PULP FICTION Review

I expect most of you have seen this movie, and if not actually seen it, you’ll have heard all about it. Usually in reviews I go into a brief description of the plot, but as anyone who knows the film will tell you, this is more hassle than it’s worth, and pretty damn near impossible.

It’s not a simple movie to crash in front of – it’ll take a bit of concentration to understand the three out of chronological order stories; each fast paced and packed with complicated characters, but each working together to form the overall movie. The stories overlap and intersect – for example, the fantastic opening scene with Tim Roth is also the ending scene. Whilst this plot device has been redone hundreds of times by other filmmakers, Tarrantino’s is, by far, the best example of what has now sadly become a bit of a cliché.

What makes this film so fantastic, apart from the 90’s cool styling, is the fantastic dialogue – the minutiae of the low-life’s worlds is brought to life by the free-flowing natural script. The film, rather than portraying criminals as cool and sophisticated, focuses more on their ‘normal’ inane conversation – one of the best examples of this is where Joules and Vincent (two hitmen, played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) discuss Europe, and such things as quarter-pounders (“they don’t call them quarter-pounders?”).

The script, of course, would be nothing without actors – and this movie is a showcase of some of the 90’s best talent – Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, the ever lovely Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel and Bruce Willis – in an often overlooked role when examining the career of the Die Hard star. Each of the actors put in their finest performances; bringing to life the fantastic characters that Tarrantino creates.

If you haven’t seen this funny, exhilarating and action packed movie, you **must** do it now. Right now! Don’t stop to do anything (Except perhaps put your pants on), and run down to the video store and rent or buy it! Now!

10/10 – a masterpiece!

Added:  Monday, February 24, 2003
Reviewer:  Arktic
Score:
Related web link:  Buy the collectors edition at Amazon.com
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