Pawn Shop Chronicles

It was actually a fairly good movie. The acting was good, the cinematography was superb, the stories for each segments were good even though the third one was the weakest, the cast was impressive and the way the stories were all linked together was really well done. It's not the greatest anthology, but it's still fairly good and entertaining.

The critics hated it but it's not that bad. It gets alot of comparisons to as a very poor man's "Pulp Fiction" but it's funny if not, entertaining.

TARENTINO storytelling, mirroring Pulp Fiction in every way except for originality. If you like Pulp Fiction, watching this will drive you mad as you will notice/recognize key elements brazenly ripped off. It strings together seemingly unconnnected storylines into a story. Just as Pulp Fiction, in this some of the storylines more interesting than others-certainly more humorous. Walker was good but his appearance short. Unfortunatly Frasier seems to get most of the play in the 2nd half of the movie which makes this movie even worse.

Director Wayne Kramer once tried to make an insanely over-the-top action movie, Running Scared (also starring Walker), which many admired for its sheer over-the-topness. But then Kramer detoured for the completely earnest (and awful) immigration drama Crossing Over, which proves a point: Kramer isn't going over the top for any honest, organic reason but rather as a cold, calculated exercise. It's the same with PAWN SHOP CHRONICLES, though this time he and screenwriter Adam Minarovich very obviously draw their empty inspiration from Pulp Fiction. So the movie is crazy and agitated and loud and full of left turns and, yes, over-the-top but these things don't add up to anything that could be called a good movie. There are a couple of shock-based laughs early on, but then the laughs dry up, as do the thrills and the tingles. It's just horrifying and soul-deadening. All of that said, D'Onofrio gives a very interesting performance as the slightly befuddled pawn shop proprietor.