Is Pulp Fiction shit?

[mobias]

Travolta's subsequent career is also a problem for the film. When you watch Pulp Fiction in 2015, it's hard to accept John Travolta as a cool gangster when you know that this is the same thetan-charged simpleton who made Battlefield Earth.

He hadn't made Battlefield Earth of course but he was a well known thetan-charged simpleton when he made Pulp Fiction too. 

[Steven]

If I were Travolta I'd be encouraging the press to promote stories about me almost raping a string of male masseuses to try and bury cringe-inducing embarrassing shit like this:

From Paris With Love

Pelham 123

And who can forget Patrice O'Neal losing his shit hearing that shit-sandwich Face/Off being analysed.

[Bhazor]

I know it was kind of the whole point but still I've always thought the film was very loose. Like there's no dovetailing of the different stories and the main plot is just this kind of thrown together string of accidents. A few great scenes, the diner hold up and the Walken scene, but they feel almost like skits rather than scenes in a coherent film.

I honestly think Reservoir Dogs was better in every way.

[Hollow]

I watched it again just recently with my now nearly grown up son and yes it's not great is it?

No real plot, no real anything, just a series of mildly amusing/entertaining scenes held together with not much.

Good but not great.

[DukeDeMondo]

...that shit-sandwich Face/Off being analysed.

Right fuck that, Face/Off is fuckin amazing. What the fuck kind of world are we livin in, now, anyway?

Shit-sandwich! Jesus Christ that took the breath from me.

[Steven]

Right fuck that, Face/Off is fuckin amazing. What the fuck kind of world are we livin in, now, anyway?

Shit-sandwich! Jesus Christ that took the breath from me.

Have you listened to the clip? I remember a mate going on about Face/Off when it came out and how I had to see it, when I eventually did I thought it fucking stank. As in the above clip.. that awful hand rubbing over his family's face, as if to imply he's taking their face.. off, Nicholas Cage's I AM CASTOR TROY nonsense is terrible, the fact they swap faces yet somehow Castor Troy's body doubles in size and the opposite with Travolta - terrible Hollywood miscasting, the magnet boots in prison, among a million other things as I haven't seen it in years, terrible dialogue, it really is an awful movie. Of course you can argue it's an 'action' flick similar to the other Nic Cage shit-sandwich Con Air and doesn't bear over analysis but I was consciously perceiving every element as completely stupid and hackneyed on my first viewing. Stuff like True Lies is aware of how stupid it is and has it's tongue firmly in cheek.

[Noodle Lizard]

He hadn't made Battlefield Earth of course but he was a well known thetan-charged simpleton when he made Pulp Fiction too.

He'd made Moment By Moment too, a truly dreadful film which he and Lily Tomlin have done a good job of suppressing.  I think that's what started his career decline before Tarantino "brought him back".

[East of Eden]

The problem with Tarantino is people give him too much credit and also not enough. He's not a genius auteur but he's not a talentless hack. He's a mad, immature curator who is shamelessly self-indulgent.

Re-watched Reservoir Dogs recently and can't take Tim Roth seriously, sounds like the cookie monster when he's dying, fuck's that about? Larrrrrrrrrry!

[Funcrusher]

It's Tarantino, of course it's shit.

[Danger Man]

The only good Tarantino movie is Jackie Brown but that isn't very popular with Tarantino fans because a black woman plays the lead.

[Steven]

The only good Tarantino movie is Jackie Brown but that isn't very popular with Tarantino fans because a black woman plays the lead.

I like Jackie Brown yet am reportedly a massive racist so that can't be true.

[Funcrusher]

The only good Tarantino movie is Jackie Brown

Indeed.

[DukeDeMondo]

Of course you can argue it's an 'action' flick similar to the other Nic Cage shit-sandwich Con Air and doesn't bear over analysis but I was consciously perceiving every element as completely stupid and hackneyed on my first viewing.

I don't subscribe to that at all (the "it's just an action flick..." business), I just think that the kind of analysis presented in that clip you posted  (funny though it was) is inappropriate and superficial, and the things criticized are all utterly irrelevant. You'd have to get up fairly early in the mornin if you wanted to end the day having missed the point of something by quite such a distance.

Yes it's hyperbolic and ridiculous and the plot is silly as fuck, so the fuck what? That's just like all those youtubers rantin on about this or the other movie fuckin sucks balls, man, because some irrelevant bullshit seemed a bit far fetched to them, or the science was off. Fuck the direction, fuck the choreography, fuck the cinematography, fuck everything about it because the film's supposed to be set in 1989 but someone had a microwave that wasn't available until 1992, what a piece of fuckin' shit.

Fuck but they get right up my pubes, that shower. Hard Boiled is daft as shit as well, and if all you were worried about was how plausible it all was, or how ripe this line of dialogue or the other might be, then I suppose you might think that was shit, too, but you'd be wrong all night, and that's all there is to it. 

Anyway, QT.

I haven't seen Pulp Fiction in ages. I'm very fond of it, it got me at the right age, so on and so forth. I'm reluctant to go back, for fear of finding out that it is, in fact, shit. Some of the lines quoted in this thread are really quite hideous.

