its low budget, Blaxpoitation pedigree would have you believe. Though it has all of the trappings you would expect a flick like it to have (dated dialogue, bad editing, etc.), it has a few good things going for it. Lawson (sounding like Jules from Pulp Fiction at times) gives a game performance & is better than your usual B-Movie leading man is in a low grade effort. Of course, most of the choice lines & scenes go to Coleman, as he’s about as smarmy as smarmy can get. If there was an Oscar back then for “Best Portrayal of a Redneck/Racist cop in a Blaxpoitation feature”, ol’ Dabney would have won it hands down here! His mere presence elevates things when they begin to slow down, which admittedly happens before the key tragedy kicks in. As the main villain, Burr is more ordinary & atypical of a BX-poitation baddie and the other thugs fall in that same line. That distinction may still be better than Phillip Michael Thomas’ (Tubbs in the iconic TV series Miami Vice), who has the honor of giving TWO distinctly overblown performances (as best friend Fletch & pimp Boom Boom). The flick also has some decent fight scenes going for it, as they aren’t overblown & are more grounded than one would expect. Everything goes pretty uniformly until the end, which is definitely a memorable curveball to say the least. Suffice to say, the ending is one of the few unexpected touches that makes Black Fist a pretty watchable time killer.
Character/Supporting Actor Sighting!:
- Pro Wrestlers Hardboiled Haggerty (Battle Creek Brawl) and Pak Song (billed as “Pak Son” here) appear as street fighters. There’s one in the credits listed simply as “Earl”, who somewhat resembles Earl Maynard (the Jamaican fighter from BCB) but I can’t say for sure that it’s the same man.
Body Count/Violence: 10. It’s a film that’s partly about street fighting so it’s a safe bet there’s gonna be some brawling going on. It’s not terribly bloody, with the messiest thing being Moose (Haggerty) getting his head rammed through a car window. There are also some explosions, after-the-fact-deaths and a gunshot to the head but the fights are the obvious draw.
Sexuality/Nudity: Two topless scenes, one gratuitous one by a nameless white chick & one during an attempted rape scene. Women are slapped around quite a bit in this one, which is likely to turn off today’s politically correct audiences.
Language/Dialogue: Pretty crude actually, with more than a few racial slurs thrown in with the strong profanity.
How bad was it?:
Not much on the critical front, as the positive response was slightly more prevalent than the negative. Lawson & Coleman definitely got most of the raves.
Did it make the studio’s day?:
Centaur Films distributed Black Fist in America & released it in February of 1975. No budget or box office figures are known for it. It is available on several public domain sites and can be bought for cheap on DVD (though picture quality may differ, depending on the video distributor).
Film: **/*****
Entertainment value: ***1/2/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
thinks “Albino Fist” won’t float in today’s film market.
Black Fist
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
In lieu of anything new to write, here’s a reminder that the new TAM Hall of Fame class will be put up soon. Those that were passed over during the first inductions and those featured in films I’ve reviewed since then will be considered. Then, they will get the prestigious honor of being included in an online photo folder with strange pics of other people. It’s as prestigious as it sounds. Just like the Oscars (and here, we forsake the three hours of musical & comedy numbers for YOU, the reader!).
On a more serious note, I would like to send out my condolences to Francine Fournier (pro wrestling valet and MySpace friend on the TAM page), who lost her father & older sister to cancer within days of each other. I have seen people in my own family lose battles with cancer & I can only imagine what its like to lose two loved ones within a matter of days. If anyone reads this, please send her a kind word. Keep her & her family in your thoughts and prayers in this trying time.
The Plot, as it was:
Richard Lawson plays Leroy Fisk, a black street tough out looking to make some money by street fighting for white gangster Logan (Robert Burr). After proving himself, Fisk starts getting static from crooked, racist cop Heineken (Dabney Coleman), who expects Fisk to play ball and give him his cut of the winnings. Fisk continues to buck the system so the mob responds by blowing him up his car…only, his pregnant wife is in the car instead of him when said blowing up takes place. In short, some honkies are about to die horrible, horrible deaths!
