These ‘Pulp Fiction’-Inspired Movies Owe Everything to Quentin Tarantino’s Magnum Opus
When Pulp Fiction exploded onto screens in the summer of 1994, it set audiences and critics reeling. A cluster-bomb of interweaving storylines, jumbled narratives, killer tunes, and colorful characters spouting even more colorful dialogue it gave free rein to writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s obsessions with pop culture, grindhouse cinema, and the teeming underbelly of his native Los Angeles. A violent, darkly comic masterpiece, it announced Tarantino as the first rock star director since the heady days of the French New Wave.
Unlike the young guns of the New Wave, however, Tarantino wore his bad-boy rep on his sleeve, reveling in the notoriety. “Who here liked Remains of the Day?” he demanded of the audience when Pulp Fiction debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. “Get the f*** out of this theater!” he bellowed at anyone witless enough to raise a hand.
Hard to imagine Truffaut or Jean Luc Goddard acting like that, even if it was in jest.
Predictably, Pulp Fiction spawned a mass of imitators. Filmmakers and producers alike scrambled to cash in on its massive success and to appropriate some of Tarantino’s swagger for themselves. The results were decidedly mixed, as the list below shows. How many of those imitators literally owed their existence to Pulp Fiction is debatable, and some of them have a stronger claim to that dubious honor than others. Still, there’s no denying that without Tarantino’s influence, and the scorched-earth impact of his sophomore feature, none of them would have turned out quite the way they did.
1. 2 Days in the Valley (1996)
A botched hit leads to a series of highly unpleasant events involving a washed-up TV director, a pair of bugling burglars, a ruthless art dealer, and a dogged detective in writer/director John Herzfeld’s kaleidoscopic crime drama, set over 48 chaotic hours in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.
What distinguishes Two Days from most Pulp clones is how good it is: stylish, pacey, darkly funny and blessed with a surfeit of memorable scenes. This is not to suggest it doesn’t owe the Big Q a huge debt of gratitude. Interweaving storylines? Check. Nonlinear narrative? Check. A pair of bantering hitmen? Check. Excessive violence and swearing? Check. Sharp-edged dialogue with a pop-culture bent? Check. Eric Stoltz? Check.
Stoltz aside, 2 Days’ terrific ensemble cast is another point of comparison, with Jeff Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Kiefer Sutherland, James Spader, Danny Aiello, and Charlize Theron (in her dynamite big-screen debut), all on blistering form.
Pulpiest Bit
Dosmo Pizzo: “How did you find me?”
Lee Woods: “In the phone book under Washout.”
2. Suicide Kings (1997)
A bunch of wiseass preppies kidnap a mob boss (Christopher Walken) in a desperate attempt to save their kidnapped buddy. Realizing they've bitten off far more than they can chew, the group are plunged into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, seething with deception, betrayal and wearyingly predictable dialogue.
From its “eclectic” soundtrack to its overworked nonlinear narrative, director Peter O’Fallon’s strained comedy-drama has Tarantino wannabe written all over it.
Pulpiest Bit
Walken!
3. American Strays (1996)
A trio of overlapping storylines compete for attention amid a welter of hyper-violence and toe-curling one-liners in director Michael Colvert’s slavish “homage.”
Earning some brownie points for effort alone, it’s still a mess of a movie rendered all the more egregious for wasting the talents of a superbly diverse cast (John Savage, Jennifer Tilly, Eric Roberts, Carol Kane, the late great Joe Viterelli et al.).
Pulpiest Bit
Potentially violent confrontations ensue when a collection of colorful characters cross paths in – where else? – an all-American diner.
4. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)
Or one Pulp pastiche in a film can. Plots collide, blood spills and much wise gets cracked when a duffel bag containing the remnants of a mob hit goes astray. Joe Pesci stars as the hapless bagman scrambling to retrieve the grisly McGuffin before the wrath of his boss (Paulino Hemmer) descends.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Schulman’s directorial debut has all the requisite elements—including fine comic turns from Pesci and David Spade—but it’s sorely lacking in substance. Needs more body, as they say.
