Pulp Fiction
Cast
Tim Roth .... Pumpkin (Ringo)
Amanda Plummer .... Honey Bunny (Yolanda)
Laura Lovelace .... Waitress
John Travolta .... Vincent Vega
Samuel L. Jackson .... Jules Winnfield
Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
9/10. Controversy is usually good for movies. It's helped push movies to
box office success just to see how bad they actually were, and I
think that that is one of the ways Pulp Fiction has become so
immensely popular. I've heard multiple people musing about the
excessive violence, the drug use, the language, and more. So I really
wanted to see Pulp Fiction beforehand, but curiosity piqued my
interest. I have to say that all of the hype didn't really add
anything. It wasn't very violent (or it could be that I'm just
desensitized to violence, but besides one scene, I've seen worse on
TV), the language just seemed to flow normally (or maybe it was
because I had seen Bad Santa the day before and it had about the same
concentration of language), and the drug use�well, I expected it for
it is a movie about drug abusers.
Pulp Fiction is less a complete movie than a series of interrelated
stories, the most interesting of which is Jules Winnfield (Samuel L.
Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) as two gangsters who often
have pointless conversations. Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) is a
boxer who accidentally kills his opponent in the ring and then he
realizes the thrill of killing people. Marcellus Wallace (Ving
Rhames) pays Butch to throw that fight, but when he kills the guy,
Marcellus gets Jules and Vincent to whack him. Along the way, Vincent
has to take Marcellus's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out, and along the way
she OD's. Got all that?
There is one thing that Tarantino can do that no one else I've seen
can do efficiently. He can work with time so well that you don't even
notice it. Christopher Nolan first tried it in Following,
unsuccessfully, and then executed well in Memento. However, there, he
held our hand throw it, while Tarantino just lets it rip and hopes we
can figure it out for ourselves, which we can do. That adds to the
already thick layer of coolness that is in Pulp Fiction. Each
character is memorable, especially Jules, who quotes from the Bible
right before killing someone. It's just a very hip experience.
Pulp Fiction cheerfully takes clich�s, chews them up, and spits them
out in a whole new vein. Like what Kill Bill did in the beginning,
with the retro opening to set the mood, Pulp Fiction is halfway
between an homage to gangster films and parody. Also, it's a
trendsetter. The classic dance scene between Vincent and Mia at Jack
Rabbit Slim's (which is a parody of all of those stupid throwback
restaurants) has been parodied itself, as has the scene where Vincent
and Jules are talking about McDonalds' Quarter Pounders.
In addition to the layer of coolness, Pulp Fiction also has a lot of
humor in it, much of it at times when you know you shouldn't laugh
but you do, and also out of situations that you wouldn't laugh at
usually. I'm sure some of the parts I laughed at were just because I
wasn't expecting something to happen, or maybe I just have a morbid
mind, but a lot of the humor came out of the violence.
Everyone in the cast had amazing chemistry with each other, which
added believability to a somewhat unbelievable story. The only reason
that Pulp Fiction did not get a perfect score is that one scene with
Butch and a cab driver went on for too long and did little to service
the plot. Knowing me, though, I'll soon change the rating, but it can
still be said that Pulp Fiction is one of the most influential movies
of the 1990's.
Rated R for strong graphic violence and drug use, pervasive strong language and some sexuality.
Running time: 168 minutes
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