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
Though it doesn’t turn the genre on its ear or anything (think Hard Times crossed with Death Wish, with a predominately African American cast), Black Fist is moderately better than its low budget, Blaxpoitation pedigree would have you believe. Though it has all of the trappings you would expect a flick like it to have (dated dialogue, bad editing, etc.), it has a few good things going for it. Lawson (sounding like Jules from Pulp Fiction at times) gives a game performance & is better than your usual B-Movie leading man is in a low grade effort. Of course, most of the choice lines & scenes go to Coleman, as he’s about as smarmy as smarmy can get. If there was an Oscar back then for “Best Portrayal of a Redneck/Racist cop in a Blaxpoitation feature”, ol’ Dabney would have won it hands down here! His mere presence elevates things when they begin to slow down, which admittedly happens before the key tragedy kicks in. As the main villain, Burr is more ordinary & atypical of a BX-poitation baddie and the other thugs fall in that same line. That distinction may still be better than Phillip Michael Thomas’ (Tubbs in the iconic TV series Miami Vice), who has the honor of giving TWO distinctly overblown performances (as best friend Fletch & pimp Boom Boom). The flick also has some decent fight scenes going for it, as they aren’t overblown & are more grounded than one would expect. Everything goes pretty uniformly until the end, which is definitely a memorable curveball to say the least. Suffice to say, the ending is one of the few unexpected touches that makes Black Fist a pretty watchable time killer.
Character/Supporting Actor Sighting!:
- Pro Wrestlers Hardboiled Haggerty (Battle Creek Brawl) and Pak Song (billed as “Pak Son” here) appear as street fighters. There’s one in the credits listed simply as “Earl”, who somewhat resembles Earl Maynard (the Jamaican fighter from BCB) but I can’t say for sure that it’s the same man.
Body Count/Violence: 10. It’s a film that’s partly about street fighting so it’s a safe bet there’s gonna be some brawling going on. It’s not terribly bloody, with the messiest thing being Moose (Haggerty) getting his head rammed through a car window. There are also some explosions, after-the-fact-deaths and a gunshot to the head but the fights are the obvious draw.
Sexuality/Nudity: Two topless scenes, one gratuitous one by a nameless white chick & one during an attempted rape scene. Women are slapped around quite a bit in this one, which is likely to turn off today’s politically correct audiences.
Language/Dialogue: Pretty crude actually, with more than a few racial slurs thrown in with the strong profanity.
How bad was it?:
Not much on the critical front, as the positive response was slightly more prevalent than the negative. Lawson & Coleman definitely got most of the raves.
Did it make the studio’s day?:
Centaur Films distributed Black Fist in America & released it in February of 1975. No budget or box office figures are known for it. It is available on several public domain sites and can be bought for cheap on DVD (though picture quality may differ, depending on the video distributor).
Film: **/*****
Entertainment value: ***1/2/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The Head Hunter
The Action Mutant…
swore this film was going to be about Samoan wrestlers.
The Head Hunter
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
I read the greatest book ever the other day and my only complaint is that someone else (namely me) didn’t come up with it first. Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal is written by Ain’t It Cool News reviewer Vern & goes through the big man’s entire film career (from Above the Law to his most recent Pistol Whipped). Each film is dissected by Vern to reveal not only some pretty groovy facts (in Hard to Kill, its noted in the script that Seagal’s Mason Storm has a tape of Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” on his car’s tape deck, showing it wasn’t just a random tape from the prop dept.) but some of the recurring Zen philosophy in his films. It’s also funny as all fuck, too (check out an excerpt here, reviewing Seagal’s first music album). Well, I guess I better get started on that Dolph Lundgren retrospective before someone beats me to that.
The Plot, as it was:
Chow Yun-Fat stars as Nguyen, a pyro guy for a movie studio that is also a hitman on the side (Note: dream life!). He’s been a contract killer ever since his stint in Vietnam & hopes to bring his family to Hong Kong one day (as they are still in Vietnamese exile). Nguyen develops a relationship with news reporter Vicky Lee (Rosamund Kwan), who is on the trail of people responsible for a string of deaths involving toxic nerve agents that were originally used in the war. She traces them to Nguyen’s boss, so Nguyen gets the order to off his girl & he understandably has his doubts. Along with holding a damaging secret from Vicky, Nguyen is also pursued Kim Tai-Yung, a soldier Nguyen left for dead in the war and now has an axe to grind (and a machete to swing).
