Too much of Tarantino's humor, and short on substance.

Rating: 7/10 (1 December 2019)

It would be hard to call this a bad movie because it isn't. I find it to be much overrated, just on account of all the trendy, popular sentiment the film contains, which are plentiful in Tarantino movies, from his silly lines he wrote for Crimson Tide, to other things. The movie is chock full of cliches and recurrent motifs: from Marcellus Wallace always getting raped constantly, to Butch's good luck, to Vincent Vega (John Travolta) always being in the bathroom when something important happens, to Jules Winfield's (Samuel L. Jackson) moving sermons which seemingly summons supernatural deliverance for him. Even still, the pacing is uneven. The movie ends where it began, in the diner. This is effective, but I felt in watching it that they do certain things merely for the shock value. People know that naughty things sell well. It is done so well, however, that you quickly realize how good the movie was. The downside is that you are unsure whom to sympathize with. These are all very bad people, and none of them really grow into characters to either villify or root for. For example, when Vincent Vega dies, you want to laugh, since he dies on the toilet, being knocked back by the recoil of the gun. It's pretty funny when the toaster pops, then he gets blasted! But you don't know what to think or feel anywhere in this movie. This movie contains just a series of victims on an on-again, off-again roller coaster. I don't see the need to ever see this again, because it simply tells a story and doesn't elicit any sympathy at all. If anything, the person you should feel sorry for, Marcellus, isn't given enough screen time and isn't the main character. The main plot is the briefcase, which, some have said, contains Marcellus's very soul. This seems pretty silly as a plot point since this is a guy ordering hits constantly and getting raped repeatedly.
The title pretty much says it all in the beginning definition of the word: it is Pulp Fiction.