Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction is a very well known movie because it has a cast with A list movie stars, lesser known actors, and a phenomenal director. Quentin Tarantino, who routinely creates movies in a non linear storyline where things are portrayed not in chronological order, have large amounts of violence, and references to pop culture. Pulp fiction is considered a “black comedy crime fil” because of it mixture of violence, humor, and its non chronological storyline. The movie is very iconic and got excellent reviews from critics. The movie is different compared to other crime movies l because of its unconventional storyline how its basically three different storylines in one movie.

The sequence of the plot of the movie definitely gives the movie texture but, since the movie is out of order understanding the tone of the movie may be difficult to understand for someone seeing it for the first time. Throughout the movie I think the audience will see and begin understand the texture that Tarantino is trying to portray because even though there are different storylines it all ties together at the end

The movie begins with a prelude and takes place in a diner with a couple who are contemplating to rob the diner or robbing a bank. The couple ultimately decides to rob the diner and announces they are robbing the diner and demand everyone to put their wallets in the trash bag. This is the first part of the movie. It then goes to the main characters of the movie Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta). They play as hit men that work for Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). They are sent to an apartment building to retrieve a valuable briefcase belonging to Wallace that was stolen by crooks. There are 3 men in the apartment and, one of the men is in the back and runs out to shoot the hit men. Jules then recites a bible verse (a very key part to the movie) and they execute the man.

The next scene (story 1) is at a strip club where Vincent and Jules are seen in raggedy gym clothes which I will elaborate on why later. They get to the strip club a few hours after the first scene. Marcellus is in there with Butch (a boxer) where they are discussing on Butch throwing his next fight for Marcellus as a debt owed. In the meantime, Vincent and Butch take a dislike to each other which is relevant in a later scene. Marcellus is going out of town and assigns Vincent to take his wife Mia out on a date. Marcellus specifically reminds him to treat her right and show her a good time. They go to a restaurant where they seem to be attracted to one another and enter in a dance contest. The two go back to Marcellus’ mansion and Vincent goes to the bathroom to talk himself of trying something with Mia in the meantime, she overdoses on cocaine. Vincent panics as she is going into cardiac arrest and takes her to a friend’s house. She does not end up dying but this extremely scares Vincent hoping his boss does not find out and they swear to secrecy.

The next story is a prelude (“the gold watch”). Butch has double crosses Marcellus since he wont the boxing match. Butch and his girlfriend are laying low in a motel she then reveals that she has misplaced “the gold watch” which is extremely important to butch since his father had given it to him.

Butch goes to retrieve the watch at the last motel they were staying. He parks blocks away and proceeds with precaution because he is being hunted by Marcellus and his goons. He notices a gun on the kitchen counter and hears the toilet flush. He grabs the gun and shoots Vincent in the head who is coming out of the bathroom. Butch is then driving and is waiting at a red light and sees Marcellus walking across the street and tries to run him over which he fails to do. He runs into a pawnshop and Marcellus follows. They begin to fight in the pawnshop but held at gunpoint by the owner. The two wake up in the basement tied up and gagged where are then raped by the owner and his cousin who are redneck serial killers. Butch eventually gets free and knocks the one out while the other is raping Marcellus. Butch uses a samurai sword to help Marcellus and he agrees to forget about the money and betrayal. Butch leaves while Marcellus stays, and butch leaves to get his girlfriend and flee town.

The last story to this movie is a flashback to just after they executed the guy in the first scene. There was a guy they took with them because he tried to unload a clip on them at the apartment but every single one misses. Vincent thinks it’s a miracle and Jules says its not. In this scene they are driving in a car with the guy and Vincent is asking if he believes in miracles and ends up blowing his brains out. They take him to a friend of Jules (the director of the movie). They get all cleaned up by a man sent to them by Marcellus and everything is taken care of.

The beginning scene comes back where they are in the diner getting breakfast. Vincent goes to the bathroom and comes back in the middle of the heist. This is where Jules has a change in attitude because doesn’t want the gangster life anymore. He tries to talk down the burglars while Vincent just wants to shoot them. He then recites the bible verse he normally says before killing someone. He believes he has had it wrong this whole time and states it again this is only one part though “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men”. He always thought it was cool to say before killing someone but he realizes maybe he is the the evil man and needs to change his lifestyle. They let the couple go before he gets his wallet back and they leave with the briefcase and go to the strip club and that is how the movie concludes.

