Pulp Fiction / Fiction Pulpeuse (Bilingual) [Blu-ray + DVD]

VIDEO:

Pulp Fiction comes to blu ray with AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1, personally supervised and approved by Mr. Quentin Tarantino himself. The video is a considerable improvement over the standard DVD. The picture is razor sharp, with an incredible amount of detail. From the blood streaks in Jules' car after Marvin is shot, to the individual strands in Travolta's hairpiece, every aspect of Andrzej Sekua's vivid cinematography is presented perfectly. Colours are bold and realistic, such as in the Jack Rabbit Slim's sequence. Uma Thurman's crimson lips simply pop off the screen. Skin tones are always very natural looking. Beads of sweat can be seen clearly running down the face of Marsellus. I also appreciate the subtitles within the screen, and located on the side of the person speaking. (4.5/5)

AUDIO:

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is equally impressive. Dialogue is crystal clear. The music sounds satisfyingly full-bodied. The selection of songs for the soundtrack is superb. The song Son Of A Preacher Man revitalized Dusty Springfield's career. To hear Urge Overkill's 1994 version of Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon is also a rare treat. (4.5/5)

'Pulp Fiction' is a beloved film that made Tarantino's career, plus revitalizing John Travolta's career in the process. The storytelling is masterful as well, with three distinct stories coming together in unusual ways to complete the scrambled narrative. And each individual story takes such wild turns, upending clichés in every instance possible, that the end result is a movie that compels the viewer to return for additional viewings.

The casting is also first-rate, including John Travolta (Vincent Vega), Samuel L. Jackson (Jules Winnfield), Ving Rhames (Marsellus Wallace, the Mob Boss), Uma Thurman (Mia..she looked younger of course and more rounded than when she appeared in Kill Bill series 9 years later), Bruce Willis (Butch Coolidge, the aged boxer). Cameos included Harvey Keitel (Winston Wolfe, problem fixer), Christopher Walken (Captain Koons), Steve Buscemi (Buddy Holly look-alike) and of course Quentin himself as Jimmie.

Quentin Tarantino won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay written directly for the Screen, together with Roger Avary. The movie also garnered 6 Academy Award Nominations, including Best Picture (Lawrence Bender), Best Director (Quentin Tarantino), Best Leading Actor (John Travolta), Best Supporting Actor (Samuel L. Jackson), Best Supporting Actress (Uma Thurman) and Best Film Editing (Sally Menke).

TRIVIA:

Did you know that the passage from the Bible that Jules has memorized was mostly made up by Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson. The only part that's similar to what the Bible says is the part where he says, "And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee." However, the parts about the righteous man and the shepherd are not real.

The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards.

Knoxville, Tennessee, where Butch was meeting his connection and where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch, is also Quentin Tarantino's birthplace.

Pulp Fiction had an estimated budget of $8 million. The Worldwide Box Office Receipt was a staggering $213 million!

In summary, Pulp Fiction is a great and very enjoyable film from beginning to end. The story is well-paced. The running time of 2 hours 34 minutes ran by very quickly. Both the video and audio are top-notched together with a great cast. This is for sure the definitive version of Pulp Fiction. The very memorable dance sequence between Travolta and Thurman alone is worth the price of admission. Please also note that the price is also very reasonable. Highly recommended.

This movie looks really amazing on Blu-ray if you can find a player to play it.

The DRM on this disc is particularly onerous, and it outright doesn't work on 2 of the 3 players in my house. Updating the firmware on those players didn't help. I can play it on my computer, but only the main feature without any menus, so no special features for me.

A friend of mine also owns this and said he had the same problems with his copy, so it's not that I got a physically defective disc or anything. It's just DRM - "Defective By Design"

Too bad, since I bought this disc mainly to see deleted scenes and all that other stuff.

Pulp Fiction is definitely one of my favourite movies ever made. This movie made a Quentin Tarantino fan out of me. The dialogue between the characters worked extremely well, and the movie shared my dark sense of humour. Everything about this movie worked flawlessly.
The story is divided into segments that don't even play in order. However, this benefits the movie as a whole by giving it a more satisfying (and hilarious) ending. These segments are divided amongst two hitmen, a mob boss chasing after a desperate boxer, and one of the hitmen taking out the boss man's wife, with horrific and unexpected results. Be warned, though: there is a LOT of swearing in this, which may or may not bother you. Even if you are one of those viewers who can't stand strong language throughout a two and a half hour movie and still manage to soldier through the movie will, guaranteed find this movie amusing.

***** out of *****