#92 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#94 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest
Movies of All Time
#2 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
What can I say about Goodfellas that you don't all already know. It's a fantastic movie. It has fantastic acting: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta. It has fantastic writing: "I'm funny how, like I'm a clown? I amuse you?" It has a fantastic soundtrack: Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Who.
It is completely entertaining from beginning to end. The only complaint I have is that the real-life Henry Hill was an asshole and this movie makes you kind of like him. But that's not a very big complaint.
Mike is also a fan of the soundtrack. And he likes the longshot through the kitchen.
But what else is there to say? We didn't really have any discussions beyond talking about how awesome it was... for example:
[Tommy shoots Billy Batts]
Me: He's crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Or:
[Instead of getting made, Tommy gets dead]
Me: That was crazy.
Mike: Yeah.
Me: This movie is awesome.
Actually, now that I think about it, I think that Joe Pesci is the reason that this movie is so awesome. He did win an Oscar for this performance, and I think it was completely deserved. Because everytime I try to think of why this movie is awesome, it always comes back to Tommy... not Henry Hill. Although I must say that Ray Liotta is very good looking and this is probably his best ever role. But it's really all about Tommy, isn't it? Anyway, it's also a great performance from Robert DeNiro, although I think there are a couple better ones further up the list.
So, since this movie is so awesome, we both put it at #1 on our lists. Which makes it #1 overall. For the time being. I should mention that it is #1, not just for being ambiguously awesome, but for being a well directed, well acted movie with a fantastic soundtrack that happens to be wildly entertaining. So that's the standard...
Showing posts with label Gangster Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gangster Movies. Show all posts
Friday, December 14, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
AFI # 94: Pulp Fiction (1994)
#94 on 2007 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#95 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#7 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
There's a hurricane outside and we are home from work, so we figured it was a good enough time to watch the next movie on the list. Which is Pulp Fiction. This is the first movie on the list that both of us had seen before, which shouldn't be too surprising. We were definitely looking forward to watching it again, since neither of us had seen it in quite some time. Which means we had forgotten a number of things about the movie. When I think of Pulp Fiction, I think of the Royale with Cheese conversation, and the robbery at the diner. But it's been a long time and I had definitely forgotten many things. So, here are the things we (mostly I) had forgotten about Pulp Fiction.
1. This is a really long movie.
We got the netflix envelope and opened it up. "Great, it's Pulp Fiction... oh my God, did you realize that this is a two and a half hour movie? Wow."
2. The $5 milkshake.
When Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace to Jackrabbit Slim's (the restaurant where the waitstaff dress like Marilyn Monroe, etc. and they have the twist contest), Mia orders a milkshake. More specifically, a $5 milkshake. They then proceed to have this whole conversation about the milkshake and how Vincent Vega can't believe she ordered such an expensive milkshake. Now, I'm assuming that my reaction is because twenty years have passed since this movie was made, but I just didn't think $5 sounded like it was that much for a milkshake. For the record, I also had forgotten that Steve Buscemi played the waiter dressed as Buddy Holly.
3. Eric Stoltz is in this movie.
I had forgotten about a lot of people in this movie, like Amanda Plummer and Rosanna Arquette. I definitely forgot about Eric Stoltz as Lance, the heroin dealer who explains how to stab Mia with the needle after she ODs.
4. The watch up the ass.
How do you forget Christopher Walken talking about having a watch up his ass? I didn't really forget about it, I just forgot that it was in this particular movie.
5. The briefcase.
What is in the briefcase? There are so many answers to this question and it spawned so many pseudo-philosophical questions when I was in high school and then in college. A lot of people think it was Marcellus Wallace's soul, and there are lots of reasons for that. Some people think it's the loot from Reservoir Dogs. For the record, Quentin Tarantino has said that there is no actual official explanation, that it was written in so that people would come to their own conclusions. However, I have to share that when we started watching the movie today, I asked Mike, what do you think is in the briefcase and he said "Keyser Soze's files from the Usual Suspects". HA!
