Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #946 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-25
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 148 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
With Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino stunned the filmmaking world, exploding into prominence as a cinematic heavyweight contender after initial success with 1992's Reservoir Dogs. But Pulp Fiction was more than just the follow-up to an impressive first feature, or the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, or a script stuffed with the sort of juicy bubblegum dialogue actors just love to chew, or the vehicle that re-established John Travolta on the A-list, or the relatively low-budget ($8 million) independent showcase for an ultra-hip mixture of established marquee names and rising stars from the indie scene (among them Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Julia Sweeney, Kathy Griffin and Phil Lamar). It was more, even, than an unprecedented $100-million-plus hit for indie distributor Miramax. Pulp Fiction was a sensation. It packs so much energy and invention into telling its non-chronologically interwoven short stories (all about temptation, corruption and redemption among modern criminals, large and small) it leaves viewers both exhilarated and exhausted--hearts racing and knuckles white from the ride. (Oh, and the infectious, surf-guitar-based soundtrack is tastier than a Royale with Cheese.) --Jim Emerson

Synopsis
Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster follow-up to Reservoir Dogs is a breathtaking tribute to old dime store novels about small time hoods and dangerous criminals. It features deftly woven plotlines, creating a mythic Los Angeles underworld of drug dealers, molls, affable hitmen, restaurant-robbing lovers, and a boxer out to scam the mob on his last professional bout. This is the film that put John Travolta back on the map as a major box-office draw in the '90s and officially established Samuel L. Jackson as a superstar. It also inspired a seemingly endless slew of imitators. Travolta, Jackson and Bruce Willis star (alongside a star-studded cast) as petty thugs in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles where smart talk, quickfire humour and confrontation are a way of life. Winner of the Golden Palm Award at Cannes and Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Customer Reviews

Genius
The stories that make up the plot of the film go as follows...Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are two hit men hired by LA crime lord Marcellus Wallace to track down a very important suitcase. A couple of lovebirds named Pumpkin and Honey Bunny decide to rob a restaurant at gunpoint. A few days later Marcellus asks Vincent to take his wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for the night since he's away on business. Meanwhile an ageing boxer named Butch Collidge (Bruce Willis) has opted not to take Marcellus Wallace's money and fall in the fifth round - instead he just decides to take the money and flee LA. However, all these stories are shown interlaced at the same time during the film...allowing characters to cross over into each other's stories and timelines. Also, in typical Tarantino fashion - none of these proposed scenarios go to plan.

Despite the complicated plot and highly unlikely situations, the dialogue of the film brings realism. The characters are unsure about decisions and have very normal trivial conversations. One such conversation is when Jules and Vincent are amazed that a Quarter Pounder burger is called a Royale in Paris - due to the metric system. An example of hesitation and humanity comes when Butch is trying to decide how to kill the rapists who have captured Marcellus. He scours the back counter of the gun shop picking up a hammer, a chainsaw and a baseball bat before settling on a Kantana Samurai sword. The extreme content of violence and language is counterbalanced by this dark but subtle humour.

The audience of this film will feel confused, horrified, amused and enthralled by its stark unafraid nature. The title comes from the nickname for cheap paperback fiction Tarantino encountered that always told of urban mythology which was never quite disbelieved. This is where the basis for these scenarios come from - the hit man who has to take his boss' wife for dinner, the boxer who flees with rigging money -Tarantino took them out of their confines and brought them to real life characters who then dealt with such extraordinary circumstance in a normal way.

The look and feel of the film is also superb. A soundtrack of surfing music goes eerily well with the graphic violence, particularly the title theme by Dick Dale. The 1950s diner Mia chooses is an amazing setting, setting an atmosphere unrivalled by any other restaurant scene in other films. The performances by the well chosen cast are amazing to watch...particularly Samuel L. Jackson and Harvey Keitel. There is also a superb scene by Christopher Walken, playing Butch's father in a flashback scene.

Pulp Fiction really is a creative masterpiece of a script delivered perfectly onto the cinema screen. A film to see before you die and a film you take with you to your grave.

Sassy, sexy, sensational
I don't usually have much time for American gangster thrillers, but this one just blew me away.
I loved the dance scenes, looked away at the drugs scene and wondered just how many other directors would have thought to include the Quarterpounder debate.
This movie is a triumph which stands repeated viewings.

"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger. And you will know my name is the Lord..."
Quentin Tarantino is becoming a cult hero amongst young people now, and this - his 3rd film, is some would say his pinnacle, where he started being really known for his work. I personally put it off - I did want to see this, but at the same time I was worried I would miss the point, not understand QTs intricate ideas and small moments of clarity, so I didn't bother watching it, until now, after enjoying Death Proof, and the Kill Bill series.

This film is all really about Marsellus Wallace, a big part of the gang culture, a dangerous man if wrongly crossed, but could be a good guy to have on your side. Vincent and Jules work for him, and they're just trying to get money they owe Wallace, yet with all great leaders comes greed, jealousy and controversy, and this is what happens when people feel those values are more important.

This is a great movie, but can be confusing if you don't have your finger on the pulse, both Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta are great in this, and undervalued actors at the time like Uma Thurman really proved they were ready for the big screen. QT also has kept his foot obsession going, and I just wonder how many more movies are we going to see his worshipping carry on? I like the way he builds up his characters just by idle chatter - and yet we get to see what they are - most of them mischievous, but others are low lives desperate to bring Wallace down. I personally liked his wife, Mia as she was fun and kept happy and young, but I think the real star has to be Bruce Willis as the boxer, he's really good in this movie, and showed us he wasn't just Detective John McClain - but there was more to the guy than meets the eye.

This is an interesting piece of work, that's not easy to describe, due to the immensity of it, but I think it's really where QT started for me, I wasn't really into his blood splattered Reservoir Dogs - but this was more up my street, and Jackie Brown I highly recommend.

Definitely worth getting - this is a film you have to see before you die.