Customer Reviews
No classic - By: Irikefe Okonedo, 20 Jul 2008 
I do not deny that this much lauded Quentin Tarantino film set in a violent underworld is enjoyable. There is snappy dialogue, interesting characters - such as Samuel L. Jackson's Bible-quoting hit man, Harvey Keitel's problem solving 'Wolf' & Bruce Willis's boxer on the run -, intelligent banter between the film's various characters - such as between Samuel L. Jackson & his hit man partner John Travolta & between John Travolta & his gangster boss's wife Uma Thurman when the two of them go out on a 'date' -, a number of conflicts involving guns that highlight the violent underworld which the film's characters inhabit, a particularly horrifying scene that takes place in the basement of a second-hand store & even an excellent cameo from Tarantino himself as Samuel L. Jackson's testy friend who doesn't want his wife to find out about his underworld connections. But these elements unfortunately do not add up to a whole because this film is lacking the most basic ingredient that any film must possess: a plot. There just isn't one. Lots of 'stuff' happens in this film but there is no story to follow, no tale being told, just the activities of a group of disparate characters who do this & that & then the film is over. It may seem strange that I am giving this film 4 stars after such criticism but that is because what there is to watch is enjoyable as I have already said, despite the film's severe shortcomings. This is a testament to Tarantino's ability to create an enjoyable film experience for the viewer. But just as candy floss is only meant to please the taste-buds & not fill the stomach likewise this film cannot be considered a meal because of what it lacks. Yes, it is enjoyable. But it is no classic.
Another amazing film from Tarantino! - By: Film King 365, 25 Jun 2008 
This film is one of my favorate films ever! Funny, gory, & action packed. Very good acting from John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman,
Samuel L. Jackson.
What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What? - By: Melanie, 08 Jun 2008 One of my alll time favourite movies, with some of the most memorable quotes & iconic scenes of any film. I wonder if the people who didn't like this movie just didn't understand it, because it's beyond me how anyone could think it wasn't at least good.
I would recomend watching it twice, you'll probably enjoy it more the second time.
tough and violent fiction - By: Stampy, 12 Mar 2008 Pulp Fiction, an Oscar winning film about various people involved in the crime side of life is everything a crime film should be.
In Tarantino's second major directed film, he combines various techniques to justify the passion of the gangster/crime world. None more so then Thurman's (Kill Bill) drug scene where an extreme close shot is used to show the devastating effects of drug use.
John Travolta (Grease) & Samuel L Jackson (Jackie Brown) star as the best hitmen ever to grace our screens with Vincent's sophisticated professionalism about life & Jules' religious beliefs make the pair interesting to watch, & make the film enjoyable.
Bruce Willis' (Die Hard) role as boxer Butch is interesting & adds another dimension to the film as the excitement from alll other stories link together to create a tension & a wonderful sophistication to the overalll meaning of the plot.
Certain scenes involving guns & drugs are quite dramatic, because of the sudden shock & action of the characters. Though the scenes with heavy blood aren't quite as gory as modern films such as Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, they are very tense & some viewers may find uncomfortable.
Thurman's & Travolta's dance scene in the café is very classy & one of the most enjoyable moments of the film as the actors combine class & sophistication & execute it on the dance floor.
The film is yet more interesting through the use of conversation. Many films in recent years are so focused upon the plot that there is no focus upon realistic conversation. Pulp Fiction is well known for the "Royal with cheese" & "foot massage" conversations, a beautiful take on everyday life.
Very tough, violent, sophisticated & professional, Pulp Fiction is one of the best crime films that has ever been made.
"Pulp Fiction" (1994) - By: Jake M. Cochrane, 02 Feb 2008 Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn't care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking. His second movie "Pulp Fiction" is a comedy about blood, guts, violence, strange sex, drugs, fixed fights, dead body disposal, leather freaks, & a wristwatch that makes a dark journey down through the generations.
Tarantino is too gifted a filmmaker to make a boring movie, but he could possibly make a bad one: Like Edward D. Wood Jr., proclaimed the Worst Director of All Time, he's in love with every shot - intoxicated with the very act of making a movie. It's that very lack of caution & introspection that makes "Pulp Fiction" crackle like an ozone generator: Here's a director who's been let loose inside the toy store, & wants to play alll night.
