Great Expectations

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2007)

Three worlds collide. Vincent (Travolta) is an assassin for criminal king Marcelus Wallace (Rhames), whose wife Mia (Thurman) he is dangerously flirting with, against better advice from partner Jules (Jackson). Pumpkin (Roth) and Hunnie Bunnie (Plummer) are two psycho lovers, not far removed from Tarantino's creations in True Romance. Butch (Willis) is a washed-up boxer, indebted to Wallace after he refuses to fake defeat.
There is one fundamental element that either makes Tarantino excellent or irritating, depending on the film: his almost nerdy knowledge of film lore. Starting off as a geeky video store clerk, Tarantino became a noted screenwriter (recicling many a conversation from his video store days in his film dialogue: culture debates, comic/film references etc.), then director (this time referencing films, mostly the French New Wave, US blacksploitation, Chinese/Hong Kong Kung Fu and Japanese samurai pics). More often than not, he injects a global coherence that is unique, which, coupled with a deft hand at directing actors, makes for awesome cinema. other times, the result is simply embarrassing.
"Pulp Fiction" plays audaciously with its narrative structure, has some magnificently slick photography - though heavily inspired by the New wave - and manages the beguiling feat of uniting such a mouth-watering cast on top form. It made Samuel L. Jackson a household name and gave Travolta a chance at rebirth (before he sabotaged himself again with Battlefield Earth), and yet...
For all the fine moments, Pulp Fiction is undone by its nature: it s pulp. The editing dazzles, but the story goes nowhere. Some dialogue sizzles but the overall cohesion is quite uneven. This makes Pulp Fiction a hard film to enjoy when not stoned: it is a succession of great moments that have nothing to do together, like a best-of show-reel of a TV series, so that when you try to take your distance to evaluate it as a whole, it proves dangerously wanting - and, at 160 minutes, dangerously long for its contents. The daring auteur of the brilliant "Reservoir Dogs" has overreached himself.
Perhaps Tarantino himself realized this excess: he went on to make the more controlled and muted Jackie Brown, before exploding again, this time in the action department, with Kill Bill (an amusing but suspiciously unoriginal revenge epic that rips off every established kung fu classic out there). However, he did devote time to promote Asian underdogs in the US, and help cookie mavericks make it in the US.
Back to Pulp Fiction. See it at least once for its good moments. At least part of the hype is true...