A great movie, even though I don't like it.

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2005)

Pulp Fiction has essentially defined the indie movie. I first saw it on TV some time last year and have since put it on both my favourite movies list and least favourite movies list.
Odd, that. Even though everybody seems to like the movie, to me there isn't that much to like about it.
The dialogue is supposedly just ordinary chit-chat that people may have on a daily basis, but it's like that in that for the most part the dialogue is actually a sort of boring idle chat while you wait for the interesting bits. The parts of dialogue I think of in particular involve the whole chat between Vincent and Jules between the end of the opening credits and reaching the dudes' apartment (you know, about foot massages and the boss's wife etc). The same goes for much of the conversation during the Vincent-Mia "date", the conversation between Butch and his girlfriend, etc. Royale with cheese is interesting the first time but after about the 5th time I lost interest.
Also there's the characters - Jules is supposedly one of the coolest characters in modern cinema but what's to like? He's just a black guy in a black suit who quotes the Bible and uses "the m/f-word" a lot. Even his redemption doesn't quite interest me so much. Likewise, the vast majority of the characters are unlikeable on some level - Vincent is a drug user who makes several bad mistakes over the course of the film (you know what I mean), Mia is a lower-class coke addict with a sugar daddy and a failed TV pilot to her name and there's nothing likable at all about Butch. The only character I really liked was the Wolf, because he just had that smooth confidence and sharp mind that seems to come alive when Harvey Keitel plays a character.
As for the story  out of all three stories (the "date", the "gold watch" and the "Bonnie situation"), my favourite had to be "the Bonnie situation" because it just worked. From the unexpected "trigger" of events, this is quite interesting because it focuses on Jules for the most part as he undergoes his "moment of clarity", plus watching the two cleaning up is a laugh and a half. The other stories have their interesting moments ("bring out the Gimp") but are nowhere near as interesting because the idea is that the characters speak more often than any action happens. Oh well, such is life.
The action itself is actually clichés, but done in such a way that they seem original. The examples include the assassination sequence, the car crash, etc. The one piece of action that seemed incredibly original was the entire hillbilly sex dungeon scene  probably one of the best scenes in the movie, if somewhat disturbing.
In short, this is a good movie though. It's good for those of you who like "talkies" punctuated with action i.e. most people, but I seriously can't understand why this ends up on both my favourite movies list and least favourite movies list. Maybe it's because this movie is, among other things, bi-polar.
I give it 7/10