“Very Bad Things” (1998)
Time is a wondrous thing. Consider Peter Berg’s coal-black-hearted theatrical debut, “Very Bad Things,” the story of a bachelor party, a dead hooker and a body count that just won’t quit. The divisive picture remains capable of minor moral outrage and there’s little to redeem it—the familiar misogyny of the genre hands the two major female roles to the stripper (Kobe Tai) and venomous bridezilla Cameron Diaz, who is positively chilling. The male cast, consisting of Christian Slater, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern, Leland Orser and Jeremy Piven, do a fine job of berating one another but there’s little to recommend unless you’re a fan of the actors, and even then, there are a handful of pictures that put their respective talents to far better use. “Very Bad Things” holds humanity in contempt and aims to deliver laughs as violent outbursts claim the lives of caricatures, as a hat tip to the far better film that inspired this feature. That Berg would mount a comeback with 2003’s shamelessly commercial The Rock-starrer “The Rundown” and strike gold with “Friday Night Lights” is a testament to Hollywood’s persistent short-term memory. [C-]
“The Boondock Saints” (1999)
Has it been a while since you wished you were dead? Well, put on this “cult hit” and try to make it through even the first twenty minutes without longing for the sweet embrace of oblivion. While contractually obliged, for the purposes of this feature, to sit through every tedious second we confess our mind did wander to the story behind the film, mainly as a way of protecting itself from the graceless, toxic stupidity of what was unfolding onscreen. Because as filmmaking lore, it’s interesting: the script was briefly the hottest thing in town, and was bought by Miramax to be directed by writer/bartender Troy Duffy despite his lack of filmmaking credentials (clearly hoping for a similar discovery as with ex-video store employee Quentin Tarantino). Duffy, according to the 2003 documentary “Overnight,” was pretty much fueled by delusional egotism and riled everybody involved, resulting in Miramax abandoning the project. But the devil can foil any righteous plan, and the film got made anyway, in all its inanely violent, overlit, derivative, meatheaded glory. The story of two precariously accented Catholic brothers from Boston (Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flanery) who randomly start offing people they deem “evil” while pursued by Willem Dafoe’s self-parodic FBI agent, there’s not a single scene you haven’t seen done better in another film, most often “Pulp Fiction.” But what’s most repellant is the lunkheaded glee the film takes in its unthinking endorsement of vigilantism, and how it practically ejaculates over itself about how edgy and hip it is, when in fact it’s just straight-up racist, homophobic, misogynistic and consistently dumb as fuck. This has to be the nadir of the “Pulp Fiction” me-toos, and so of course is the only one aside from “Get Shorty” to have thus far spawned a sequel. A million thumbs down, no stars, [F]
“Intermission” (2003)
Irish crime drama in the 1990s was dominated by John Boorman‘s excellent, Cannes-lauded “The General,” but the knock-on effect of “Pulp Fiction” finally arrived in 2003 with “Intermission,” an unexpectedly charming multi-character, multi-stranded affair (also riffing on “Magnolia” as much as anything else). Penned by playwright Mark O’Rowe, and helmed by theater director John Crowley, making his feature debut, it follows the aftermath of the break-up between long-term couple Cillian Murphy and Kelly Macdonald, and of a fairly spectacular double-decker bus crash, events that somehow combine as Murphy teams with thuggish criminal Colin Farrell and disgruntled bus driver Brian F. O’Byrne to kidnap Macdonald’s new beau, a married bank manager, while various other characters—including Colm Meaney’s delusional copper, and Shirley Henderson’s insecure, mustached loner—circle them. Nothing here is especially groundbreaking, bar perhaps Henderson’s storyline, but from its arresting opening, there’s a real verve and energy to proceedings that doesn’t preclude the film from slowing down and entering more contemplative modes. O’Rowe’s writing is warm and witty, and Crowley juggles tone impressively, going from charming rom-com to grittier drama in a space of a few scenes without it feeling incongruous. The performances are strong, too: Farrell’s having a blast, and Murphy and Macdonald in particular lend texture to performances that could have felt a little bland otherwise. Crowley and O’Rowe would reteam again to much greater effect a few years later for “Boy A,” which introduced Andrew Garfield to the screen, but this is a pretty decent little movie on its own. [B]