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
The Head Hunter (or The Long Goodbye in some circles, not to be confused with Altman’s classic) would have been better if it were infused with some John Woo in the director’s chair & an increase in skill level in…oh, just about every area there is. To be fair, a youngish Yun-Fat does his usual serviceable work with a subpar script & the film certainly picks up when an action scene comes about. It’s obvious the filmmakers were going for an epic Actioner, as many flashbacks (complete with orange-tinted film), dream sequences & allusions to Vietnam are incorporated. However, the editing & lighting is pretty bad and the stock characters & plotting do not help much. The plot is somewhat ambitious & tries to tackle other subplots but it all ends up muddled & lacking. The action is the sole saving grace at times, as its not Woo-level chaos but its well done in its low budget standards. As it stands though, The Head Hunter isn’t too much better than the schlock Chuck Norris would be putting out a few years from this (though it is cheaper to find).
Body Count/Violence: 24. Though titled The Head Hunter, only two decapitations are offered up within the flick. There’s bloody shooting, stabbing, fighting, suffocation, impaling, grenades & explosions and gassing. Not as gory as Yun-Fat’s later efforts with Woo but it works.
Sexuality/Nudity: There are two sex scenes and though the one with Yun-Fat is pretty steamy, nothing is shown in either. A woman is also hung with her arms splayed out & is partially nude but nothing’s really seen.
Language/Dialogue: Not much at all, with only one “bastard” and not much else.
How bad was it?:
There’s not much to go by from either critics or moviegoers but what’s out there isn’t very complementary. The highest praise was middling at best and most other comments stated that even diehard Yun-Fat fans may have their difficulty watching this.
Did it make the studio’s day?:
Seasonal Film Corporation released The Head Hunter in HK theaters on 3/25/82 & it made $4.2 million HK in a typically short run. It never saw any American theaters (that I know of) & is available on DVD under this title and its alternate English title, The Long Goodbye.
Film: **/*****
Entertainment value: ***/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
swore this film was going to be about Samoan wrestlers.
The Head Hunter
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
I read the greatest book ever the other day and my only complaint is that someone else (namely me) didn’t come up with it first. Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal is written by Ain’t It Cool News reviewer Vern & goes through the big man’s entire film career (from Above the Law to his most recent Pistol Whipped). Each film is dissected by Vern to reveal not only some pretty groovy facts (in Hard to Kill, its noted in the script that Seagal’s Mason Storm has a tape of Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” on his car’s tape deck, showing it wasn’t just a random tape from the prop dept.) but some of the recurring Zen philosophy in his films. It’s also funny as all fuck, too (check out an excerpt here, reviewing Seagal’s first music album). Well, I guess I better get started on that Dolph Lundgren retrospective before someone beats me to that.
The Plot, as it was:
Chow Yun-Fat stars as Nguyen, a pyro guy for a movie studio that is also a hitman on the side (Note: dream life!). He’s been a contract killer ever since his stint in Vietnam & hopes to bring his family to Hong Kong one day (as they are still in Vietnamese exile). Nguyen develops a relationship with news reporter Vicky Lee (Rosamund Kwan), who is on the trail of people responsible for a string of deaths involving toxic nerve agents that were originally used in the war. She traces them to Nguyen’s boss, so Nguyen gets the order to off his girl & he understandably has his doubts. Along with holding a damaging secret from Vicky, Nguyen is also pursued Kim Tai-Yung, a soldier Nguyen left for dead in the war and now has an axe to grind (and a machete to swing).
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
The Head Hunter (or The Long Goodbye in some circles, not to be confused with Altman’s classic) would have been better if it were infused with some John Woo in the director’s chair & an increase in skill level in…oh, just about every area there is. To be fair, a youngish Yun-Fat does his usual serviceable work with a subpar script & the film certainly picks up when an action scene comes about. It’s obvious the filmmakers were going for an epic Actioner, as many flashbacks (complete with orange-tinted film), dream sequences & allusions to Vietnam are incorporated. However, the editing & lighting is pretty bad and the stock characters & plotting do not help much. The plot is somewhat ambitious & tries to tackle other subplots but it all ends up muddled & lacking. The action is the sole saving grace at times, as its not Woo-level chaos but its well done in its low budget standards. As it stands though, The Head Hunter isn’t too much better than the schlock Chuck Norris would be putting out a few years from this (though it is cheaper to find).
