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Pulp Fiction (1994)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Bruce Willis, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz
Genre: Crime Drama Action
Length: 2 hours 14 minutes
Premise: an interwoven tale of four stories involving shady underworld characters: The daily life of two hit men, a boxer involved with a gangster, the gangster's wife and a couple who rob diners. All of their stories become intermixed.
Review: The last time I watched Pulp Fiction was over twenty years ago, at that time like most people I thought it was great. I watched it for the second time, the other day. After twenty years my opinion has changed. When Pulp Fiction first came out it was a unique indie film. Now for me that uniqueness has worn off.
On the pro side the characters are still rich and lively. I mean these are some colorful people! But the scenes drag, they go on and on past the point of the average attention span. Then there's the interesting conversations about nothing much, I.E. the famous Big Mac speech. At first this seems pretty cool, as the characters are talking like real life people. But after awhile I realized Quentin is just padding the film with random dialogue. And it grows thin. First John Travolta is an expert on an inane subject like hamburgers in Europe. Then Samuel L. Jackson is an expert on foot massages and launches into his speech. Later this trend continues with Travolta and Uma Thurman at the restaurant both taking turns at their expert speeches.
Perhaps the worst part of the film is Quentin's acting role. Nothing takes you out of the world of Pulp Fiction like seeing Quentin act. It was such a strange juxtaposition of professional actors immersed in their roles (Travolta,Jackson) talking to Quentin in the kitchen scene. If this wasn't bad enough, Tarantino adds a block of dialogue about getting his good linen dirty when he talks to Harvey Keitel. This scene erases any integrity that the film had built up. Not to mention the entirely unnecessary scene in the junk yard with Julie Sweeney who seemed an odd choice for this film.
In short the movie is too long, the scenes are too long, and Quentin's on screen time is a distraction. Once this film might have seem like something interesting. Now it's just another flick.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Bruce Willis, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz
Genre: Crime Drama Action
Length: 2 hours 14 minutes
Premise: an interwoven tale of four stories involving shady underworld characters: The daily life of two hit men, a boxer involved with a gangster, the gangster's wife and a couple who rob diners. All of their stories become intermixed.
Review: The last time I watched Pulp Fiction was over twenty years ago, at that time like most people I thought it was great. I watched it for the second time, the other day. After twenty years my opinion has changed. When Pulp Fiction first came out it was a unique indie film. Now for me that uniqueness has worn off.
On the pro side the characters are still rich and lively. I mean these are some colorful people! But the scenes drag, they go on and on past the point of the average attention span. Then there's the interesting conversations about nothing much, I.E. the famous Big Mac speech. At first this seems pretty cool, as the characters are talking like real life people. But after awhile I realized Quentin is just padding the film with random dialogue. And it grows thin. First John Travolta is an expert on an inane subject like hamburgers in Europe. Then Samuel L. Jackson is an expert on foot massages and launches into his speech. Later this trend continues with Travolta and Uma Thurman at the restaurant both taking turns at their expert speeches.
Perhaps the worst part of the film is Quentin's acting role. Nothing takes you out of the world of Pulp Fiction like seeing Quentin act. It was such a strange juxtaposition of professional actors immersed in their roles (Travolta,Jackson) talking to Quentin in the kitchen scene. If this wasn't bad enough, Tarantino adds a block of dialogue about getting his good linen dirty when he talks to Harvey Keitel. This scene erases any integrity that the film had built up. Not to mention the entirely unnecessary scene in the junk yard with Julie Sweeney who seemed an odd choice for this film.
In short the movie is too long, the scenes are too long, and Quentin's on screen time is a distraction. Once this film might have seem like something interesting. Now it's just another flick.