Rating of
2/4
Overrated--Sort Of
Freddie - wrote on 09/15/10
What I venomously hated about this movie in the first of hour and a half the movie was made up for times 10 in the last 30-40 minutes which is why it has 2 stars as opposed to the 0.5 stars that I was planning on giving it.
Pulp Fiction is about...well I don't know: French Hamburgers? Blueberry pancakes and potbellies? Boxing? Drug addicts? A magic briefcase? I don't know. What was this movie about? Going into this I was prepared for a whole lot of talking--that's a given in any Tarantino flick. However, he didn't pull it off in this the way he does for movies such as True Romance, Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2. This reminds me more of Death Proof which was absolutely miserable to watch. The problem lies in the fact that there is just way too much dialogue with no basis. It's just talking. Here is where the use of random dialogue makes sense: in True Romance you get the speech about the Sicilians and in Kill Bill 2 you get the speech about the Black Mamba. It works here because it's a clever and witty and you can see why it is being done (so it's not really so random). It's being used to bring a kind of humor or shock to these highly intense situations where someone is about to die. The intended reaction is supposed to be something along the lines of "OMG, I can't believe he said that!" followed by a gaping jaw or laughter. In Pulp Fiction, for the most part, all of that talking was really really boring the crap out of me. Then all of a sudden someone would get shot or od on drugs and things would get really exciting, and then back MORE TALKING ABOUT NONSENSE. The only chatter scene that was great with Christopher Walken and the watch; but, even that didn't get interesting until the end.
I know people think this is one of the greatest movies ever made, and I'm guessing it's because from the point where Willis' character left to go get his watch and onward was one of the greatest chain of events to ever happen in a movie. I was actually on the edge of my seat. (Note: This style was used again by Taratantino in Death Proof where all of the action begins towards the end, but everything before that is talk talk talk talk talk-- it's such a bad idea). Once the movie took that turn for the better there was really no going back. It was absolutely brilliant. Tarantino can be an absolute genius when he wants to be.