Body Count/Violence: 24. Though titled The Head Hunter, only two decapitations are offered up within the flick. There’s bloody shooting, stabbing, fighting, suffocation, impaling, grenades & explosions and gassing. Not as gory as Yun-Fat’s later efforts with Woo but it works.
Sexuality/Nudity: There are two sex scenes and though the one with Yun-Fat is pretty steamy, nothing is shown in either. A woman is also hung with her arms splayed out & is partially nude but nothing’s really seen.
Language/Dialogue: Not much at all, with only one “bastard” and not much else.
How bad was it?:
There’s not much to go by from either critics or moviegoers but what’s out there isn’t very complementary. The highest praise was middling at best and most other comments stated that even diehard Yun-Fat fans may have their difficulty watching this.
Did it make the studio’s day?:
Seasonal Film Corporation released The Head Hunter in HK theaters on 3/25/82 & it made $4.2 million HK in a typically short run. It never saw any American theaters (that I know of) & is available on DVD under this title and its alternate English title, The Long Goodbye.
Film: **/*****
Entertainment value: ***/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Pulp Fiction
The Action Mutant…
comes from the country of What (where they, in fact, speak Swahili).
Pulp Fiction
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
As with most likely millions of film geeks everywhere, Pulp Fiction was one of the seminal films of my cinematic upbringing. Sure, I watched films before. I was curious about them and wanted to know more about them. But, it took something like Quentin Tarantino’s neo-masterpiece to make me start reading about film; dissecting it and looking at it as more than a Sunday afternoon diversion. It isn’t the best film ever but its status as a cultural phenomenon has rarely been equaled in time.
However, Pulp didn’t completely change the landscape for the better. Like Nirvana did to Hair bands & All in the Family did to wholesome, family sitcoms, Pulp Fiction & its jut-jawed creator killed off the dominance of the Action film at the American box office. As mentioned on other sites, one of the main reasons people were so drawn to PF was that it was totally aware of the universe that it was cultivated from. When Jules Winnfield admits that his patented “Ezekiel 25:17” speech was “just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass”, he should definitely know it is…because QT lifted it straight from the Sonny Chiba vehicle The Bodyguard! Before, movie characters lived in their own universes and if things were said that you have heard hundreds of times before, it was never admitted and life went on. However, Tarantino eats, drinks, shits, pisses and sweats film daily and he was more than willing to let that show in his films. With that, his characters were quick to admit that Bronson & John Wayne were their inspirations in life. Pulp Fiction (and Tarantino’s earlier Reservoir Dogs) fully embraced all of the macho bullshit and camaraderie of Action films with a wink at the audience…and their straight-laced Action equivalents weren’t invited for the ride. Don’t believe me? Look at the drop-off of production from Hollywood’s elite Action stars after Pulp Fiction made itself known:
Seagal: Had a few more decent box office performances but soon fell into the direct-to-DVD trap, where he resides today.
Van Damme: see Seagal.
Bronson: Got old, did made-for-TV movies and died. Kind of depressing, so let’s move on.
Willis: Interestingly, this film was the catalyst of him becoming an actual actor, due to him taking a lesser role here after a string of box office disappointments. His mix of eclectic projects has kept him going.
Schwarzenegger: Managed to stay relevant through family comedies & effects laden Actioners. Was somehow deemed the least inept of hundreds of candidates to become Governor of a so-called “state”.
Stallone: Career went down the toilet and only came back over a decade later when he took his two most prized creations & updated them for the modern day.
Snipes: He isn’t Wesley Snipes anymore. If the IRS comes calling, say hello to Miguel Sanchez!
See, these guys either had to update themselves to stay on top or get run over along the way. People were tired of the usual “saving the world, no challenge involved” Action films that were becoming commonplace, so it was refreshing to see a genre film (in a sense, as it has many of the same elements) that had moments that were treated to be trivial as if it were an episode of Seinfeld. Simply put, Pulp Fiction was something fresh in an era that (many felt) was in need of tweaking. It is a little bittersweet that it seemingly took down many careers with it (ironic, considering it made & re-made its share of careers) but it’s not as if Action films ceased to exist afterwards. Many are pointing to a slight renaissance in the genre during the 2000s & even the much maligned direct-to-DVD market has its moments. And as for its inclusion here? Well, you can’t discuss Jesse James if you don’t bring up Robert Ford, right?
