Poikers et al.

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2017)

Let's reconstruct a scene from Quentin Tarantino's highly successful "Pulp Fiction (1994)." Samuel L, Jackson and John Travolta are two hit men assigned to wipe out a couple of welshers. In the apartment they shoot two of the kids to death and turn to leave, when a third terrified kid rushes out of the bathroom and empties his pistol at their backs. Jackson and Travolta turn and look at the six bullet holes in the wall behind them -- every shot having missed -- glance quizzically at each other, then wordlessly raise their guns and blow the brains out of the third guy.
Now, if that scene was funny, this whole movie is hilarious. It's vastly more stylized, with abundant slow motion, instantaneous cuts, stings on the sound track, and occasional subtitle, as well as a narration by Jason Statham.
But, as in "Pulp Fiction," there are multiple narrative threads involving three black thieves, a mock-Jewish conspiracy, a Russian, corrupt boxing matches, and something about a priceless diamond as big as a ping pong ball. For lagniappe, in addition to Quentin Tarantino in excess, we get touches -- or snatches, if you prefer -- of Charlie Chaplin's slapstick, mostly involving a cute sassy mutt with a black patch over one eye. The dog gulps down a squeaky rubber toy and thereafter when barking he also squeaks. Sometimes he only squeaks. Later, after the dog swallows the diamond, the head villain orders him "opened up" but the .50 caliber pistol bearing goon who has killed dozens of men is reluctant to shoot the dog.
It's full of wisecracks, F-bombs, fast cuts, action, and assorted mishigas, all of which manage to subsume the plot with less difficulty than the dog had swallowing the squeaky rubber toy.
The only time I cared about what happened to any of the characters was when the heavies burned Brad Pitt's Mum alive in the caravan -- a dirty trick if you ask me. It may be that Pitt gives the best performance in the sense that, though I could understand only about one word out of five from the normal characters, I could understand nothing at all said by Pitt's Irish tinker. "Waw may" is actually "Why me?"