Pulp Fiction

PULP (pulp) n.
1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass or matter.
2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.

American Heritage Dictionary
New College Edition

 
Widely described as a cult hollywood movie of all time, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, explores novel ideas in film direction, editing and dialogue. The hallmark of the movie is the non-linear story telling, with three storied intertwined in each other leading to a great climax. Its a movie about gangsters, guns, drugs, thieves and all about talking. The characters played by actors like Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Thames, Christopher Walken and QT are too good. They do justice to the dialogues and the story.

My favorite lines this time :)

  
(Uma Turman and John Travolta in JackRabbit Slim's, the diner)
 
MIA: Don't you hate that?
 
VINCENT: What?

MIA: Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?

VINCENT: I don't know.

MIA: That's when you know you found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute, and comfortably share silence.    
                             
VINCENT: I don't think we're there yet. But don't feel bad, we just met each other.

 
(Sam, John n QT in QT's house)

JIMMIE:-- don't fuckin' Jimmie me, man, I can't be Jimmied.

 
See and hear it, to enjoy.

---Abhay---

Movies imitate life. Or is it the opposite?

Movies are an extension of what a person feels or experiences in his life. It’s a story the writer, director wants to tell us through the visual medium. But are movies an exact reflection of reality? Of course not. They are “juiced” up in the process of commercialization for “more” entertainment. So we see dancing around trees, melodramatic dialogues, stupid love stories, mind blowing action and what not.
Its all based on the foundation of reality with a whole lot of wild imagination of some homo sapiens !!

But some people also want their lives to imitate that in the movies. That’s the magic of escapist cinema. People are tired of their day-to-day mundane existence. They need some spice in their life. So what do you do? You try to add excitement in life. You try to create situations: you pick up a fight? You try falling in love? You try to imitate your favorite actor?

So my question is: is it really what you want? Is it the way you should be leading your life “normally” ?
Well, I don’t know. But its sure is fun ;) 

(Statutory Warning: Too much thinking could be injurious to health !)

I, Robot

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

-Isaac Asimov

4- Laws are meant to be broken

- Will Smith(producer), Alex Proyas(director), Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman(story)

Only if you keep the 4th law firmly in your mind, can you make some sense of this sci-fi shit.

The Plot:

Set in 2035 chicago, the story kicks of with the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), leading roboticist of US Robotics and creator of NS-5, a next generation personal robot. Did i say suicide, oh that would make a lame movie :) So detective Del Spooner (Will Smith, the fresh prince) is assigned this case and being a robot-hater he immediately puts 2 and 2 together to charge Sonny (voice by Alan Tudyk), a NS-5, with the murder. Inspite of claims of innocence by Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), the robot psychologist(!), Spooner is assured that the three laws are bull shit. But why does he hate these helpful mechanical creatures??Cause one of them had saved his life in the past!! He says, robots dont have heart. huh? some people are difficult to argue with ;)

So the chase begins...
The fight scene on the freeway is outlandish to say the least, what with army of NS-5s attacking spooner's car, the car spinning at 150 mph and hitting the wall. Since, will played Ali in the previous movie, he survives the fatal crash??.
Anyway, we also realise that spooner has a metallic left hand. interesting.The robot is charged with murder. very interesting.

Meanwhile, sonny shows a range of emotions that would put a seasoned operra actor to shame.
Now, Spooner is really into the sherlock mode. So armed with clues like hansel and gretel, bread crums and the very cryptic hologram by the dead guy, he realises that the evil robots want to take over humanity. The perpetrator of crime, is an AI bot outrageously named as VIKI. I take offence to that name cause she was all of ours favourite little "small wonder" !

Anyway, so the predictable climax takes place, with spooner shooting randomly infront of a blue screen and the sfx people deftly making the robots blow up on the screen. exciting.
Also the lady doctor and sonny play an important role in this epic battle between man vs machine.

Why to watch?
for women: you get to see will smith's ass !
for men: you get to see bridget moynahan's silhouette in the shower (damn!!)
Though its worth a watch, if you have nothing to do on a weekend and ready for anything!Will smith's timing is amazing as usual. Ah! those were gr8 days back in bel air. Why is he wasting his time with "serious" movies like Ali n I,Robot??  O well I know why..
'I, Robot' tops box office with $52.2 million weekend    hmm...makes sense.


Why not to watch?
If you are a purist and cant stand bull shit thrown at you.

 
For more about the movie and the original writer check out: http://www.asimovonline.com


This is part of a series of reviews to be published.
Keep reading and commenting at this space for more !!!