The Plot, as it was:
Through non-linear storytelling, tales of gangsters, drug dealers and other (really f’ed up) people in the California valleys are told. John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson are Vincent & Jules, two low level hitmen that chat about the metric system and proper foot massaging etiquette while on the way to a job. The results of said job lead to one contemplating the concept of “divine intervention”…and a bloody mess inside their car. Later, Vincent accompanies Mia (Uma Thurman), the wife of boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), to a night on the town that (also) doesn’t go as planned. Prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) defies Marsellus’ orders to take a dive during a big fight and attempts to get out of town with doe eyed girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros). However, an unplanned retrieval of his priceless gold watch (which has an interesting back-story, to say the least) leads to more trouble than expected. And Pumpkin & Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer & Tim Roth) plan the robbery of a local diner…and if you think that’s the end of that story, then you’re not catching the pattern.
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
What’s wrong, TAM? You haven’t praised this movie enough already? Obvious kidding aside, Pulp Fiction is a classic not unlike The Godfather or Goodfellas in the sense that it never seemingly rings a false note or overstays its welcome. The main claim of its staying power resides in the fact that (at the time, since it’s been copied several times to no avail) Tarantino manages to craft a film that is totally like nothing ever put out before, despite using several tried and true conventions (try and imagine the film with a different soundtrack, for one). Its part New Wave crime drama, part dark comedy, part introspective work, part character study and part hard boiled mystery. Juggling so many hats would usually prove the fault of someone that has only directed their second film but it comes off so effortless here. A great thing about it is if you get confused by the film’s non-linear structure (which I have heard happen a few times), there’s so much that grabs you upon the first viewing that it’s a continuous treat to go back and keep picking stuff up. The much lauded non-linear framework is the flick’s greatest touch, as the majority of Tarantino’s menagerie of dissidents & miscreants have their heroic & honorable moments somewhere within the storyline; they become heroes through choice luck & leave antiheroes, even if the lesson may never be fully grasped (we, the viewer, don’t know if they’re truly changed people but lets not take that as code for “needing a sequel”.). Every character is memorable in some way, with Travolta & Jackson bringing Vincent & Jules to life and then some on screen. Sure, much of it is QT’s machine gun delivery-like dialogue but the two take the words and mold them into career performances (and, in both cases, career saving performances…though more Travolta’s in historical canon). Travolta adds little comedic nuances to many of his lines & actions and Jackson’s many “sermons on the mount” as Jules have taken on lives of their own. The Vincent/Jules segments are the meat of the film and include other odd turns from Eric Stoltz as a hippie drug dealer (“Heroin, it's coming back in a big fucking way.”) and Harvey Keitel as a more suave version of the Cleaner he briefly played in Point of No Return (“…pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car.”). However, the “Gold Watch” segment proves to be a show stopper, with Willis delivering a solid homage to his usual “tough guy” image and Christopher Walken stopping by for a classic monologue (with one of the best non-verbal punchlines, ever! Gets me every time!). The segment’s shocking conclusion is what most likely got the film’s initial notoriety but that’s just one cherry on top of this multi-layered sundae. If there’s anything close to wrong with this film, its that QT makes another one of his glorious cameos…though its his film, so he has enough sense to only be on screen for three minutes tops. There’s so much more that could be said but I don’t go joy-poppin’ with bubble gummers, so I best leave this at “To be continued”.
Body Count/Violence: 8. Fiction has gotten a rep over the years as being incredulously violent and while it’s violent at times, it isn’t continuous & gratuitous in the vein of the same year’s On Deadly Ground (another similar argument can be used for the Tarantino-penned Natural Born Killers). When it does get violent, its scenes are sudden and usually belie the film’s darkly, comic tone. There are a few shootings, with two of them being particularly gory (and one leading to one of the film’s more hilarious exchanges). Along with the gunplay, there’s a car crash, swordplay, drug use (which leads to memorable use of a needle) and some fighting. In my opinion, the main reason people have focused on the flick’s carnage the most is because its realistic results are juxtaposed with a very “matter of fact” attitude toward the acts (i.e. the long, casual monologues before the apartment shooting, the entirety of “The Bonnie Situation”, etc.).