“Reindeer Games” (2000)
John Frankenheimer had a long and storied career that spanned over 40 years, full of dizzying highs (“The Manchurian Candidate,” “The Train,” “Seconds”), some crashing lows (“The Island Of Doctor Moreau,” “Prophecy”), and plenty in between. But it’s a shame, having revived his career with 1998’s gripping “Ronin,” that his final film was one as generic and anemic as “Reindeer Games” (Frankenheimer was to have directed “Exorcist: The Beginning,” but became ill and died in 2002, a month after pulling out of the production). Penned by future “Transformers” writer Ehren Kruger, it sees ex-convict Ben Affleck released from jail and hooking up with Ashley (Charlize Theron), a young woman who’d been corresponding with his late cellmate. They fall for each other, but Ashley’s psychotic brother (Gary Sinise) turns up and forces Affleck to aid in a casino robbery, thinking that he had inside knowledge of the place. In theory, it’s not a bad set-up, but Kruger’s script piles ludicrous twist upon ludicrous twist, not so much stretching credibility as tearing it apart, and while there’s some welcome color to be found in the supporting cast (which includes Dennis Farina, Danny Trejo, Clarence Williams III and Donal Logue—who replaced Vin Diesel at the last minute, the only time in history that that will ever happen), Affleck, Sinise and even the usually reliable Theron make for pretty terrible leads. Frankenheimer’s sense of suspense eludes him too: the action sequences seem to be taking their cue from “Die Hard 2” rather than his vintage ’60s work, and the whole film looks kind of cheap. Barely a year later, the film was already a punchline when Affleck played himself in “Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back,” and in a way, it’s lucky to be even remembered as that. [D-]
“Phoenix” (1998)
A film no one remembers from a director everyone forgets, “Phoenix” feels a little like what might result if you pasted together alternate lines from the “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” screenplays, then Google translated the whole into Mandarin and back. And then got Danny Cannon (“Judge Dredd,” “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”) to direct. Well, maybe we’re being harsh on Cannon, who seems to have found his level helming TV procedurals (25 episodes of “CSI,” etc.) because this was a poorly conceived knock-off from the get-go, the type of would-be amoral thriller in which people are given lisps instead of character details, and the hero quotes Dostoevsky because it sounds cool. Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia, Jeremy Piven and Daniel Baldwin are four corrupt cops in yes, Phoenix, (whose presumably full-time jobs seem to encroach very little on their extra-curricular activities) held together by unexplained bonds of brotherhood despite the fact that the LaPaglia character is clearly a sociopath. Liotta, the decent one, is a hyper-superstitious gambler, Piven plays a cuckolded husband and Baldwin, much, we fear like his position within his famous clan, plays The Other One. Having no such thing as a coherent character to cling to, the derivative plot spins its wheels, and potentially promising elements, like Angelica Huston and Brittany Murphy, fall by the wayside in favor of more macho posturing, hardboiled cussin’ and casually sexist exchanges between the lead quartet and their sketched-in adversaries. “Pulp Fiction” is a film more open to having its surface mistaken for its substance than most, which is why attempts like “Phoenix” to replicate the ‘Pulp’ formula without any of Tarantino’s spiky talent end up such colorless lame ducks by comparison. [D]
I think "Thursday" from Skip Woods is obviously missing on this list. i really disliked this movie. the dialogue is clearly a bad Tarantino rip off. It really was annoying and almost unbearable to watch. A lame story, horrible dialogues and all plot twists were totally predictable. And the rape scene, oh gosh.. so bad.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Seven Psychopaths.
I can\’t believe you mentioned "Very Bad Things" without even uttering a single thing about the obvious influence it had on the "The Hangover," but I suppose that\’s a digression from he overall point of the article. However, here\’s a few I would have added to the list:
"Rules of Attraction" – Avery\’s influence again and Bret Easton Ellis\’ pop-culture inflected writing, but still, very post-Tarantino in style.
