Mixed Bag

Rating: 6/10 (23 November 1999)

Plenty of people love this movie. They rave about how original, cool and funny it is. I will admit that there is a lot to see in Avary and Tarantino's script including plenty of off beat cameo roles. I really liked Samuel Jackson's character. Not only was the performance excellent but the depth of what he was dealing with was very powerful. The rest of the movie I wasn't so happy with.
Pulp Fiction has some original story ideas. But if you compare it to Goodfellas which also has flashbacks, slow motion and sick humor it doesn't look that original. But I will admit that the story in Pulp Fiction is done in a somewhat original way. Moving down from here we have the Bruce Willis role. It is very powerful but so graphically violent that like Blue Velvet it becomes too much after a while. Down from here we have Uma Thurman's part which I felt was filling time. I didn't think that much of Travolta either. As for the so called great humor, I did not laugh at the scene in the car which just about tells the story for me. Finally about Tarantino. If he is going to have a great career in this business, he will need to write dialogue in which every other line doesn't have the "N" word and also where the climax of each scene isn't filled with buckets of blood. Without the shock value I wonder if he is that good. I thought Jackie Brown was only a little above average but better than Pulp Fiction.
Pulp Fiction presents a few effective, original moments and has a great performance by Samuel Jackson. Otherwise it piles on the violence, blood and racial slurs hoping to shock but turning out just to be overdone.