------ABHAY------ 
  

Death, Movies and the Song

They say your whole life passes infront of your eyes when you breath your last. I wouldn't know, but I cant imagine what exactly would I like to see before I go. My school days back home, hostel fun in pune, my histrionics on stage, the amazing times in tempe or the times to come, better or worse! It would be probably like a hazy dream. I just hope its not a nightmare!
 
To give a rough idea about how we exactly go about visualising a period of time, consider the ending scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacey gets shot. Hes smiling and before he dies he sees his life, which we see as a collection of scenes in quick succession. Thats the beauty of movies, we can see what we cant usually.
 
Or like Aamir's dream sequence in DCH...the director actually wants us to see what hes thinking, and its done as a fast sequence, just as we might think in a minute.
 
But my favourite is a scene in Notting Hill, where Hugh Grant is walking on the street towards his shop. To show a considerable lapse of time, we see seasons changing quickly from summer to spring, from snow to sunshine. At the start you see a pregnant woman and at the end of the scene you see her holding her baby. And the whole scene is set on a beautiful background song:
 
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she always gone too long anytime she goes away
Wonder this time where she's gone
Wonder if she's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away
 
Great Scene.
 
And thats all I have to say about that.
 

What is love?

Well Anish, your latest blog IV had me thinking about this pointless question. Pointless, 'cause, you cannot put in words whats a "feeling". You have to experience it to understand. Cliche !

You see we have been brought up on a full course diet of romantic hindi movies. The chopras and the johars have laid down some rules and explored all possible theories on love. Which are fair enough. Ofcourse, it wouldnt make any sense if we did some reality check. But the feeling remains, whether a movie or reality.
I know after DDLJ, it was an "in" thing to have a theres-no-such-thing-called-love attitude, thanks to SRK. See, i dont blame you here :p

what is love anyways? is it compatibilty? is it intimacy? is it passion?
All of it! Its like a complicated chemistry practical, at the end of which you do not remember what chemicals you put in. The "precipitate" is either happiness or heart break.
Wow! thats quite a definition ;)

About the commercialisation of love, its not the geniuses at hallmark or archies, but its common people like her and him and also that crazy guy in 11th std. who gave roses and chocolates to every second girl out of the parking lot !! They chose to do it that way. Love is not about a dozen roses, a box of chocolates, diamond rings, i-love-you cards, some ribbons, the sun, the moon the stars; its just a feeling, thats what it is...nothing more nothing less. Sometimes its a strength, though sometimes a weakness. Some people understand it, some take advantage of it ! Love is what you want it to be.
I guess its worth more than 2 paisas ??
The blog would be incomplete without our favourite song from that hilarious movie:

What is love ?
Baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love ?
Yeah

My best wishes to your high school buddy.

Why am I doing this ?

Why should I spend time writing in pathetic detail about what I think, feel, did, want-to-do .... Whos gonna read it? Whats the whole purpose of this futile exercise?
I know each one of you bloggers must be put off by my caviler attitude, but I cannot do something unless its totally justified.
Who cares?? some may say..we were never goin to read ur piece anyway...ok.
While, some of the inquisitive amongst you might be pondering over the question..

Fun,freedom and means of expression,boredom,communicating with the world,my friend has it-so must i !! The reasons are varied, but the purpose is the same - to give others a piece of our mind (pun intended ;).

Or maybe we want the world to remember us when we are gone ?!!? Its a way human beings have been passing on history for generations.
Eqyptians drew pictures, so did most of the civilizations around the world. Maybe, the electronic format is a way for today's human beings what the eqyptians did long time back !? These personal notes are depicting what someone, somewhere felt or experienced. They also give a glimpse of the kind of events and scenarios present at that particular time.

Suddenly, i realise its not totally futile ! Maybe, we all are playing a small part in a big picture we cannot see !! Maybe, what I am doing right now has a purpose after all !!!

As Neo would say, " ..Because I choose to.." ... so do I.

Then again, some may say...what a load of BS !!

Comments are required !

Blog Debut ...

Stats:

Name: Abhay Paranjape
Date: July 8, 2004
Time: 1407 hrs
Location: Math Testing Center, ASU, Tempe, AZ, US

Thoughts and Time are a deadly combination, if you have both of them you can conquer the world.
Me, I have both, but I will "blog" you instead :)

Note of Thanks:
for Prajakta for introducing me to blogspot. I hope this will keep me occupied for a while !!

More Laterz..