"In Bruges" and "Seven Psychopaths" – Later in the game, but still quite evident, especially the latter.
"Hard Eight" – Sure, PTA does his own thing but I can\’t imagine this movie would have been made or seen without the success of "PuLp."
"Clay Pigeons" – Maybe more post-Fargo than post-Pulp, but it certainly was marketed as a gen-x-er crime comedy in the vein of Pulp.
Tarantino is in love with the bad movies he ate up as a kid, so now he regurgitates them as equally bad new movies. All he did with Pulp Fiction is to show that there are critics and moviegoers who also liked those bad movies.
Sorry, but the best was Heaven (1998). And it toke this kind of film a little bit further because we are making the puzzle of how it really happened, and in the end we discover that it didn’t happened in the order we thought it did, but in a completely new order. It’s like if you could make two different imagens prom the same pieces of a puzzle.
Very bad things should more aptly be noted as a noir precedent for the Hangover series. And it was much better than you say it was..
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Check it out.
I\’d add Rules of Attraction
Theres no bigger borrower then the movie Thursday. With Thomas Jane and Erin Eckhart. Awesome movie that few have seen. But the formula is mimicked in that film like bo other.
Tarantino is a legend in his own mind. His box office record sucks.
So in summary, basically to Tarantino fanboys, all movies after Pulp Fiction are Pulp Fiction ripoffs.
You Forgot Truth or Consequences, N.M. it really had that that reservoir dogs feel with the infiltrated cop and the sick musical torture scene with Martin Sheen. Totally captured the Q.T esque feel of the 90\’s.
Red Rock West.
Destiny Turns on the Radio, with QT in the titular role. Ouch.
Tarantino is great to be sure, but the main person being "copied " here is Sam Peckinpah. So many if not all character driven action movies (esp about bad man) were done first and much better by "Bloody Sam". Hateful Eight will have lots of Sam in it, you can be sure of it, Tarantino loves his work
what about truth or consequences, nm
Pulp Fiction was based on a film called Black Sabbath which features 3 none linear stories.
"You are old. 20 years ago this very day (OK, yesterday to be exact)".
Oh wow.. this article was written May 22 this year. My birthday is May 21 and I am exactly 20 years old. Huh.
Wasn't innaritu's primary influence krzysztof kieslowski? Chance and destiny etc? Even the image of the model on the billboard was a homage to that famous image in three colors: Red. Never thought it was directly Tarantino influenced. Now I see it though. Kewl.
I haven't seen a few of those.
My favorite has to be Denver.
Treat Williams, Buscemi, Walken, everybody was great and pulled their weight in that one.
Didn't care for Anwar, but Fairuza made up for that.
Out of the proto-pulp fictions, Kalifornia is 10x what Stone did with NBK.
It would have been interesting to see what Tarentino would have done with his own script though.
Wild at Heart was another Proto-Pulp Fiction that Tarentino seemed to borrow from almost as equally as Goodfellas.
Layer Cake was pretty good.
But I can never really get into British Gangster movies.
Maybe because that accent is almost exclusively marketed in america for its fussy sophistication to peddle political agendas, documentaries and goofy products in infomercials that it just never seems intimidating.
Love and a 45 had moments.
Young and skinny Rene Zelwegger looking amazing probably chief among them.
One film that I didn't see on this list was Milcho Manchevski's Before the Rain. Released the same year as Pulp Fiction. Manchevski, who both wrote and directed, breaks down and plays with the story's three acts much the same way QT did. They where both writing their stories at the same time presumably without knowing much about what the other was doing. A lot more serious than QT's, though I love them both, Before the Rain is a film that flew under the radar and was missed by a lot of people. Watch this film guys.
A little more recent but the mention of Very Bad Things reminded me of how much The Hangover lifted from that film and how it has a very Tarantino-esque style (drenched in cans of Keystone Light) to it.