Sexuality/Nudity: The confrontation between Butch & Marsellus leads to the most uncomfortable of situations for one of them (and to spoil it for the few that have never seen the movie or heard about said sequence, would take away from the shock). There’s a scene of (implied) oral sex and de Medeiros’ panties are visible in one scene, as well as Willis’ lower regions when he gets out of the shower (partially obscured with a towel but hair is noticeable). Oh, and QT’s ever growing foot fetish gets more apparent in this film (I mean, Thurman’s a joy to look at in this film but her feet wouldn’t be my first choice. Personal preference, people).
Language/Dialogue: A plenty, as the F- bomb is dropped 265 times in 154 minutes (making that 1.7 times a minute). Other profanity is accompanied by plenty of sexual dialogue involving anatomy, “oral pleasure”, etc. More than a few racial slurs are used, which endeared QT to Spike Lee to this very day (though I am sure there are places in the South that are/were called “Dead N____er Storage”).
How bad was it?:
This was THE critic’s darling of 1994, as every reviewer praised it for its freshness & verve. It still maintains that status to this day (Rotten Tomato rating: 96%) though it has occasionally been soured upon since its inception brought about countless rip-offs & clones. Of course, the Academy spread its legs like the cheap whore that it is and gave the majority of Oscars that year to Forrest Gump (leaving the Best Original Screenplay award for Tarantino & Roger Avary) but let’s face facts: Fiction was the more original, wholly satisfying film. Zemeckis was just showing off & the Academy just loves them “mentally challenged” portrayals!
Did it make the studio’s day?:
After winning Cannes’ Palme D’Or in May of 1994, Pulp Fiction debuted in America on 10/14/94 under the Miramax banner. In a shocker at the time, it bested Stallone’s The Specialist for the top spot that weekend with $9.3 million (The Specialist was in its second week of release but it only dropped 38% from its first weekend peak & was expected to win out this time). The amazing thing is PF managed to do this while being in 1,184 screens less than The Specialist, almost doubling that film’s per screen average! With an $8 million budget (high by true Indy standards but still catering fodder for some Hollywood projects), Fiction stayed in the top 10 through Thanksgiving & ended its run in May of 1995 with a total gross of $108 million. Raking in another $106 million overseas, Pulp’s $214 million take was a monumental number for what was considered an Indy film (though you should read Peter Biskind’s Down & Dirty Pictures for that particular argument) and is still amazing for today’s standards.
Film: *****/*****
Entertainment value: *****/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
comes from the country of What (where they, in fact, speak Swahili).
Pulp Fiction
review by Joe Burrows
Perspective:
As with most likely millions of film geeks everywhere, Pulp Fiction was one of the seminal films of my cinematic upbringing. Sure, I watched films before. I was curious about them and wanted to know more about them. But, it took something like Quentin Tarantino’s neo-masterpiece to make me start reading about film; dissecting it and looking at it as more than a Sunday afternoon diversion. It isn’t the best film ever but its status as a cultural phenomenon has rarely been equaled in time.
However, Pulp didn’t completely change the landscape for the better. Like Nirvana did to Hair bands & All in the Family did to wholesome, family sitcoms, Pulp Fiction & its jut-jawed creator killed off the dominance of the Action film at the American box office. As mentioned on other sites, one of the main reasons people were so drawn to PF was that it was totally aware of the universe that it was cultivated from. When Jules Winnfield admits that his patented “Ezekiel 25:17” speech was “just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass”, he should definitely know it is…because QT lifted it straight from the Sonny Chiba vehicle The Bodyguard! Before, movie characters lived in their own universes and if things were said that you have heard hundreds of times before, it was never admitted and life went on. However, Tarantino eats, drinks, shits, pisses and sweats film daily and he was more than willing to let that show in his films. With that, his characters were quick to admit that Bronson & John Wayne were their inspirations in life. Pulp Fiction (and Tarantino’s earlier Reservoir Dogs) fully embraced all of the macho bullshit and camaraderie of Action films with a wink at the audience…and their straight-laced Action equivalents weren’t invited for the ride. Don’t believe me? Look at the drop-off of production from Hollywood’s elite Action stars after Pulp Fiction made itself known:
Seagal: Had a few more decent box office performances but soon fell into the direct-to-DVD trap, where he resides today.
