BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 1.78:1 16x9 enh, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 3 - Dolby Digital Train, True Romance, Jackie Brown
Year Released	1994	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	148:12 minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio & Animation Unseen Footage (20 mins) Featurette (5:15) Cast & Crew Interviews Cast Biographies Pulp Trivia
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (104:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	4	Director	Quentin Tarantino
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	John Travolta Samuel L. Jackson Uma Thurman Harvey Keitel Tim Roth Amanda Plummer Maria de Medeiros Ving Rhames Eric Stoltz Rozanna Arquette Christopher Walken Bruce Willis
RRP	$34.95	Music	Karyn Rachtman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	2.0 silent
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 384Kb/s) Isolated Music & Effects Score (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 384Kb/s) English (MPEG 2.0 silent, 64Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The movie opens in a diner with Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) deciding to rob the place. We come back to this later.

    We then cut to Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), a pair of two bit hoods who are required to kill some small-time drug dealers who have been cheating on their boss, Marsellus Wallace. They reclaim a briefcase which contains something very special. We learn that Vincent is required to escort Marsellus' wife whilst Marsellus is out of town.

    We then cut to Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), a boxer, and Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Butch is being paid off to lose his next fight.

    Vincent buys some heroin from Lance (Eric Stoltz) in preparation for his date with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman). They go to Jackrabbit Slim's, which is a very retro cafe. On their return, Mia accidentally snorts some of Vincent's heroin and stops breathing which leads to an outrageous scene back at Lance's where she is revived.

    Next, we return to Butch, but as a child, where we learn about a very precious wristwatch that Captain Koons (Christopher Walken) delivers to him after keeping it in 'safe storage' for two years. Back in the present, Butch cannot bring himself to lose the fight, and hence falls out of favour with Marsellus. Through a series of errors, Butch ends up killing Vincent, and running into Marsellus. Two good ol' boys prevent the two of them killing each other, but as you will find out, perhaps they would have been better off dead. Nonetheless, all debts are paid and Butch is free to go.

    We then jump back to the briefcase scene where amazingly, neither Vincent nor Jules are killed. This leads to a very messy car ride, but Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel) steps in and saves the day.

    Finally, it is time to return to the diner, where all outstanding loose ends are tied up.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is very contrasty - whites are very white and blacks are very black with very little detail in between. I believe that this is how the original movie was shot, but the nett effect of this is that there is a considerable lack of detail in the picture at times. Whiter areas of the picture bloom and blacker areas of the picture lack shadow detail. Thankfully, low level noise was absent.

    The colours were variably saturated, ranging from washed-out looking (in the diner) to oversaturated (in the bar).

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Compared with previous transfers, there is much less aliasing (shimmer) to be seen in this transfer, particularly noticeable in the venetian blinds of the diner at the start and end of the movie. There is still quite considerable aliasing, but it is now reduced to an acceptable level rather than being severe and distracting as it has been in previous transfers. Film artefacts were kept at an acceptable level.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 104.44, between Chapters 18 and 19. The layer change is very well placed in the middle of a fade-to-black transition, and causes a barely noticeable pause in the audio with virtually no disruption to the flow of the movie.

Audio

    Dialogue was all up-front-and-centre, and hard to understand at times.

    Audio sync was fine on a Noriko DVD-390K, but significantly out on a Pioneer DV-505, which is a common problem with Roadshow Home Entertainment discs and older Pioneer players.

    The music adds enormously to the experience of the movie, and is mainly presented in stereo, with some mix into the rear at times.

     The surround channels were rarely used except occasionally for ambience and for some music. It sounded like the same signal was being fed to both rear channels whenever there was anything in the rear. This soundtrack is very much up-front-and-centre with very little additional help from the rear channels.

    The .1 channel was hardly used at all.

Menu

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Featurette

Cast & Crew Interviews

Cast Biographies

    The Region 1 Canadian version misses out on;

• 16x9 Enhancement
• Featurette
• Cast & Crew Interviews

    The video quality, whilst not being great, is certainly by far the best it has ever been for this title.

    The audio quality is as good as it ever was, which isn't particularly good.

    The extras are quite good, particularly the deleted scenes.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
4th November 1999