Saying that, the only QT picture I haven't liked is Kill Bill 2. 

[Default to the negative]

I haven't seen Pulp Fiction in ages. I'm very fond of it, it got me at the right age, so on and so forth. I'm reluctant to go back, for fear of finding out that it is, in fact, shit.

It is not, in fact, shit, but some of it hasn't aged well. Pumpkin and Honeybunny are probably the most embarrassingly dated part of it. They reek of that 1990s indie-film kitsch. You half expect Vincent Gallo to turn up in those diner scenes.

[Noodle Lizard]

It is not, in fact, shit, but some of it hasn't aged well. Pumpkin and Honeybunny are probably the most embarrassingly dated part of it. They reek of that 1990s indie-film kitsch. You half expect Vincent Gallo to turn up in those diner scenes.

He'd probably whack his cock into the bag instead of his wallet like "Hey guys, I'm Vincent Gallo".

Actually fuck off Noodle, I really liked Buffalo '66 and even had time for the hilariously self-indulgent The Brown Bunny.

[Steven]

Face/Off is brilliant and anybody who doesn't agree can fuck their face off

I can agree that there's a certain suspension of disbelief that you have to take with a lot of films and maybe it's an idiosyncratic thing, but watching Face/Off for the first time I just felt everything about it was terrible, Nic Cage doing his crazy Nic Cage shite and Travolta's 'troubled cop' bollocks with his dead son, yuck! Then all the tedious interplay with his wife. When it comes down to it maybe there was a decent idea there but with Hollywood politicking casting Travolta vs Cage in a story about how you don't know who someone is because their faces have been surgically swapped is just a terrible choice.

Can we at least agree about Con Air? Nice Cage is the cop with a troubled past Cameron Poe (who picks all these shitty character names in Hollywood, Castor Troy etc?!) and Cyrus is named that just so he can rhyme with The Virus (Hannibal the Cannibal was similarly shoehorned) and Steve Buscemi who plays a viscious serial killer except when he gets set free we see him alone with a little girl who mysteriously has no guardians and leaving the scene we are forced to assume he's killed her, cut to her waving goodbye to the plane as the viscious serial killer didn't have the heart to chop her up, my expectations have been confounded! Ugh, Hollywood, you beguiling fucking genius.

[East of Eden]

I'm mixed about Buffalo '66 (unintentional assonance), but that tap dance scene is special, loved that.

[Noodle Lizard]

I can agree that there's a certain suspension of disbelief that you have to take with a lot of films and maybe it's an idiosyncratic thing, but watching Face/Off for the first time I just felt everything about it was terrible, Nic Cage doing his crazy Nic Cage shite and Travolta's 'troubled cop' bollocks with his dead son, yuck!

Only for about five minutes, then it's Travolta's turn for the rest of the movie.  Also, with the sort-of-exception of Leaving Las Vegas, I think this was the first appearance of proper zany Nic Cage.

I dunno, I remember finding it good fun but it's been close to 15 years since last I saw it.  I don't think it's a film that could ever get me particularly worked up though.

I'm mixed about Buffalo '66 (unintentional assonance), but that tap dance scene is special, loved that.

That bit's probably the most indie scene of all time, and has been ripped off to fuck by countless others.  There's a bit in that shite film that won the Best Short Oscar a few years back which is virtually the same thing, even taking place in a bowling alley.

[Noodle Lizard]

Anyway, we seem to have all come to the conclusion that Pulp Fiction is pure AIDS.  So concludes the thread.  Unless there's anything else you guys would like to talk about?

[monolith]

Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Con Air all being called shit on the same page...

Fucking hell, this forum is jam packed with joyless cynics. You can have your opinions of course but I'm very glad I don't see the world through your eyes. The thought of sitting stony faced through each of those films picking incredibly obvious things to complain about sounds like such a horrible existence.

[East of Eden]

Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Con Air all being called shit on the same page...

Fucking hell, this forum is jam packed with joyless cynics. You can have your opinions of course but I'm very glad I don't see the world through your eyes. The thought of sitting stony faced through each of those films picking incredibly obvious things to complain about sounds like such a horrible existence.

Welcome to the internet, where everything is shit and everyone is better than everything.

As Brother Morrisey said "It's so easy to laugh. It's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind."

[Steven]

Fucking hell, this forum is jam packed with joyless cynics. You can have your opinions of course but I'm very glad I don't see the world through your eyes. The thought of sitting stony faced through each of those films picking incredibly obvious things to complain about sounds like such a horrible existence.

I'd add Independence Day to that list, I saw it at the cinema with a friend and we both loved it then thought it was utter shite seeing it a few months later on the small screen, the bombast of cinema really does change your perception. Though it's definitely not an arty pseudo intellectual 'Oh I think these popular movies are terrible because they're popular I like obscure things', I watched them and just thought they were bad, I don't care about looking clever, though I like Howard The Duck and The Cable Guy so I wouldn't chalk up my opinion adding to much.

