Can a carefully crafted film, with a lot of thought put behind it, still be a bad film? Yes. Pulp Fiction is a case in point. At the core of each story fragment is an emotional vacuum that gets glossed over by the clever use of filmmaking gimmickry, self-consciously devised cartoon violence and quirky writing and acting. Tarantino uses these devices to distract the viewer from the fact that his film is emotionally and spiritually pointless and hollow. Could that be the point? To be pointless? Perhaps so, but if being pointless and spiritually hollow is the aim of a film or any creative project, that's a sad commentary on the creator. For a similar effect I prefer to watch Warner Brothers cartoons. They are funnier, more inventive, more artistically satisfying, and there is no element of self-consiousness in the violence. In other words, when I see the violence in a good cartoon, I don't think "Oh my God that's so funny." I simply laugh. See the difference?