PULP Fiction is an intoxicating, exhilarating rush - and that pace continues relentlessly for 150 minutes. It's sharp-edged, violent and tough. It is, the best picture of a lacklustre year.
This is only Quentin Tarantino's second work as a director, and it is not too far in concept or construction from Reservoir Dogs. It does illustrate that, so far, Tarantino only knows how to make one kind of film; but it's made beautifully. It's new and vibrant cinema, derivative in parts but presented in an entirely different package. Despite the cunning complexity of the plot, the movie's dialogue is the most outstanding factor.
Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme D'Or at Cannes for Tarantino last year and is up for seven Oscars on Tuesday (Hong Kong time), is a latticework of three different stories. The one character who crosses over all storylines is an almost-unrecognisable John Travolta as small-time hood Vincent Vega.
It's nearly 18 years since Travolta skipped around the dance floor as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. He deliberately plays up the ravages of time here and it's his best performance yet. Vega is partnered with Jules Winnfield (Samuel Jackson), a gospel-spouting hood-for-hire. They're sent by Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) to retrieve a briefcase from a gang of double-crossing amateurs leading to a hilarious interlude with Harvey Keitel (as the Wolf) and Tarantino (playing Jimmie).
In the meantime, Vincent is obliged to take Wallace's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out for a date, during which she accidentally overdoses on his heroin stash; he is forced to take her to drug dealer Lance (Eric Stoltz) for some unforgettable home doctoring.
Boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) has taken money from Wallace to throw his next fight; but has forgotten his father's watch (the story of which is recounted by Christopher Walken in an astounding interlude) and must go back to retrieve it. And in the final story, Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) and Pumpkin (Tim Roth) hold up a diner, which eventually leads to the film's final denouement.