Graphic crime film from Tarantino...

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2007)

It took me fifteen years to get around to viewing RESERVOIR DOGS and my interest was piqued only because I've come to admire HARVEY KEITEL as an actor. And I might as well admit, I'm not a fan of Quentin Tarantino either, although I love a good crime film. This one has to do with tough gang members talking about the aftermath of a crime, where one of them is seriously wounded and they suspect someone has infiltrated their mob and tipped off the police.
"Did you kill anybody?"
"Three cops. No real people, just cops."
The brutal torture scene was a little too intense for me. But the story, about the cop inserting himself into the mob, is well handled throughout, building tension from scene to scene even though the flashbacks are not in chronological order.
Standout performances from the entire cast: HARVEY KEITEL, TIM ROTH, MICHAEL MADSEN, CHRIS PENN, QUENTIN Tarantino and LAWRENCE TIERNEY (almost unrecognizable as the Lawerence Tierney of "Dillinger" and other '40s crime films).
Warning: As usual with Tarantino, the graphic violence is a bit much with lots of kicking, stabbing, blood gushing moments--and the torture scene of a young cop is almost unwatchable in its intensity and cruelty.
But all in all, a powerful film of its kind with a "crime doesn't pay" morality tacked onto the brutal ending. If only Tarantino could tell his tales with a little more finesse--but then, he wouldn't be Tarantino, would he?
Warning: Not for children. Too intense, too graphic.
Seen now, it's almost a forerunner of Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED with the same gangster brutality and the dialog peppered with profanity in practically every other word.