MovieRob’s Birthday Bash of Favorites 2020 (#23 of 47) – Reservoir Dogs (1992) – Encore Review 4

January is my birthday month, so I decided that I would try and do something quite unique and special for this milestone in my life. I will be turning 46, so I decided to watch 47 (46+1 for good luck) of my all time favorite movies in a random order over the course of this month. I have reviewed every one of these films already, but I will now give new perspectives on them all. Every one of these films received a 10/10 scoring from me. Some of these reviews will contain spoilers so if you have never seen them before, I recommend that you read some of my previous reviews of the film that were spoiler free before reading on…

Hope you enjoy!

This is film #23 of the 47.

Let’s continue with… Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Initial Viewing Memories – I saw this film on video not long after it first came out on video on the recommendation of the video store clerk and it is still my favorite Tarantino film because its low budget makes the viewer need to construct the story in our heads via verbal descriptions instead of seeing it all play out in front of us.

“I don’t wanna kill anybody. But if I gotta get out that door, and you’re standing in my way, one way or the other, you’re gettin’ outta my way.” – Mr. Pink

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (numerous times on Video, DVD and on Cable, Mar 2013, 27 May 2014, 22 Mar 2016 and 13 Jan 2020)

Link to original review – Here, here here and Here

Brief Synopsis – Six thieves must deal with the aftermath of a bloody robbery gone wrong.

My Take on it –Amazing heist film especially since it never needs to even show the heist.

Quentin Tarantino is a master at dialogue and created this film so well that just via the character’s discussions, we get a clear picture of everything that has happened and it therefore doesn’t need to actually show it all.

This is a great method for a low budget film to work in such a compelling way.

This film was the worlds introduction to Tarantino and it really started things off with a bang.

The story seems quite simplistic, but in actuality things get more and more complex as the story moves forward at a great pace.

The film gets quite graphic both in the visual violence but also in the verbal descriptions of violence that help paint the picture of what happened during the heist itself.

The cats is amazing and I’m still shocked to this day that he was able to get Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Lawrence Tierney and Chris Penn to star in this film.

In addition Steve Buscemi is superb in this breakout role that introduced this amazing thespian to the world.

The characters are developed so well by the dialogue that we get a clear idea of who they all are and whether they are “good” bad guys or “bad” bad guys.

As usual, Tarantino throws into the story lots of pop culture references and his Madonna diatribe during the first scene is quite iconic even if the singer herself denies that he got the message right.

Love the way that they are able to turn a heist film into a mystery as the characters all try and discover who told the police about the heist.

Lots of fun and you will never be able to listen to the song “Stuck in the middle with you” ever again without thinking of this film.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Quentin Tarantino was originally going to play Mr. Pink, although he made a point of letting all the other actors audition for the part. When Steve Buscemi came in to read for it, Tarantino told him that he really wanted the part for himself, and that the only way Buscemi could possibly wrestle it from him was to do a killer audition. Buscemi duly complied. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)