"Pulp Fiction"

Rating: 7/10 (6 November 2007)

Given the opportunity to get this on a cheap DVD, I decided to seize the day as it were and find out what all the fuss was about. Having only seen one Tarantino film - "Kill Bill: Part One", which I suppose actually means I'd only seen half a Taraniton film - and having enjoyed it a lot, plus having read and heard all the hype surrounding "Pulp Fiction", my expectations were higher than I would say they usually are before watching a film.
For the majority of it, "Pulp Fiction" does exactly what I've been led to believe it does: confuses you and thrills you, as well as making you chuckle, albeit a little guiltily, at several points.
The story itself - not told in a linear style - can at times be frustratingly annoying in its light-pretentious way of saying, "Ooh, look at me, I'm non-linear, I'm going to muck about with your heads". It is also full of coincidences, especially the story which revolves around Bruce Willis's character. This particular strand goes off into extremely weird territory. I suppose parts of it could happen, but you'd have to be very, very unlucky for it to actually be the case.
The cast are pretty much impeccable. Despite the very good performance of John Travolta, the film's early scenes really belong to Samuel L Jackson, whose rehearsed Biblical scripture sounds at first rather absurd before becoming incredibly chilling. There are nice turns from Uma Thurman and Ving Rhames before the film is once again saved by Jackson. Harvey Keitel is also bwa-ha-ha funny, thankfully good enough to overshadow the rather poor performance of Tarantino himself.
One thing that does rock in this film is the soundtrack, from the opening familiar theme which suddenly changes halfway through into a completely different piece of music, to the final end guitar strains. The stand-out piece must be the Chuck Barry song which Travolta and Thurman dance the twist rather badly to. This is a moment so surreal that you're not sure whether to laugh or just scratch your head and ponder the meaning of life.
On the whole, "Pulp Fiction" deserves most of the plaudits it has gained, and it is (or was) original enough to justify winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes 1995. But it is not a really great film. I have a feeling that we're still waiting for Tarantino to make one of those. Unless he already has, and I just haven't watched it yet.
7/10