I only see two movies that resemble pulp fiction the first one the foreign movie about the dog amorres something same time structure and the movie go that one really had the pulp fiction thing the story titles on screen as well, and the whole time structure that's what really makes go seem like pulp fiction that was awesome I loved the movie go. Pulp fiction is my number one favorite movie.
Amores Perros is a rip-off only because the "three interlocking stories that see characters occasionally cross over; a criminal element; harsh violence", those are mere similarities, Tarantino did not invent the structure of hyperlink cinema nor stories with characters that "cross over", those were invented way before he was even born, in fact he hasn't invented anything. Plus Amores is a drama, Pulp is a black comedy, not even the same genre, unlike most of the other real rip-offs. I'd put Amores Perros with the other "The Not Really Rip-Offs". Do us a favor, please do some research before vomiting.
1 -THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOURE DEAD andy garcia
2 -AMERICAN STRAYS eric roberts
3 -WAY OF THE GUN ryan phillipe
4 -GO katie holmes sarah polley timothy olyphant
5 -THE BIG HIT mark wahlberg
6 -2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY charlize theron
7- AMORES PERROS gael garcia bernal
8- GET SHORTY travolta
9- BE COOL travolta
10- SUICIDE KINGS christopher walken
11- 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG joe pesci
12- PALOOKAVILLE vincent gallo
13- VERY BAD THINGS cameron diaz
14- THE BOONDOCK SAINTS willem dafoe
15- INTERMISSION colin farrell cillian murphy
16- REINDEER GAMES ben affleck
17- PHOENIX ray liotta
Your review of "Boondocks" was perfect and hilarious.
What about the underrated "Lucky Number Slevin"
The fact that this "entertainment journalist (haha)" has absolutely no ability to appreciate some of the flourishes that does in fact distinguish Boondocks from other films of the genre regardless of your feelings of the film, speaks volumes of the authir's shortcomings. It also ignores (or simply isn't aware of) some obvious entries that only an actual film fan would include (Thursday with Tom Jane and Aaron Eckhart, Best Men, and Truth and Consequences N.M. Directed by Kiefer Sutherland spring to mind). Although many on this list are pretty weak (although how can you not admit that Vaughn and The Rock were so funny in the otherwise horrific Be Cool together it should have just been about them and nothing else) there are a number of flicks here that may not be Oscar calibre but are entertaining in their own right (Reindeer Games and even the sometimes very funny 8 Heads, which is far better than Gone Fishin…..you realize that right?). It was good to see Denver get some good nods and especially Way of the Gun. In general it does seem like the author needs to get himself a Netflix membership and get a better number of films under his belt before he attempts another list.
This article and the comment section proves that some people just try way to hard to compare films with one-another just because plots feature black comedy and intertwining and non-linear narratives, a lot of curse words, and violent crime.
Going by the logic this article uses, Pulp Fiction is merely a copycat of a novel called "Trainspotting" (not the film), which was written and sold in 1993, a year before Pulp Fiction. This novel is not only non-linear like Pulp Fiction (with about 8 different narrators) with intertwining plots, but it is also darkly comedic almost in the same vein as Pulp Fiction. The novel is also pretty graphic as well. The dialogue has its own electric style. The first page has three instances of "c%%nt", one of "f!!ck" and one of "f!!ck!ng". So the curse words are there too. Furthermore, Trainspotting draws on a lot of pop culture of the 1980s. So that's there too. There's also a lot of quotable passages.
This is just one novel that came out before Pulp Fiction. Using this article's logic, Tarantino created a copycat film that spawned from Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.
Nothing by Elmore Leonard should be on this list. Indiewire = teens with laptops.
i like Very Bad Things & Reindeer Games. sorry.
"Feeling Minnesota"
"The Immortals" (1995)
"Blood Guts Bullets and Octane"
"Thursday"
"Destiny Turns On the Radio"
"Albino Alligator"
"Truth or Consequence, N.M."
"Fall Time"
"Love & a .45"
"Freeway"
"Smokin' Aces"
Don't forget TWENTY BUCKS as an impressive predecessor.
