Reservoir Dogs
Cast
Harvey Keitel .... Mr. White/Lawrence 'Larry' Dimmick
Tim Roth .... Mr. Orange/Freddy Newandyke
Michael Madsen .... Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega
Chris Penn .... Nice Guy Eddie Cabot
Steve Buscemi .... Mr. Pink
Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
8/10. It's safe to say Quentin Tarantino is the master of the crime genre.
With only four movies directed, though, it seems a little
presumputuous to say that. And having seen three of the four, I don't
really seem to be in a position to say that. However, when one of
those movies is a masterpiece, another is a stunningly entertaining
work, and the third an impressive debut piece, it's hard to say
anything but that. He directs his films with such a loving eye
towards the genre that it's easy to see what he wants you to get out
of it: a good time. And that is what he accomplishes.
Six men are brought together to perform a heist. They are Mr. White
(Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr.
Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Brown (Tarantino), and Mr. Blue (Eddie
Bunker). They're all hired by Joe (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Nice
Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) to steal some diamonds. Things get out of
hand, as it turns into a massacre and one of the thieves is a rat.
Reservoir Dogs has a different feel to it than Pulp Fiction and Kill
Bill did. I suppose that those two movies were fun to watch. Dogs
wasn't really fun to watch. It was interesting and all, but I didn't
really have a good time while doing so. It does pick up the pace as
it goes through its short runtime, thankfully, with more flashbacks
and all. There is barely any music in the film, which is what made it
seem longer, and music was key to Pulp Fiction. And the violence
wasn't over the top like Kill Bill, which was the essence to that
movie. Then again, it was Tarantino's first film.
That's not to say that Reservoir Dogs wasn't entertaining, it just
wasn't enthralling in the same way those other two movies were. Dogs
had interesting characters who wound up in a strange situation, and
much like Pulp it's a talking heads movie. The dialogue is
interesting and profanity-laden, which adds to the uniqueness of the
movie. Like those other two movies, too, Tarantino puts in titlecards
for the flashbacks, which help, I suppose. Dogs is a hard movie to
write a review for. There's a lot going for it, but it just wasn't
fun to watch.
Many of the actors here came back to do other Tarantino work. Keitel,
who plays a pretty level-headed guy here, plays Winston Wolfe in
Pulp; Roth, who doesn't have to do that much for most of the movie,
was Pumpkin in Pulp; Buscemi, who does a great job as the terminally
interesting and entertaining Mr. Pink, was the waiter in Pulp;
Madsen, who plays my favorite Dog, Blonde, because of his gleeful
derangement, is Budd in Kill Bill. All add to the movie as a whole.
Reservoir Dogs is an interesting movie, and
Rated R for strong violence and language.
Running time: 99 minutes
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