6. Marcellus Wallace is going to get "medieval on your ass".
I forgot about that line. I did not forget about bringing out the gimp or the wonderful scene where Bruce Willis keeps picking up larger, more dangerous weapons. But I forgot about how Marcellus is going to get medieval on Zed's ass. And I remember how people would often spell it "midevil", as though he was going to do something in the middle range of evil things...
Overall, we enjoyed it a great deal. We had a lot of difficulty figuring out where to put this on our list. So we had to come up with a new method, whereby we each keep a separate list and then average it out. So the combined list will still appear on the side, but I am going to put each individual list here in the post. And here they are:
#95 on 1998 AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
#7 on AFI's Top 10 Gangster Films
There's a hurricane outside and we are home from work, so we figured it was a good enough time to watch the next movie on the list. Which is Pulp Fiction. This is the first movie on the list that both of us had seen before, which shouldn't be too surprising. We were definitely looking forward to watching it again, since neither of us had seen it in quite some time. Which means we had forgotten a number of things about the movie. When I think of Pulp Fiction, I think of the Royale with Cheese conversation, and the robbery at the diner. But it's been a long time and I had definitely forgotten many things. So, here are the things we (mostly I) had forgotten about Pulp Fiction.
1. This is a really long movie.
We got the netflix envelope and opened it up. "Great, it's Pulp Fiction... oh my God, did you realize that this is a two and a half hour movie? Wow."
2. The $5 milkshake.
When Vincent Vega takes Mia Wallace to Jackrabbit Slim's (the restaurant where the waitstaff dress like Marilyn Monroe, etc. and they have the twist contest), Mia orders a milkshake. More specifically, a $5 milkshake. They then proceed to have this whole conversation about the milkshake and how Vincent Vega can't believe she ordered such an expensive milkshake. Now, I'm assuming that my reaction is because twenty years have passed since this movie was made, but I just didn't think $5 sounded like it was that much for a milkshake. For the record, I also had forgotten that Steve Buscemi played the waiter dressed as Buddy Holly.
3. Eric Stoltz is in this movie.
I had forgotten about a lot of people in this movie, like Amanda Plummer and Rosanna Arquette. I definitely forgot about Eric Stoltz as Lance, the heroin dealer who explains how to stab Mia with the needle after she ODs.
4. The watch up the ass.
How do you forget Christopher Walken talking about having a watch up his ass? I didn't really forget about it, I just forgot that it was in this particular movie.
5. The briefcase.
What is in the briefcase? There are so many answers to this question and it spawned so many pseudo-philosophical questions when I was in high school and then in college. A lot of people think it was Marcellus Wallace's soul, and there are lots of reasons for that. Some people think it's the loot from Reservoir Dogs. For the record, Quentin Tarantino has said that there is no actual official explanation, that it was written in so that people would come to their own conclusions. However, I have to share that when we started watching the movie today, I asked Mike, what do you think is in the briefcase and he said "Keyser Soze's files from the Usual Suspects". HA!
6. Marcellus Wallace is going to get "medieval on your ass".
I forgot about that line. I did not forget about bringing out the gimp or the wonderful scene where Bruce Willis keeps picking up larger, more dangerous weapons. But I forgot about how Marcellus is going to get medieval on Zed's ass. And I remember how people would often spell it "midevil", as though he was going to do something in the middle range of evil things...
Overall, we enjoyed it a great deal. We had a lot of difficulty figuring out where to put this on our list. So we had to come up with a new method, whereby we each keep a separate list and then average it out. So the combined list will still appear on the side, but I am going to put each individual list here in the post. And here they are:
| Mike | Sara | |||
| 1 | Do the Right Thing | 1 | Pulp Fiction | |
| 2 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | 2 | Do the Right Thing | |
| 3 | Pulp Fiction | 3 | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | |
| 4 | Blade Runner | 4 | The Last Picture Show | |
| 5 | The Last Picture Show | 5 | Blade Runner | |
| 6 | Toy Story | 6 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | |
| 7 | Ben-Hur | 7 | Toy Story | |
| 8 | Yankee Doodle Dandy | 8 | Ben-Hur |
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