I just want to let whoever wrote the bit about "The Boondock Saints" know that I am still standing and applauding. I hate that movie so much that I can't even come up with something intelligible to say about it other than "**** that movie."
Magnolia is definately Pulp-esque, and David O. Russell has a lot of strong similarities to Tarantino.
I've never seen this, but wasn't Boondock Saints a giant cult hit?
Pulp Fiction is one of the most overrated films ever. Fact.
Very bad things should more aptly be noted as a noir precedent for the Hangover series. And it was much better than you say it was..
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Very bad things should more aptly be noted as a noir precedent for the Hangover series. And it was much better than you say it was..
.
In terms of intertwined narratives, i can see the influence of Pulp Fiction in both Magnolia and Playing by Heart. Oh, and Crash too, to be honest…
American Hustle was like a Tarantino movie without the action. If even one head had exploded, it would have been on this list.
Just a thought: Joe Carnahan's BLOOD GUTS BULLETS & OCTANE (1998)
Requiem For A Dream
Thursday
Keys To Tulsa
I think 90s was indie film bonanza. I loved many indies for that era.
So, no one was really influenced by Robert Rodrigues?
You left out the horrible THURSDAY, a Siskel & Ebert's bete noire.
You left out the horrible MAD DOG TIME, by Joey Bishop's kid.
I might be the only one but I though the Brazillian film City of God had a Pulp Fiction feel to it.
Go rocks. Very overlooked.
the female assassin genre movie "Domino" with Kiera Knightley, Christopher Walken, and Tom Waits? "Broken Arrow" with Travolta. "Face/Off" with Travolta and Cage. "Con Air" and "The Rock" with Cage. "Crimson Tide"'s uncredited Tarantino rewrite. "Plump Fiction" the lame parody movie. Every direct to DVD "From Dusk Till Dawn" sequel. "The Rules of Attraction" by Roger Avary name drops Tarantino, as do "Die Hard with a Vengeance" and "Captain America:The Winter Soldier". "Destiny Turns on the Radio" starring Tarantino. "Curdled" with the character Angela Villalobos. "Romy & Michelle" had a Big Kahuna Burger. "Space Jam" had a Pulp in-joke.
I always dug PALOOKAVILLE and WAY OF THE GUN. Also? BIG TROUBLE!
How could you forget Boogie Boy w/ Mark Dacascos, Karen Sheperd and Frederic Forrest? Advertised as from the producer of Pulp Fiction, Roger Avary. Yeah, right!
I love The Way of the Gun. Why it landed Christopher McQuarrie in director's jail for ten years still mystifies me. Ryan Phillippe is particularly outstanding as "Parker". I thought for sure it'd make an A-lister out of him. I'd still very much love to see McQuarrie's original 2.5 hour cut of the film.
Big fan of Way of the Gun.
"Ringo Lam's "City on Fire" (which he appropriated large swaths of for "Reservoir Dogs") "
Wait I just read the rest of the article. Another clueless idiot who has clearly never actually bothered to watch City on Fire, just repeats a movie nerd trivia thing he heard on the internet once.
What on earth are you talking about with Way of the Gun? The third act is almost entirely a great gunfight (even better than Heat's) that the film had been building toward and half the "memorable moments" you listed are IN IT. Are you remembering it right?
2 Guns from last year with Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg felt like it had Tarantino written all over it.
It had all the hallmarks of a Tarantino ripoff – the long speeches, the explosions of violence, etc.
Happy Palookaville got a good notice. It's solid. Much like "Bottle Rocket" in the bumbling crime/comedy vein. These other films are mostly trash (aside from Amores Perros, good grade there too).
Um, Tarantino is a copycat (just a very good one), but this article seems to make him out like some kind of original that others immediately followed. But really what happened is Pulp Fiction blew up and so all these scripts and ideas people already had been wanting to do in a similar tone suddenly got greenlit and found financial backing from people wanting to strike on the Pulp Fiction train.
How about Things to do in Denver when your dead(1996). It even has Walken.
If you were really interesting you would list the films Tarantino ripped off making Pulp Fiction.