Consider This in ‘Pulp’

NEW YORK — John Travolta has received the big “Pulp Fiction” push for Oscar, and he is indeed terrific. But equally terrific, perhaps superior, is his co-star and “Pulp” hit-man buddy, Samuel Jackson. What a performance!

This hyper-violent, out-on-a-limb movie is truly not for the faint of heart. (Or for anybody who has a low sick-humor quotient.) And one “Pulp” sequence of sadomasochistic male rape was a bit much. But Jackson and Travolta, waxing philosophical before, during and after their kills, are sublime! Bruce Willis, as a punchy boxer, is also very good in what is a heroic role. (Amanda Plummer’s gun-totin’ freak-out at the film’s start sets the bizarre pace, and, given Plummer’s usual ditzy persona, it is a singularly effective moment.)

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Author Dean Koontz has demanded that Sony Pictures remove his name from the credits of “Hideaway,” the film based on his best-selling supernatural thriller. The movie, starring Jeff Goldblum and Christine Lahti, remains thrilling, but much less supernatural, so Koontz feels it would be “false advertising” to keep his name associated with the flick. It’s still pretty scary, we hear.