What does Marcellus Wallace look like?

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Adam’s rating: ★★★★  (out of 5)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Rated: R. 154 min.

No. 95 on  AFI 100

No. 94 on AFI 100 reissue

No. 5 on IMDB Top 250

Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson,
Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Ving Rhames,
Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken,
Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquet"te

"Pulp Fiction"; No. 95 on AFI 100;
No. 94 on AFI 100 (2008); No. 5 on IMDB Top 250

I have a major love/hate relationship with this movie.

I love the way Quentin Tarantino is able to weave through various stories of different people in his movies and have all of the separate stories intertwine somehow as the movie goes on. Sometimes, I even love the dialogue in his films. But I hate how long and drawn out the movie can feel at points. Tarantino is good at whetting your appetite with the action and violence that when you go into long spells of dialogue it’s like your brain wants to explode. Kind of like “Death Proof.”  But it happens in “Pulp Fiction,” too.

I hate how overrated this film is at times. Yeah, I like the movie, but it’s over-inflated. Every film buff you ever meet is going to recommend this movie to you as the best movie of the 90s, and while I agree -- it is good, unique, and all that -- I don't think it's "THE BEST." And if you want proof, take a glance at where it is on the lists. The AFI and IMDB are a good indication of how good a movie really is.

While the AFI can be a bit stuffy and omit excellent movies from its list, I feel that “Pulp Fiction’s” placement on both of these lists is somewhat fair and close to accurate. “Pulp Fiction” is good; it was a revolutionary movie for the 1990s. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s not “The Godfather,” as IMDB’s users might have you think by ranking it at No. 5.

“Pulp Fiction” is funny. It has some very funny lines. The scene where Jules and Vincent (Travolta) confront a group of would be drug dealers about “What Marcellus Wallace looks like?” and if they speak English in What? Funny. Christopher Walken’s vivid description about keeping a watch up his ass to keep it away from the Viet Cong when he was imprisoned in Vietnam … Funny. The dialogue at times is great. At other times it is boring as it almost feels like Tarantino is trying his hand at showing off his pop culture acumen or something? For example, the entire conversation about the Royale with cheese and mayonnaise with French fries ... it's funny; it doesn't make any sense and doesn't really relate to other parts of the movie, except a funny line later when Jules asks Brett why they call it a Royale with cheese, but it doesn't have to because it's funny. In contrast, the foot massage lines (although some find them funny) are kind of dumb; as is the whole coffee diatribe.

The movie is a guy’s movie. It has funny lines, it has action, it has violence and guys relate well to it. And like I said, I love the way that four or five different stories of different characters all interweave into one in this film. 

It was a very unique way to tell a story when this film was made and for that reason the technical aspect of storytelling is what makes this film revolutionary. Tarantino employs this trick in other movies, too. “Four Rooms” being the most obvious. And it’s a really good and interesting way to tell one big story through several people’s perspectives. I like movies like that. They’re interesting and intriguing and force you to pay attention.

But the downside is that it gets hard to pay attention when the dialogue gets dry and the action dries up.

And unfortunately, as much as I love this movie, I hate being bored by it.