Some hilarious scenes, but nothing else to offer

Rating: 2/10 (4 April 2005)

Quentin Tarrantino is in general better known for the amount of violence in his films than any merits they have, and after seeing "Pulp Fiction," I can see why. The film had an extreme amount of violence, yes, but it had few merits. The stories were none too original or exciting and the final attempt to connect them was completely unsuccessful and really brought to the fore what a disconnected, nonsensical mess the entire film is.
The characters are flat and dull, the dialogue is made up of about six total words, five of which cannot be used on network television, the stories aren't exciting, and those stories have an attempted connection that doesn't really connect them. Tarrantino seems to have been playing around with time and non-linear narrative, but the film barely, if at all, made any sense. There seems to be no reason for anything that happens and the unusual narrative, rather than drawing the viewer in, is beyond Tarrantino's (the writer) abilities. Further, Tarrantino draws no interesting characters--even with two skilled and charismatic leads in Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta. The most interesting character is definitely that of Butch the boxer, and even he is little-defined.
The performances of all involved were fine, since the characters required so little, highlighted by Bruce Willis (oddly enough) and Samuel L. Jackson and lowlighted by the ever-horrible Patricia Arquette, who can do more to ruin an easy character than any actor I have ever seen this side of Kevin Costner and Patricia Clarkson. The parade of stars seemed to be Tarrantino's attempt to distract from the film, but it wasn't successful, since most of the actors were people who have horrible taste in general (Mr. Travolta, that's your call) and this was like a concatenation of all their wrongdoings.
Meanwhile, Tarrantino the director does not distinguish himself in one way or another. It's a fairly standard-looking film that doesn't jump out of the mainstream at all, which was actually rather effective since the violence then seemed much more commonplace, but I don't know that it was Tarrantino's intention. I think if he intended that sort of theme, he would have used a more close up-laden style, so I doubt that he intended to be dull.
The film's few redeeming moments were packed near the end, with a hilarious scene of Bruce Willis choosing a weapon with which to kill some tormentors and a look on his face at the end of said scene that is absolutely priceless leading the pack, but a few other good comic moments come near the end and perhaps make up somewhat for the mess that came before them.
Overall, I consider "Pulp Fiction" a terrible mess of a script with no characterization, bad dialogue, a wildly disconnected story, and no reasons for anything that was directed decently if not well and enacted as well as possible considering its horrendous flaws. The film is most certainly not the masterpiece it is made out to be; it is more the accident it least wants to be. I would suggest it if you don't mind violence and want a good nap, but that's it.