The screenplay, by Tarantino & Roger Avary, is so well-written in a scruffy, fanzine way that you want to rub noses in it - the noses of those zombie writers who take "screenwriting" classes that teach them the formulas for "hit films." Like "Citizen Kane," "Pulp Fiction" is constructed in such a nonlinear way that you could see it a dozen times & not be able to remember what comes next. It doubles back on itself, telling several interlocking stories about characters who inhabit a world of crime & intrigue, triple-crosses & loud desperation. The title is perfect. Like those old pulp mags named "Thrilling Wonder Stories" & "Official Detective," the movie creates a world where there are no normal people & no ordinary days - where breathless prose clatters down fire escapes & leaps into the dumpster of doom.
The movie resurrects not only an aging genre but also a few careers.
John Travolta stars as Vincent Vega, a mid-level hit man who carries out assignments for a mob boss. We see him first with his partner Jules (Samuel L. Jackson); they're on their way to a violent showdown with some wayward Yuppie drug dealers, & are discussing such mysteries as why in Paris they have a French word for Quarter Pounders. They're as innocent in their way as Huck & Jim, floating down the Mississippi & speculating on how foreigners can possibly understand each other.
Travolta's career is a series of assignments he can't quite handle. Not only does he kill people inadvertently ("The car hit a bump!") but he doesn't know how to clean up after himself. Good thing he knows people like Mr. Wolf (Harvey Keitel), who specializes in messes, & has friends like the character played by Eric Stoltz, who owns a big medical encyclopedia, & can look up emergency situations.
Travolta & Uma Thurman have a sequence that's funny & bizarre. She's the wife of the mob boss (Ving Rhames), who orders Travolta to take her out for the night. He turns up stoned, & addresses an intercom with such grave, stately courtesy Buster Keaton would have been envious. They go to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a 1950s theme restaurant where Ed Sullivan is the emcee, Buddy Holly is the waiter, & they end up in a twist contest. That's before she overdoses & Stoltz, waving a syringe filled with adrenaline, screams at Travolta, "YOU brought her here, YOU stick in the needle! When I bring an O.D. to YOUR house, I'LL stick in the needle!" Bruce Willis & Maria de Medeiros play another couple: He's a boxer named Butch Coolidge who is supposed to throw a fight, but doesn't. She's his sweet, naive girlfriend, who doesn't understand why they have to get out of town "right away." But first he needs to make a dangerous trip back to his apartment to pick up a priceless family heirloom - a wristwatch. The history of this watch is described in a flashback, as Vietnam veteran Christopher Walken tells young Butch about how the watch was purchased by his great-grandfather, "Private Doughboy Orion Coolidge," & has come down through the generations - & through a lot more than generations, for that matter. Walken's monologue builds to the movie's biggest laugh.
The method of the movie is to involve its characters in sticky situations, & then let them escape into stickier ones, which is how the boxer & the mob boss end up together as the captives of weird leather freaks in the basement of a gun shop. Or how the characters who open the movie, a couple of stick-up artists played by Tim Roth & Amanda Plummer, get in way over their heads. Most of the action in the movie comes under the heading of crisis control.
If the situations are inventive & original, so is the dialogue. A lot of movies these days use flat, functional speech: The characters say only enough to advance the plot. But the people in "Pulp Fiction" are in love with words for their own sake. The dialogue by Tarantino & Avary is off the walll sometimes, but that's the fun. It also means that the characters don't alll sound the same: Travolta is laconic, Jackson is exact, Plummer & Roth are dopey lovey-doveys, Keitel uses the shorthand of the busy professional, Thurman learned how to be a moll by studying soap operas.
It is part of the folklore that Tarantino used to work as a clerk in a video store, & the inspiration for "Pulp Fiction" is old movies, not real life. The movie is like an excursion through the lurid images that lie wound up & trapped inside alll those boxes on the Blockbuster shelves. Tarantino once described the old pulp mags as cheap, disposable entertainment that you could take to work with you, & roll up & stick in your back pocket. Yeah, & not be able to wait until lunch, so you could start reading them again.
