The Best

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2004)

I personally don't think any single movie should be called "The Best". There are "The Bests", including movies like "The Godfather", "American Beauty" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", but I've always thought that there was no "Best" movie.
Then I saw "Pulp Fiction"...and if I had to name any movie as "The Best", this would definitely be it.
The plot has three different stories, intersecting and coming apart. The first and main stories has hit men Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winfield (Samuel L. Jackson) recovering a case for their boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), and a subplot about Vince taking Marsellus' wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for some fun. The second story has prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) being pursued by Marsellus for refusing to throw a fight - the two fall into some disturbing chaos. The last and smallest plot is about two petty crooks (Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer) who decide to rob the diner that they're having breakfast in.
I haven't mentioned this yet, but the film is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. After this and "Reservoir Dogs" I think it's safe to say that he's one of the greatest writers of our time. His lines manage to be cool but don't get too artificial like David Mamet's or slogan-like like William Goldman's (who are both still great). His stories are the most creative of creative writing, his lines are awesome, his characters brilliant.
And brilliant they are. My personal favorite character is Jackson's cool, foul mouthed, Bible quoting hit man who has a religious experience after surviving what seems to be a now-way-out gunfight. Jackson's performance is spot on, perfect, nothing beats this kind of acting.
My second favorite is Butch. Bruce Willis isn't a good actor - most of the time. Thank God for movies like this, "Die Hard" and "12 Monkeys" for the guy to show his abilities. His performance is perfect, Oscar worthy all the way.
Speaking of the Oscars, it's a pity this didn't dominate. If I had it my way it would've picked up Best Picture, Director, Actor (Travolta), Supporting Actor (Jackson), Supporting Actress (Thurman) and Best Editing, instead of Tarantino just getting one for the screenplay. Oh, and Bruce Willis would get a nom for himself.
The Best of The Best, 10/10.