Van Damme: see Seagal.
Bronson: Got old, did made-for-TV movies and died. Kind of depressing, so let’s move on.
Willis: Interestingly, this film was the catalyst of him becoming an actual actor, due to him taking a lesser role here after a string of box office disappointments. His mix of eclectic projects has kept him going.
Schwarzenegger: Managed to stay relevant through family comedies & effects laden Actioners. Was somehow deemed the least inept of hundreds of candidates to become Governor of a so-called “state”.
Stallone: Career went down the toilet and only came back over a decade later when he took his two most prized creations & updated them for the modern day.
Snipes: He isn’t Wesley Snipes anymore. If the IRS comes calling, say hello to Miguel Sanchez!
See, these guys either had to update themselves to stay on top or get run over along the way. People were tired of the usual “saving the world, no challenge involved” Action films that were becoming commonplace, so it was refreshing to see a genre film (in a sense, as it has many of the same elements) that had moments that were treated to be trivial as if it were an episode of Seinfeld. Simply put, Pulp Fiction was something fresh in an era that (many felt) was in need of tweaking. It is a little bittersweet that it seemingly took down many careers with it (ironic, considering it made & re-made its share of careers) but it’s not as if Action films ceased to exist afterwards. Many are pointing to a slight renaissance in the genre during the 2000s & even the much maligned direct-to-DVD market has its moments. And as for its inclusion here? Well, you can’t discuss Jesse James if you don’t bring up Robert Ford, right?
The Plot, as it was:
Through non-linear storytelling, tales of gangsters, drug dealers and other (really f’ed up) people in the California valleys are told. John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson are Vincent & Jules, two low level hitmen that chat about the metric system and proper foot massaging etiquette while on the way to a job. The results of said job lead to one contemplating the concept of “divine intervention”…and a bloody mess inside their car. Later, Vincent accompanies Mia (Uma Thurman), the wife of boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), to a night on the town that (also) doesn’t go as planned. Prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) defies Marsellus’ orders to take a dive during a big fight and attempts to get out of town with doe eyed girlfriend Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros). However, an unplanned retrieval of his priceless gold watch (which has an interesting back-story, to say the least) leads to more trouble than expected. And Pumpkin & Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer & Tim Roth) plan the robbery of a local diner…and if you think that’s the end of that story, then you’re not catching the pattern.
Don’t shoot me…I’m only the reviewer!:
What’s wrong, TAM? You haven’t praised this movie enough already? Obvious kidding aside, Pulp Fiction is a classic not unlike The Godfather or Goodfellas in the sense that it never seemingly rings a false note or overstays its welcome. The main claim of its staying power resides in the fact that (at the time, since it’s been copied several times to no avail) Tarantino manages to craft a film that is totally like nothing ever put out before, despite using several tried and true conventions (try and imagine the film with a different soundtrack, for one). Its part New Wave crime drama, part dark comedy, part introspective work, part character study and part hard boiled mystery. Juggling so many hats would usually prove the fault of someone that has only directed their second film but it comes off so effortless here. A great thing about it is if you get confused by the film’s non-linear structure (which I have heard happen a few times), there’s so much that grabs you upon the first viewing that it’s a continuous treat to go back and keep picking stuff up. The much lauded non-linear framework is the flick’s greatest touch, as the majority of Tarantino’s menagerie of dissidents & miscreants have their heroic & honorable moments somewhere within the storyline; they become heroes through choice luck & leave antiheroes, even if the lesson may never be fully grasped (we, the viewer, don’t know if they’re truly changed people but lets not take that as code for “needing a sequel”.). Every character is memorable in some way, with Travolta & Jackson bringing Vincent & Jules to life and then some on screen. Sure, much of it is QT’s machine gun delivery-like dialogue but the two take the words and mold them into career performances (and, in both cases, career saving performances…though more Travolta’s in historical canon). Travolta adds little comedic nuances to many of his lines & actions and Jackson’s many “sermons on the mount” as Jules have taken on lives of their own. The Vincent/Jules segments are the meat of the film and include other odd turns from Eric Stoltz as a hippie drug dealer (“Heroin, it's coming back in a big fucking way.”) and Harvey Keitel as a more suave version of the Cleaner he briefly played in Point of No Return (“…pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car.”). However, the “Gold Watch” segment proves to be a show stopper, with Willis delivering a solid homage to his usual “tough guy” image and Christopher Walken stopping by for a classic monologue (with one of the best non-verbal punchlines, ever! Gets me every time!). The segment’s shocking conclusion is what most likely got the film’s initial notoriety but that’s just one cherry on top of this multi-layered sundae. If there’s anything close to wrong with this film, its that QT makes another one of his glorious cameos…though its his film, so he has enough sense to only be on screen for three minutes tops. There’s so much more that could be said but I don’t go joy-poppin’ with bubble gummers, so I best leave this at “To be continued”.