"odd" Wikipedia

The “odd” Wikipedia page I chose to summarize and read about was the article about “odd” names. I thought this article would be interesting to look into because the names in this article were extremely different and I never thought these type of names were out there in the world. The list of “odd” names were interesting because some of them are actual people’s names, others were companies, and one of the names was the name of an algorithm which was a very weird name. The name of the algorithm was Cox-Zucker Machine which is named after the inventors, David A. Cox and Steven Zucker. This section of the “odd” Wikapedia page was informational and I learned that some people have unfortunate names and others have names that are unusual to the culture I am familiar with. I learned that not everyone has a common name and I found it funny and interesting looking at the list of “odd” names. One thing I definitely did not know and found intriguing was the name Leone Sextus Tollemache. His real name Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache, he was a captain of the British army who died during the first World War, and his name is the longest English name on record. I think it interesting because his name is ridiculously long and that it’s the longest English name.

Some of the names on this list I did not believe that was their actual name until I went on their Wikipedia page. Another name I found on this list was Wolfe+585, Senior which is an abbreviated name and it is the longest name ever given. His name is Hubert and it is made up from 26 names, and each of them starting with a different letter of the alphabet in consecutive order. He was born in Germany and he has the longest name ever. What I learned from this is that he has a 666-letter surname and his name and the length of his name is often confused simply because he has 600+ letters in his name.

A few names on this list that I thought were just unfortunate names to have. They include names like Mansfield Smith Cummings, the first director of the Secret Intelligence Service also known as M16. Tiny Kox, a Dutch politician with an awful name. When I saw this name I couldn’t help but laugh and think that is a terrible legal name to have and thought is was terrible that his parents basically made a joke out of their son’s name. Gaylord Silly, a French long distance runner. This name is definitely an odd name but it isn’t as bad as some of the others on this list. There are two people on this list that actually have the word “fuck” in their names. Argeilco Fucks, a retired Brazilian soccer player who coaches to this day, and John Le Fucker, an Englishman in the 13^th century who was a murderer and I thought this was interesting because this was before the word “fuck” was actually used in language. I thought these were unfortunate names just because the word is actually apart of their legal name.

There is one thing that stood out to me on this list and its that there are politicians on this list that actually changed their name throughout their life. Sean Loftus, a Ireland born politician who legally changed his name to Sean Dublin Bay Rockhall Loftus. The reason for his change was for a political campaign about building a oil refinery being built in Dublin the 1970s. also Marvin Thomas Richardson, an Idaho politician who is known for his strong opposition to abortion and he legally changed his name to Pro-Life.

I think I was able to learn from this article of “odd” Wikipedia pages and they were informational because I never knew there were people that actually had names like that. I don’t think its that useful of a Wikipedia page though but of course it has a Wikipedia page because almost anything can get a Wikipedia page. 

The King of Queens: Sitcom Blog

The sitcom I decided to watch was King of Queens because I felt that it would provide a decent amount of product placement also because I simply just enjoy the show. The episode I watched was “Sight Gag” and it was when Doug got Carrie a birthday present to get laser eye surgery. I was right about this show having a surplus amount of product placement. Within the first two minutes of the show there were three examples of product placement. In the opening credits I saw a can of Coca-Cola sitting on the bench, the main character Doug was wearing a Nike shirt in the first scene, and there was a brown paper bag with the Bloomingdales logo on it. Another example of product placement was slightly hidden in the scene. It was an InStyle magazine on a magazine rack in the back corner of the doctor office that Doug and Carrie were sitting in. Although the product was very hidden in the scene I was able to pick it out.

Within the show there are about 5-6 scenes that display examples of product placement. I knew this show had ample amounts of product placement which is why I thought this show was perfect for this blog. I never realized how much product placement there actually was until I looked in detail. I was able to look more in depth and found out that there were great examples of product placement. Within a 22-minute episode I was able to gather nine examples of product placement. Some scenes had multiple examples, and some only had one example. There are only two scenes that had one single product placement was the InStyle magazine example and another one which is later on in the episode. Every other scene has more than one example which I found to be very interesting. I have seen other sitcoms from that time period with minimal examples but The King of Queens had way more.

There is one scene in this episode that has four examples of product placement and the entire scene was only about 2-3 minutes in length. Doug and his friends are sitting in the garage watching TV and drinking beers and there was a Midas magnet on the fridge in the background. Also Deacon (Doug’s best friend in the show) was a wearing an Echo shirt which was a popular brand of clothing back then. Lastly, there were beer boxes stacked in the background, the one was Rolling Rock beer and the other box wasn’t clearly shown but it was a green box and I noticed that it was Moosehead beer. I was surprised to see that many examples of product placement in one short scene. To go back to my statement earlier about having two scenes with one individual example of product placement was toward the end of the episode were Deacon was wearing a pair of Nike air max 95’s. I found it interesting the fact that there were so many popular brands promoted in the episode such as, seeing Nike two separate times, the Coca-Cola can in the opening credits, and the beer companies.