One of the few times I've ever agreed with the religious right

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2000)

I saw this movie when it first came out in the theater and it really wasn't what I expected. I saw Reservoir Dogs on tape a few months before and thought it was a pretty interesting-- albeit pretty simple-- little movie. Everybody mentioned the ear-slicing scene. And while it was a little disturbing, I thought it was done to show the horror of violence or something. But after watching the *very* similar Pulp Fiction I guess I was misled. Strangely, nobody who saw Pulp Fiction mentioned how violent it was. Just how cool and funny it was. So when I realized that I was part of the very small minority who didn't bust out laughing when one of the characters would off-handedly get raped or blown away, I started thinking that maybe our society really was going downhill. It just kind of shocked me that not only was it casually accepted by the audience, but that it was also apparently really funny.
And I also don't see how flimsy pop culture-laced dialogue makes it such a cool movie. Maybe if Reality Bites threw in tons of hilarious violence and homosexual rape it'd be lauded as one of the best movies of all time. I mean, the difference between McDonald's in Holland and America? That didn't impress anyone after I came back from a trip to Europe, much less millions of movie-going people around the world. Painfully stretched-out conversations about milkshakes and bacon? Whether a massage is ever "more than a massage"? And that part towards the end with Harvey Keitel? Man, it just drags. "Get rid of the body and then clean the blood off the car." Wow, ingenious advice. But he enjoys fine coffee too! The irony! He's a hard-ass criminal AND he likes good coffee!
If only I filmed all those worthless hours spent talking with my dorky friends in diners. And then blew some of them away. While blasting a Barry Manilow song in the background.