It’s almost impossible to watch ‘Pulp Fiction’ today without mentally checking off director Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic tics.

Great soundtrack? Yup. Aging actors rescued from obscurity? Yes, indeed. Dialogue so quotable you could print bumper stickers from every other line in the script? Oh, yeah.

But back in 1994, when the film first rocked movie houses, ‘Pulp Fiction’ was simply Tarantino’s entrance into the upper echelon of movie makers. The film hasn’t lost its zip in its new Blu-ray incarnation. If anything, the giddiness Tarantino fuses to the action genre is more appealing in an era of shaky cams and uncertain plot twists.

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Other than “The Sopranos,” scripted television and I parted ways many, many years ago, and it was an ugly break up, as well. When someone has only three reasons to live and one of them is prematurely yanked off the air you have to expect he’ll take it a little personal. (My two remaining reasons are none of your business but rest assure they’re just as shallow and one involves chocolate jimmies.)

“24” lured me back for a few seasons but the epic double standard of watching the same industry that uses three weekly “Law & Order” primetime hours to demonize Christians subsequently air a “Muslims Aren’t Bad Guys” PSA made my stomach hurt to the point to where I’ve been psychologically conditioned to no longer watch.  Everyone tells me television is where the best writing and acting is these days, at least compared to theatrical films (there’s a low bar), and that’s probably true. But God invented my DVD-purchasing addiction and Turner Classic Movies for a reason, right?

Which isn’t to say I never watch television. My “Sanford and Son” DVD collection is on regular rotation. As a matter of fact I’m watching “The Greatest American Hero” right now. On regular DVR rotation, though, is the growing list of documentary true-crime series that air constantly on, among others, the Bio, Tru, and Discovery channels.

My decade-long attraction/addiction to these programs has nothing to do with the grisly details involved in the various violent crimes (and I no longer need tips on how to plot, execute and get away with the perfect murder).  If your goal is to wallow in crime’s ugliness there’s a series called “I Survived” where victims go into great detail about their abuse at the hands of murderers and rapists. There’s also MSNBC’s awful off-hours “Lock Up” series. Both programs make you want to take a shower. Both are unwatchable. (more…)

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One of the classiest moments in the history of show biz starts at right around the three-minute mark.

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The Echelon Conspiracy could spin off a veritable global economy of work in the form of books, magazine articles, documentaries and parodies to investigate and explain the dissonance between the picture’s pre-production pedigree and the post-production fiasco. There are surely a lot of fascinating stories here: How such a rancid wreck got made in the first place; how it didn’t end up going directly to DVD; how so many A-list actors such as Ving Rhames, Jonathan Pryce, Ed Burns and Martin Sheen got involved; why screenwriters Michael Nitsberg and Kevin Elders figured they could rip off the end of War Games—at times, nearly line-by-line—and that no one would notice; and how a movie with a reasonably interesting premise, at least one notable idea at its heart, and enough Bush-bashing to please every liberal film critic in America could end up (as of this writing) with a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. (more…)