RESERVOIR DOGS

A mob boss and his son hire 6 criminals to pull off a jewelry store heist. The heist goes wrong and one them are killed, one is shot, one has disappeared, one of them is a psychopath and one of them is an undercover cop. The criminals names are phony color coded names and these criminals know nothing about each other. Throughout the film we see flashbacks of their back story and their escape from the heist.


 Each actor who plays their character are an excellent choice and all give a memorable performance. Harvey Keitel plays the cool and caring Mr. White; Tim Roth plays the wounded gangster Mr. Orange; Steve Buscemi plays the comical Mr.Pink and Michael Madsen plays the psychopathic Mr.Blonde. I was pleased that they got old time movie gangster Lawrence Tierney to play their crime boss to bring a nostalgic feel to gangster films. I also enjoy Chris Penn's performance as the bosses hot headed and child like son Nice Guy Eddie. The rest of the gang is played by the director Quentin Tarantino as the funny Mr.Brown and real life criminal, author and actor Eddie Bunker as Mr.Blue and even though they don't have too much screen time they're still memorable. Even the supporting actors are memorable.

The cinematography in this film is outstanding. We get close up shots, the famous trunk shot, off screen shots , long shots, slow motion, the camera circling around the characters, the camera following the characters and they all work. I enjoyed every shot that this film had to show and every time I see the film, I notice something new. This film really has creative cinematography and it's not afraid to show it.

The music has a great soundtrack. In the opening as we see our characters walk, we hear a cool song called "Little Green Bag". When our characters are beating up a cop that Mr. Blonde captured, the song "I Gotcha" plays during this brutal scene. "A Fool For Love" plays when we're alone with Mr. Orange in his apartment and when he turns off the song, he digs out for his wedding ring indicating his previous marriage. Of course, the best use of the music is when Mr.Blonde is torturing  a cop while dancing to "Stuck In The Middle With You" and what makes the music in the scene work is it has great timing, the music stops when Mr. Blonde leaves for a minute and for some weird reason when the song is over, we hear nothing from the radio. Even the credits play the song "Lime In The Coconut" which is about a person with a bellyache screaming for a doctor, sound familiar? I also love that the radio is hosted by comedian Steven Wright.

The dialogue is outstanding and there's never ever a dull or pointless moment with the dialogue. The highlights in the dialogue is the whole Diner scene about Madonna's song "Like A Virgin"and Steve Buscemi's tipping monologue; the name picking scene; the talk about a black girl getting even with someone; Mr.Blonde torture monologue; and Mr.Orange's monologue. Some of the violence is also in the dialogue as well. The dialogue is one of the many things that make the film work. It's interesting, it helps tell the story, never gets boring and it's quotable too. Oh, and try counting the amount of curse words you hear, cause there's a crap load of them.



The action and violence in this movie are unforgettable. You got a badly injured Mr.Orange who's bleeding and slowly dieing throughout the film; shootouts between the gangsters and the cops; and people beating each other up. Of course the scene, everyone remembers from watching this film is the famous torture scene as Mr. Blonde slowly brutally tortures the cop for his own amusement. These scenes are all great and very violent.

WARNING: SPOILERS  ALERT ON THIS PARAGRAPH

What many film buffs pick on in this film is it being a ripoff on a Hong Kong film called "City On Fire". What are my personal opinions on that? Well, as you all know, Quentin Tarantino likes to homage films and put film cliches in his films. So what are the similarities to "City On Fire". The film's climax revolves around a Jewelery Store heist gone wrong; there's a similar scene of a gangster shooting cops inside a cop car; an undercover cop gets shot in the belly; there's a Mexican standoff at the end; and the wounded cop tells a man his secret. Where do I begin? Maybe Tarantino might of ripped a few things off from the film, but then again, he did pay homage to other heist films. "The Asphalt Jungle" revolves around a Jewelry heist gone wrong; a cop going undercover during a heist has been done many times in film; everyone dies in the heist is an homage to the ending of Stanley Kubricks "The Killing", as well as telling the story through flashbacks. If you also wish to get technical, "City On Fire" was building up to the robbery; while this film focused on the Aftermath of the robbery. Still with my defense aside, I still can see plenty of similarities to the film that people accuse him of ripping off or homaging.

Overall, I think "Reservoir Dogs" is an outstanding film. Some can argue that he's stealing from "City On Fire" and while I think he got the idea from the film, he's using the same cliches that other films have used. Even if it's true that the idea from "City On Fire", I still wouldn't care as much; not to say that "City On Fire" isn't a good movie, but it's because this film has a style of its own. The film has great dialogue; cinematography; music; characters; pacing and action scenes.

RATING 5/5