It lives up to its title

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2017)

Now that it's almost 23 years later can we have a level-headed point of view on this movie? The hype machine in 1994 went into maximum overdrive with Pulp Fiction in a way that has rarely been repeated, even in a world over-saturated with easily accessible and multiple forms of media. For years people have regarded Pulp Fiction as if it is somehow far beyond any kind of criticism. It's time for scrutiny.
As a 150-minute series of vignettes within vignettes it makes for good entertainment the first few viewings, but I've seen Pulp Fiction from beginning to end about 10 times now and I can honestly say I am done with it.
The trashy nature of the stories and the wider world that the characters inhabit is a nice homage to the dime novels of the 1950s and other trash cinema of the era. And I mean trash. Pulp Fiction takes virtually no inspiration from anything with an ounce of class. Don't be fooled by the all-star cast and the larger- than-life characters.
For years people have been quoting the screenplay as if it were a breathtaking breakthrough in movie dialogue. It's not. If anything it is far too wordy. The editor should have been a little more liberal in cutting down the talking. There is an utterly pointless interaction between Travolta, Thurman, and Buscemi about a $5 shake that seems to go on forever. It adds absolutely nothing to scene at all and I cringe whenever I hear it. I can't believe I am even wasting my time bringing it up in this review, but it's a good example of frequent nothingness that should have been excised. Tarantino also seems to have an inability to reign in his actors here, leaving them to ham their way over the boundaries which gives many characters an unfocused, disconnected, and confusing riff. Travolta in particular seems off and alienating. He was probably just happy to get work at the time but there's no reason for why the rest of the cast didn't question the overwritten material.
It's also very dull to look at. Jack Rabbit Slims appears to be the only set specifically designed for the movie, which is why there is a colorful vibrancy to this scene that is found nowhere else. Almost every other shot takes place at street level in the most mundane parts of Los Angeles without any sense of location. The lazy Panavision photography just plonks the camera down at standard angles and indulges in far too much steadicam for its own good, all while never giving us much in the way of geography. It's very frustrating.
Pulp Fiction is competent with unique inspirations, but the movie has almost no original ideas and it has been massively over-regarded for far too long.