Pulpiest Bit
The poster: Brandishing a handgun, Pesci stands guard over the titular receptacle, dressed in black suit, white shirt and de rigueur skinny tie. The vulture is a nice touch.
5. Grosse Point Blank (1997)
International assassin Martin Blank (John Cusak) suffers an existential crisis of conscience and, against the advice of his over-stressed analyst (Alan Arkin), decides to attend his high school reunion. While attempting to rekindle an old flame (Minnie Driver), and settle the score with a rival hitman (Dan Akroyd), Martin must confront his past before he can plan a less precarious future.
It might be stretching things, but Grosse Point’s besuited hitmen, non-chronological storytelling and killer soundtrack all have a distinctive Pulp savor. Add in the snappy dialogue and excess of pop-culture references—John Hughes movies, Dr. Strangelove, Radiohead etc.—and the kinship becomes even more marked.
Pulpiest Bit
The tense standoff between rival hitmen Martin Q. Blank (Cusack) and Felix LaPoubelle (Benny Urquidez) in an all-American diner… Sorry, convenience store.
6. U-Turn (1997)
Oliver Stone gets his Pulp on in a major way with this twisty, low-key thriller starring Sean Penn as a drifter stranded in a small desert town, reeking of danger and peopled by the requisite collection of lowlifes and grifters.
With all the top-quality production values you'd expect from Stone there's a lot to like here, even though it does seem naggingly familiar. The tremendous, Tarantinoesque supporting cast includes Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, Clare Danes, Powers Boothe, Billy Bob Thornton, and, bringing some serious femme fatale heat, Jennifer Lopez.
Pulpiest Bit
Jenny: “You like Patsy Cline? I just love her. I wonder how come she don't put out no more new records.”
Bobby: “Because she's dead.”
Jenny: “Oh… That's sad. Don't that make you sad?”
Bobby: “I've had time to get over it.”
7. The Boondock Saints (1999)
Following a traumatic event, God-bothering twin brothers Connor and Murphy MacManus(Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus) embark on a blood-soaked crusade to rid their native Boston of mobsters and crooked cops.
Peopled with cookie-cutter hitmen and heavy on flashbacks, absurdist violence, and dark humor, Troy Duffy’s offbeat crime caper strives so hard for Tarantino-style cred that it hurts. A frat boy fave it might be, but a cult classic it is not.
Pulpiest Bit
The prayer recited by the Murphy brothers to justify their vigilante slayings: “And Shepherds we shall be for thee my Lord, for thy power hath descended forth from thy hand so our feet may swiftly carry out thy commands.”
Sound familiar?
8. Go (1999)
Supermarket clerk Ronna (Sarah Polley) has the bright idea of selling ecstasy to make rent. Naturally, it all goes horribly wrong, sending Ronna and a cast of unsavory characters on a whistle-stop tour of L.A.'s seedy underbelly.
Whiplash editing, crime, dark humor, snappy dialogue, multistranded plotlines, ensemble cast, thumping soundtrack. It's hard to pin down, but there’s something naggingly familiar about Doug Lyman’s Swingers follow-up.
Pulpiest Bit
The tense standoff between Ronna (Sarah Polley), Simon (Desmond Askew), various drug dealers, armed thugs and undercover cops in an all-American dine…sorry, parking lot.
9. Feeling Minnesota (1996)
That the title of this self-consciously offbeat pretender comes from a Soundgarden lyric (“Well I just looked in the mirror, and things aren't looking so good. I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota. Oh yeah.”) speaks volumes, as does the hilarious premise of Keanu Reeves silly name (Jjaks, for anyone interested.
A one-joke road movie that tries to compensate for a glaringly deficient screenplay with relentless quirkiness and a faintly embarrassed-looking star-studded cast (Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Vincent D’Onofrio, Courtney Love, Delroy Lindo, Tuesday Weld and Dan Ayrkoyd). No dice.
Pulpiest Bit
Freddie: “I dream of being in a Las Vegas hotel where all of the towels smell like Downy Fabric Softener.”
10. Big City Blues (1997)
Starring Burt Reynolds and John Forsyth as Miami hitmen caught up in a flimsy web of intrigue involving transvestites, bikers and Satanists, Clive Fieury’s forgettable third feature makes a desperate leap for the Tarantino bandwagon and misses by a mile.
