The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster & his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

When you witness Pulp Fiction for the first time it is a cinematic experience, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Violent, energetic and completely in-your-face, Pulp Fiction takes its audience on a wild ride and you never see what’s coming next. Exploitational in nature with a hard-edged crime noir narrative, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is an extremely visceral film experience and with its sensational dialogue and striking visuals it completely commands your attention for it’s 154 minutes of screen time. Through his innovative narrative framing, slickly written characters, crazy situations, stunning visuals and one hell of a cool soundtrack, Quentin Tarantino created a film masterpiece that works on every single level and it’s one hell of a fun ride.

Like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction is a lesson in serious style and its a film that absolutely nails what it means to be cool. From the casts’ stylized wardrobe to it’s collection and use of vintage 60s and 70s cars to the way in which Tarantino uses colour and framing to capture his film, Pulp Fiction is straight crime noir cool. Anyone who watches it is instantly mesmerized by its images and no doubt tries to re-create the idea of being one of these characters through appearance, stance or strut in real life. Everything about Pulp Fiction’s visuals works here, and the film is a beautiful piece of cinema to look at it. Adding to this style is the mismatch of genres and use of narrative that Tarantino brought to Pulp Fiction, and it really amps up its entertainment value.

A large part of Pulp Fiction’s success comes down to Tarantino’s phenomenal casting, and every actor here works. First up you’ve got John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson as career hitmen Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield who experience one really bad day at the office. Then there’s Uma Thurman as the sassy Mia Wallace who takes Vincent for a really bad trip that ends at the point of a large needle. And finally, Bruce Willis plays bruising bully boxer Butch Coolidge, who decides its a good idea to double cross mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), but who ends up with him in a situation that both of them would rather forget. All of these performers bring their A-game to the film, and it’s so much fun to watch them work.

Alongside its memorable characters, Pulp Fiction has a perfect narrative to show off and Tarantino’s masterful dialogue is really on display. This film is filled to the brim with scenes and quotes that have entered film legend with the likes of “royal with cheese”, “I think it’s a wax museum with a pulse”, “pretty please, with sugar on top, clean the fucking car”, “I’m gonna get medieval on your ass”, Jules Winnfield’s Ezekiel 25:17 speech and my personal favourite line credited to Bruce Willis’ Butch Coolidge, “Zed’s dead baby. Zed’s dead.” Dialogue like this doesn’t get much better, and Tarantino’s use of it really drives the film forward. What we see with Pulp Fiction is the director building off of the work he began within Reservoir Dogs and it’s a practice he would continue with all of his successive works.

While he first showed his talent for conjuring ultra violence up in film with his debut Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino took it one step further here. Framed through his lens for narrative and extending the reach of his story, the violence of Pulp Fiction is at times viciously brutal and exceedingly funny. Case in point the film’s third act scene revolving around The Bonnie Situation where Vincent’s gun manages to go-off somehow and absolutely ruins Jules’ car in a blood shredded mess. No matter how many times I’ve seen this scene it still sends me into fits of uncontrollable laughter with just how crazy it all is, and there’s some serious entertainment value to boot. There are plenty of scenes like this throughout Pulp Fiction and Tarantino gets a reaction out of his audience time and time again.

Tarantino also provided some serious grooves here with Pulp Fiction’s eclectic soundtrack, and I can’t think of a greater piece of film score ever. Collecting together a host of classic songs that ranged from California surfer cool tracks like Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” to soulful R&B tracks like Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”. Add in a good helping of “Jungle Boogie” and “Bustin’ Surfboards”, and you’ve got the ultimate mismatch soundtrack that scores one very entertaining film. It’s a soundtrack that to this day remains instantly recognizable to Tarantino’s name and is a major part of the legacy of Pulp Fiction, and it’s always fun to groove out to.

Alongside being one of the coolest, classiest and most entertaining motion pictures ever created, Pulp Fiction is also a love letter to cinema itself. Packed to the brim with delightful homages from Tarantino, Pulp Fiction is a film made by a film buff for film buffs. While there’s the very entertaining narrative that hits audiences on a surface level, packed out in the background detail are references to the long history of cinema and this is exemplified through one of the film’s most pivotal scenes at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a retro-styled restaurant which is stuffed with classic pop culture and you can just tell that Tarantino was in his element at such a place. There’s just so much passion contained in Pulp Fiction for cinema itself and it definitely leaves an impression on audiences. That’s for sure.

To this day Pulp Fiction remains as one of the coolest films ever made, and decade after decade audiences continue to discover its greatness. The word masterpiece firmly applies to Pulp Fiction and it’s a film that needs to be watched again and again and again.

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When an IMF mission ends badly, the world suddenly faces dire consequences. Feeling responsible for the fallout, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) personally takes it upon himself to complete the mission, but the CIA begins to question his loyalty and his motives. Finding himself in a race against time, while being pursued by a host of ruthless assassins, Ethan will have to use every bit of his considerable willpower to complete the mission and stop a global catastrophe.

