Often deemed as one of, if not the, best movie of the 1990's, Quentin Tarantino's deliberately humorous and violent satire on the sleazy underworld of Los Angeles certainly lives up to the hype. Often, similarly themed gangster movies can be slow in pace and boring in parts, but `Pulp Fiction' is delivered in such a slick, stylised manner that you won't notice the two and a half-hour running time pass by. The Oscar winning script is top-notch and brilliantly conceived. It's the jumping forward and back in time that makes the film work. Only at the end of the film do you realise in what order the events took place.

And the interweaving and overlapping comes in the form of three vignettes. They used the term `series' of vignettes so that it would sound like more than three. It would have been smarter had it one or two more episodes, but as it is, all works quite well. The first is arguably the best. What makes this one work is the close attention to detail and memorable scenes that occur. The second story, `The Gold Watch' is also quite good. This is shuffled in second when it's actually how the film closes.

And the third vignette, `The Bonnie Situation' is probably the funniest of the three. Also thrown in there is the café robbery involving `Pumpkin' and `Honeybunny'. The actors are given tremendous material to work with, but the huge ensemble cast is perfectly chosen and is probably the best since `Magnolia'.

The lead star, John Travolta (Oscar nominated for his part), is always perfectly believable and brilliantly styled as hit man Vincent. But the performance isn't developed enough to consider above support. Samuel L. Jackson excellently portrays his counterpart, bible-bashing hit man Jules. Also lurking in there is Uma Thurman's exceptional delivery as the enigmatic, sassy femme fatale. Surprising is the fact that Bruce Willis got the most screen time yet received the coveted `and' credit.

Along with this, there is plenty of star-power from a supporting cast that would make Robert Altman weep. Harvey Keitel, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth round up the cast and all give ideal, noteworthy performances. Quentin Tarantino also does a near flawless job in the director's chair, bring just the correct amount of style, grit and humour.

With quotable dialogue, memorable scenes and unforgettable characters `Pulp Fiction' is a near masterpiece. Working better in the more satirical moments, it probably isn't for the squeamish and definitely not for the easily offended. But if you want an offbeat, trendy ensemble thriller, then you won't go wrong with this. My IMDb rating: 8.5/10.