Body Count/Violence: 8. Fiction has gotten a rep over the years as being incredulously violent and while it’s violent at times, it isn’t continuous & gratuitous in the vein of the same year’s On Deadly Ground (another similar argument can be used for the Tarantino-penned Natural Born Killers). When it does get violent, its scenes are sudden and usually belie the film’s darkly, comic tone. There are a few shootings, with two of them being particularly gory (and one leading to one of the film’s more hilarious exchanges). Along with the gunplay, there’s a car crash, swordplay, drug use (which leads to memorable use of a needle) and some fighting. In my opinion, the main reason people have focused on the flick’s carnage the most is because its realistic results are juxtaposed with a very “matter of fact” attitude toward the acts (i.e. the long, casual monologues before the apartment shooting, the entirety of “The Bonnie Situation”, etc.).
Sexuality/Nudity: The confrontation between Butch & Marsellus leads to the most uncomfortable of situations for one of them (and to spoil it for the few that have never seen the movie or heard about said sequence, would take away from the shock). There’s a scene of (implied) oral sex and de Medeiros’ panties are visible in one scene, as well as Willis’ lower regions when he gets out of the shower (partially obscured with a towel but hair is noticeable). Oh, and QT’s ever growing foot fetish gets more apparent in this film (I mean, Thurman’s a joy to look at in this film but her feet wouldn’t be my first choice. Personal preference, people).
Language/Dialogue: A plenty, as the F- bomb is dropped 265 times in 154 minutes (making that 1.7 times a minute). Other profanity is accompanied by plenty of sexual dialogue involving anatomy, “oral pleasure”, etc. More than a few racial slurs are used, which endeared QT to Spike Lee to this very day (though I am sure there are places in the South that are/were called “Dead N____er Storage”).
How bad was it?:
This was THE critic’s darling of 1994, as every reviewer praised it for its freshness & verve. It still maintains that status to this day (Rotten Tomato rating: 96%) though it has occasionally been soured upon since its inception brought about countless rip-offs & clones. Of course, the Academy spread its legs like the cheap whore that it is and gave the majority of Oscars that year to Forrest Gump (leaving the Best Original Screenplay award for Tarantino & Roger Avary) but let’s face facts: Fiction was the more original, wholly satisfying film. Zemeckis was just showing off & the Academy just loves them “mentally challenged” portrayals!
Did it make the studio’s day?:
After winning Cannes’ Palme D’Or in May of 1994, Pulp Fiction debuted in America on 10/14/94 under the Miramax banner. In a shocker at the time, it bested Stallone’s The Specialist for the top spot that weekend with $9.3 million (The Specialist was in its second week of release but it only dropped 38% from its first weekend peak & was expected to win out this time). The amazing thing is PF managed to do this while being in 1,184 screens less than The Specialist, almost doubling that film’s per screen average! With an $8 million budget (high by true Indy standards but still catering fodder for some Hollywood projects), Fiction stayed in the top 10 through Thanksgiving & ended its run in May of 1995 with a total gross of $108 million. Raking in another $106 million overseas, Pulp’s $214 million take was a monumental number for what was considered an Indy film (though you should read Peter Biskind’s Down & Dirty Pictures for that particular argument) and is still amazing for today’s standards.
Film: *****/*****
Entertainment value: *****/*****
Copyright 2008 The Action Mutant.
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