Cruise is back for this, his sixth installment, of the long-running Mission: Impossible series and he has again found the edge of the action genre and decided to push it even further. Whenever you hear that Tom Cruise wants to return as Ethan Hunt you know that he’s ready to step things up a notch. And the bar keeps getting raised. From hanging upside down in the middle of CIA headquarters to free soloing in Moab, Utah to performing a full fulcrum swing dive in Shanghai and running around the edge of the Burj Khalifa before finally deciding to hang outside on the edge of a Atlas C1, Cruise absolutely knows no limits as Ethan Hunt and with each successive installment he plans to go bigger and bolder.

Why you ask? Not only does this stem from his desire to offer his audience the best possible time out at the movies, but I personally feel that to Cruise the Mission: Impossible franchise are his most personal film works. So much of himself as a performer and a man is wrapped up in the character of Ethan Hunt and that’s exactly where we come to in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. While the stunts and narrative will really have you wrapped up, here we get to discover what really makes Ethan Hunt tick and why he’s willing to risk his life so many times over for the sake of the world. What we discover is a profoundly moving answer and it will really make you more thankful that a man like Ethan Hunt is on our side. Cruise gives 110% and then some with this performance and he truly succeeds in entertaining his audience.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is film that also brings everything together for the fans and this all stems from Cruise. On the narrative level it goes right back to the first film and threads all of the events of Ethan Hunt’s life back together. It’s a very ambitious move for Cruise to lead the film in this direction but it really pays off and once more allows us to go in deeper on the character of Ethan Hunt.

But Mission: Impossible – Fallout is not simply a one man show as it takes a team of visionaries working together to pull together these gigantic world saving action extravaganzas and that’s exactly where Cruise’s long time collaborator Christopher McQuarrie comes into the frame.

Following up on their work together on Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, both director and star engage in what is really their first ever direct sequel to a Mission: Impossible film. They kick things off quickly and the action of the narrative ramps up fast. You can see that McQuarrie really wants to deliver on the spectacle that he first offered in Rogue Nation and the director succeeds in pushing the envelope even further. As a director he takes a hand in both the narrative and the action work and under his guidance Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the most practically shot action blockbuster of all time. McQuarrie put the emphasis on the real and the intensity absolutely shows up on screen taking your breath away with each new scene.

Along with his talents for narrative and action, McQuarrie also has an eye for talent and this led him to cast Henry Cavill as the antagonistic August Walker, a brutal CIA assassin who definitely has an axe to grind with Hunt. Cavill’s Walker stands in direct comparison to Cruise’s Hunt, as a hulking brute of a man Walker has no qualms about using blunt force to achieve his missions objectives and has little time for the ‘Halloween tricks’ of the IMF as he likes to call them. This puts him in direct opposition to Cruise’s Hunt and the firework do fly.

Cavill’s performance is his best yet and I’m not just talking about his scene-stealing mustache here. He really goes for it as Walker and his presence is an intimidating one at that. You completely buy him as the assassin sent in to ‘mind’ the IMF and Cavill does a great job at changing certain parts of the mission to suit his own agenda. I’m always interested to see an actor try something different and move to stretch themselves in the performance of their craft and that’s exactly what Cavill does here.

Along with the introduction of Cavill we also see the return of Rebecca Furguson as MI6 operative Ilsa Faust and this time Ilsa is pursuing her own agenda. While I can’t really go into details on her character’s involvement without running the risk of leading to spoilers I will say that her presence here offers plenty of new choices for Ethan and sparks do indeed fly. This introduction of a good dose of underlying romance really changes things up for Ethan this time and Ilsa’s presence is an interesting story thread. Naturally Ferguson again offers up a great performance and proves why she is becoming a vital part of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

And of-course your favourites are back as well. Once again Simon Pegg and the ever dependable Ving Rhames prove why they are stalwarts of the Mission: Impossible franchise. These two misfits really make up the heart of the franchise and any time they’re up on screen I always find myself smiling a little wider.

But now lets move to a more serious topic. You said you wanted action? YOU GOT IT! As an exercise in filmmaking Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the most practically shot action blockbuster ever made. Forget green screens. Forget stunt doubles. This is Tom Cruise in action, up on the big screen and absolutely going for it. And he truly holds nothing back this time. From a death defying HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jump to a gnarly motorbike chase around the Arc de Triomphe to the stunt to end all stunts in the ambitious Helicopter chase, Mission: Impossible – Fallout has it all. Trust me when I tell you to strap yourself into your chair because your adrenal gland is going to be working overtime with this one.

While I’m trying to hold back on what occurs on screen I will say that the Helicopter Chase scene which was shot down in Queenstown, New Zealand is a truly exceptional piece of filmmaking. You’ve never seen anything like this before and I can’t think of anyone brave enough or indeed crazy enough to jump into it like Tom Cruise. Every single moment has Cruise at the throttle and he really takes you for a ride in this one. This is a countdown of nail-biting adrenaline as the action ramps up and up and up. With this scene you’re truly witnessing the genius of Cruise and McQuarrie and it’s a rush.

If you’re looking for an action experience to take you to the next level then you’ll definitely find it with Mission: Impossible – Fallout! This is a blockbuster made of pure adrenaline and it’s exactly what the movies were meant for and trust me when I say that it really is one hell of a fun ride.

Image: Paramount Pictures

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