A good cult-film

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2002)

This movie is the epitome of brutality. It is one of those movies that really shocks you with its violence, and begs for multiple viewings.
The plot revolves around a group of thieves who are employed by a crime overlord (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn). The casting of the thieves is superb, Steve Buscemi and Michael Madsen both standing out immensely. Basically, everything goes wrong, and we spend the entire movie figuring out what went wrong. My question now is this, what happened to you Quentin? I haven't seen his name on a movie since Jackie Brown came out like 5 years ago. Oh well, I'm looking forward to Kill Bill whenever that comes out.
A warning though...there is a Chow-Yun Fat movie called 'City on Fire', and I hate to say it, but the last 30 minutes of that movie are almost identical to those of Reservoir Dogs (what happens in those 30 minutes, not how it happens). Yes, it includes a mexican standoff and the betrayal of one of the gang after a heist gone wrong b\c he is an undercover cop, and this movie came out I think at least 5 years before Dogs. Check it out if you want, though, it does kind of lessen a person's respect for Tarantino as it did mine, I still think the guy is a great writer and a good director nonetheless. I do know that John Woo and other Chinese filmmakers were influencial to him (check out the direction in both the scene where Tim Roth unloads on Mr. Blonde and when Mr. White does a double handgun routine on a pair of misfortunate cops. Both of these scenes scream of John Woo inspiration).
Anyway, overall, this is a dark and gritty movie. The violence is extreme along with the profanity, so this will not be everyone's favorite movie. This movie is more of a character study than anything else...there really isn't much plot and absolutely no messages in it at all, just good old fashioned entertainment. Despite the rip-off I mentioned above, this is still one cool movie and will be here to stay for some time now as one of the leading cult films ever. 8/10 stars. Recommended.