[Noodle Lizard]

Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Con Air all being called shit on the same page...

Fucking hell, this forum is jam packed with joyless cynics. You can have your opinions of course but I'm very glad I don't see the world through your eyes. The thought of sitting stony faced through each of those films picking incredibly obvious things to complain about sounds like such a horrible existence.

I actually found myself laughing more during Pulp Fiction this time than I had done previously, if only for noticing a couple of subtleties that had previously gone over my head and more fully appreciating the weirdness of Travolta's performance at times.  I replayed his "don't know if it's worth $5 but it's pretty fuckin' goooood" zinger at least thrice.  Those lines I mentioned did grate much more than they had before, and I don't think it's as good as I used to, but I wouldn't say it was a joyless experience overall.  This thread has also made me laugh out loud on occasion.

Meanwhile, you've probably got a face like whacked gammon, whatever that might look like.

[Danger Man]

Anyway, we seem to have all come to the conclusion that Pulp Fiction is pure AIDS.  So concludes the thread.  Unless there's anything else you guys would like to talk about?

Cinema versus TV?

I sat in the front row of the Odeon Leicester Square to see 2010 and it was one of the most intense experiences of my life.

The DVD was shit.

[Noodle Lizard]

I don't care about looking clever, though I like Howard The Duck and The Cable Guy so I wouldn't chalk up my opinion adding to much.

Do people not like The Cable Guy?  I know it flopped at the box office, but I thought it was quite popular.  I certainly liked it last I checked.

[Sam]

Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Con Air all being called shit on the same page...

Fucking hell, this forum is jam packed with joyless cynics. You can have your opinions of course but I'm very glad I don't see the world through your eyes. The thought of sitting stony faced through each of those films picking incredibly obvious things to complain about sounds like such a horrible existence.

Nah, you can enjoy a film in one mode or perspective and pick it apart in another. You can have more than one thought in your head at a time. Your approach seems the more flawed one, ignoring things you don't like thinking about and switching bits of your brain off in order to enjoy something in a more mindless way. That doesn't seems like a better, more joyful or less cynical way to watch things at all.

PF is not a masterpiece but it's an interesting piece of art, and such things can withstand analysis. The art work is more robust than you think, and your gaze less destructive.

[Steven]

Do people not like The Cable Guy?  I know it flopped at the box office, but I thought it was quite popular.  I certainly liked it last I checked.

It's one of the go to films to deride as objectively shite, I remember The Simpsons doing a joke about how bad the script was:

Bart: There's that awful script from The Cable Guy.
Homer: Let me see that. Stupid script! Nearly wrecked Jim Carrey's career! (Starts ripping up the script and then sees everyone looking at him) What?

Family Guy have probably done the same, or will do at some point. It's definitely held up as the thing that almost killed Jim Carrey's career but I'd say Liar, Liar and The Mask are much worse movies, The Mask just coasted on CGI and Carrey being wacky, it's actually stealing a lot from the Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie I think.

[DukeDeMondo]

Yeah, folk have definitely come round to The Cable Guy. That joke is one of the few things in Proper Simpsons that doesn't really work anymore.

See also the stuff about no-one admitting to having seen Tron. That too has enjoyed a much deserved reevaluation.

[Noodle Lizard]

Family Guy have probably done the same, or will do at some point. It's definitely held up as the thing that almost killed Jim Carrey's career but I'd say Liar, Liar and The Mask are much worse movies, The Mask just coasted on CGI and Carey being wacky, it's actually stealing a lot from the Who Framed Roger Rabbit movie I think.

The Mask didn't hold up for me, loved it when I was a kid though (and his initial transformation scared the lizard out of me).  Liar Liar is still watchable in a daft Sunday afternoon kind of way, but I reckon The Cable Guy's the best of the bunch.  I remember it being quite dark and depressing at times as well, I like that in my comedy - can't be having too much fun.

[Steven]

The Mask didn't hold up for me, loved it when I was a kid though (and his initial transformation scared the lizard out of me).  Liar Liar is still watchable in a daft Sunday afternoon kind of way, but I reckon The Cable Guy's the best of the bunch.  I remember it being quite dark and depressing at times as well, I like that in my comedy - can't be having too much fun.

What annoys me about Liar Liar is it has that Adam Sandler gimmick of the man who mysteriously has some supernatural thing happen which changes his entire outlook, like Click or South Park's Rob Schneider is a stapler bollocks, it's been done in so many movies, and obviously originates in things like Dickens' A Christmas Carol which is arguably adapted to It's A Wonderful Life. The Dad is a lawyer who has to lie for a living but he tells little white lies to his family, now suddenly he can't lie because his son makes a wish and he learns a lesson and becomes a better Dad!

I suppose Liar Liar is coloured to me because we were in Rhyl when it came out and my friend's Dad bought him a Nintendo 64 in the shop and he was aching to go home and play it and I argued with him and another friend we should go to the cinema to see Liar Liar first as I was a big Jim Carrey fan, they acquiesced and we sat there pretty stony faced and I had to agree with them really wasn't very funny, and when we came out I caught such shit about it!