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Pulp Fiction

EMAILPRINTMiramax Films

Pulp Fiction reviews
94
9.1 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Quentin Tarantino (also stories)
Roger Avary (stories)

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 14, 1994
DVD: May 19, 1998

Running Time: 154 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, and Eric Stoltz

Several inter-locking stories of crime and intrigue form a temporal mosaic set in the Los Angeles underworld.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Pulp Fiction isn't just funny. It's outrageously funny. [14 Oct 1994]

100

USA Today Mike Clark

For a brutal black comedy about L.A. hitmen, Pulp Fiction bursts out of its binding with loopy delights. [14 Oct 1994]

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It is an exhilaration from beginning to end. It's the movie equivalent of that rare sort of novel where you find yourself checking to see how many pages are left and hoping there are more, not fewer.

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Like "Citizen Kane," Pulp Fiction is constructed in such a nonlinear way that you could see it a dozen times and not be able to remember what comes next.

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100

ReelViews James Berardinelli

With this film, every layer that you peel away leads to something deeper and richer. Tarantino makes pictures for movie-lovers, and Pulp Fiction is a near-masterpiece.

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100

Rolling Stone Staff (Not Credited)

The new King Kong of crime movies...Ferocious fun without a trace of caution, complacency or political correctness to inhibit its 154 deliciously lurid minutes.

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100

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Pulp Fiction is at least three movies rolled into one, and they're all scintillating.

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100

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

A spectacularly entertaining piece of pop culture, Pulp Fiction is the "American Graffiti" of violent crime pictures.

100

Film Threat Brad Laidman

The first masterwork of the post-modern pop culture generation...gets better with every viewing, and like good rock n' roll, needs to be played loud!

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100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Brilliant and brutal, funny and exhilarating, jaw-droppingly cruel and disarmingly sweet...To watch this movie (whose 2 1/2 hours speed by unnoticed) is to experience a near-assault of creativity.

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100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Tarantino's mock-tough narrative--which derives most of its titillation from farcical mayhem, drugs, deadpan macho monologues, evocations of anal penetration, and terms of racial abuse--resembles a wet dream for 14-year-old male closet queens (or, perhaps more accurately, the 14-year-old male closet queen in each of us), and his command of this smart-alecky mode is so sure that this nervy movie sparkles throughout with canny twists and turns.

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100

Entertainment Weekly Staff (Not Credited)

[Tarantino's] ability to take what seem like minor conversational themes and dovetail them onto later exchanges for maximum comic effect is close to genius. And the action can be literally heart-stopping.

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100

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

A triumphant, cleverly disorienting journey through a demimonde that springs entirely from Mr. Tarantino's ripe imagination, a landscape of danger, shock, hilarity, and vibrant local color. Nothing is predictable or familiar within this irresistably bizarre world. You don't merely enter a theater to see Pulp Fiction; you go down a rabbit hole. [23 Sept 1994]

100

Time Richard Corliss

It towers over the year's other movies as majestically and menacingly as a gang lord at a preschool. [10 Oct 1994]

100

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Very satisfying. Classic storytelling, modern techniques. And the images: This movie has embedded so many strange and new mental pictures in my head that I'm not able to shake free. Yet, neither would I want to be free.

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100

Film.com Lucy Mohl

There isn't a scene or a character in the film that plays just one way. Bloody bits turn hysterically funny, relief gets riddled with tension, and the lurking question marks are as intriguing as the story resolutions -- rec.arts.movies has been filled for months with theories about what was in the briefcase.

100

Empire Philip Thomas

A scintillating piece of filmmaking, the kind of movie you look forward to seeing again even as you're watching it, and an extraordinary response to both the Dogs-Is-Overrated brigade and the He'll-Never-Top-His-Debut sceptics.

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100

Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon

The most imaginative movie to come along in ages. [18 Oct 1994, p.A14(W)]

90

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The architecture of Pulp Fiction may look skewed and strained, but the decoration is a lot of fun. [10 Oct 1994, p.95]

90

Film.com John Hartl

Quentin Tarantino's latest movie puts an epic spin on a favorite genre, taking it to time-tripping levels rarely tested by its forerunners.

80

TV Guide Staff (Not credited)

Without its commitment to an idea of salvation, Pulp Fiction would be little more than a terrific parlor trick; with it, it's something far richer and more haunting.

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70

Washington Post Rita Kempley

The experience overall is like laughing down a gun barrel, a little bit tiring, a lot sick and maybe far too perverse for less jaded moviegoers.

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70

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

But the way that this picture has been so widely ravened up and drooled over verges on the disgusting. Pulp Fiction nourishes, abets, cultural slumming. [14 Nov 1994]

60

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The writer-director appears to be straining for his effects. Some sequences, especially one involving bondage harnesses and homosexual rape, have the uncomfortable feeling of creative desperation, of someone who's afraid of losing his reputation scrambling for any way to offend sensibilities. [14 Oct 1994]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 449 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

aditya m gave it a10:
Oh God! I just couldn't believe what I have watched here. I have watched a Masterpiece. I do not say it out of respect as I did for The Godfather, but I say it out of pure exhilaration and relief (Quiet the opposite what you witness on the surface). For the first time after many ages I don't feel guilty about giving a film 10/10.

Andrew K. gave it a10:
No less than a masterpiece. The acting is spectacular, Mia's hot, and there's NOTHING to dislike! Clearly Quentin's best film, and possibly one of the best films ever.

Phil R gave it a10:
This is what I consider to be the best film of the last 20 years. It is a film that totally reinvented hollywood. It showed that an independent film could garner as much attention as huge budget blockbusters headlined by big name actors. Moreover, Bruce Willis set a precedent by taking a huge pay cut to star in an indy film. This encouraged other prominent actors to do the same. Moreover, the film inspired and influenced dozens of other titles that followed. It left an indelible mark on the American psyche with its witty humor, over the top violence and iconic style. Too bad it didnt get the best picture award it deserved. It lost out to Forrest Gump, the same year that The Shawshank Redemption was also nominated. Samuel L Jackson was also robbed of an oscar when the academy decided to give the best supporting actor award to Gary Sinise. No disrespect to Mr. Sinese but Samuel L Jackson's performance as Jules was one of the most memorable in modern cinema.

Moon danceR gave it a10:
I think Quentin Tarantino is genius; his writing and directing were extraordinary, outstanding performances from all cast members, all made Pulp Fiction a classic masterpiece.

Isaiah G gave it a10:
This is this most original movie I haved ever experinced. When it first came out back in 94' when I was seventeen, I remember watching the movie and saying to my friends (I haven't seen a film this great since "The Godfather." Every line in the seems important, every actor seem to complete the film, and everything action that anyone makes makes the film better.

Steven O. gave it a10:
Very original. Quentin Tarantino took different situations and brought them together. This movie really brings out the different characters and their situations as well as how these situations effect each other and themselves. Definitely a good movie to watch with a Royale with Cheese.

S. Barnes gave it a9:
This film is continuously hilarious from beginning to end. With it’s clever humor and great acting, it has come to be one of my favorite movies.

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