Not what I expected

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2003)

Reservoir Dogs is good but not great, though definitely not what I expected for Tarantino's debut. The acting is very good overall (except for Tarantino) and the plot is not always in order (though the beginning is at the beginning and the end is at the end... sort of.) I had forgotten the movie's violent reputation when I watched it and was a bit surprised by that, but it's not horribly bloody (you can always avert your eyes) and the actual body count is not all that high. Reservoir Dogs probably has the reputation it does because all the violence you see is very frontal and very graphic -- besides, this isn't the invasion of Normandy, it's a bunch of jewel thieves killing each other to save their own skins. Some ends are left a little loose at the end of the movie, but for myself, I know how it ended, and I therefore know what point Tarantino was trying to make (other than pop-culture references and hipster dialogue.)