No one should, under any circumstance, confuse this version with the 1932 Joan Blondell, Humphrey Bogart movie of the same name.
Pulpiest Bit
The tense intersection of characters and subplots in an all-American dine… Sorry, nightclub bar (the Ready Bar in South Beach, to be precise).
11. Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) seems like a mild-mannered ordinary Joe, until a case of mistaken identity embroils him in a conflict between rival crime lords and his own dark past emerges.
Written by Jason Smilovic and directed by Paul McGuigan, Slevin has all the right Pulp moves—nonlinear narrative, quirky characters and dialogue, stylized violence, interconnected storylines, distinct visual style, yada, yada, yada—but it has little of its quality or freshness. And that’s despite the best efforts of an A-list cast, including Hartnett (back when he was A-list), Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman, Stanley Tucci, and Pulp alumnus Bruce Willis.
Pulpiest Bit
The loaded, dialogue-heavy meeting of Slevin (Hartnett) and Mr. Goodkat (Willis) in an all-American dine… Sorry. No, wait. It is an all-American diner!
12. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Perhaps not a hypothesis anyone would want to run by jiu-jitsu blackbelt Guy Ritchie, but it’s hard to believe his hyperkinetic, hydra-headed tale of the London underworld was not partially inspired by Pulp Fiction.
Whatever the truth, Lock Stock certainly stands on the outer edge of the qualifying criteria. A stylistic slam-dunk, it announced Ritchie’s arrival with bruising panache. Proving it was no flash-in-the-pan, he followed it up with the equally audacious, arguably better, Sn-tch two years later. He then married Madonna, but that’s an entirely different story.
Pulpiest Bit
Roy Breaker: “Your stupidity must be your one saving grace.”
Nick the Greek: “Uh?”
Roy Breaker: “Don't ‘uh’ me Greek boy! How is it that your f****** stupid soon-to-be-dead friends thought they might be able to steal my cannabis and then sell it back to me? Is this a declaration of war?”
13. Clay Pigeons (1998)
Macabre humor, nonlinear plot, eccentric interconnected characters, violence. David Dobkin’s debut feature steals its schtick wholesale from QT but acquits itself tolerably well with Joaquin Phoenix, Janeane Garofalo, and Vince Vaughan (in a dual role) up to their necks in the usual stew of dark deeds and intrigue.
Pigeons may have garnered a slim cult following over the years, but the critical consensus remains mixed (“a middling retread” wrote Variety‘s Dennis Harvey). Few reviewers declined the title's invitation to mention missed targets.
Pulpiest Bit
Lester Long: “Some people just need, need killing.”
14. The Big Hit (1998)
Instead of a glowing briefcase, a kidnapped heiress and a VHS tape of King Kong Lives cause chaos in Kirk Wong’s cheeky crime caper. Elsewhere, there’s no mistaking the dark humor, stylish gunplay, sparring hitmen, and—you guessed it—relentless pop-culture references.
The Big Hit emphatically wasn't one, with either critic or audiences. Buta highly likeable cast (Mark Wahlberg, Christina Applegate, Lou Diamond Philips, Bokeem Woodbine, China Chow, and Elliot Gould) elevate proceedings to a level somewhere above tolerable.
Pulpiest Bit
Crunch: “I said LAN-O-LIN, not that aloe-vera bull***t! Get it right, muthaf***a!
15. Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Sometime in the late 1960s, the paths of various mysterious characters cross at the titular hotel, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Over the course of one fateful night, as tensions rise, plots thicken and the mood turns ugly, a series of unforeseen (i.e. visible from a mile off) events transpire.
Proving the allure of aping Tarantino’s masterpiece remains undimmed, this Royale comes laden with Pulp cheese. Nonlinear narrative, dark humor, violence, hip dialogue, ensemble cast (Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, John Hamm, Nick Offerman, Chris Hemsworth, Shea Whigham)—it’s the whole shebang, warmed over for a new generation.
Pulpiest Bit
The tense confrontation between various characters in an all-American dine… Sorry, creepy old hotel.
