Sharp direction, sharp dialogue and sharp suits.

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2014)

There are two ways one can view a film like Reservoir Dogs (and, indeed, much of Quentin Tarantino's work): a) as an uninspired hodge-podge of ideas blatantly lifted from countless other movies (in this case, a large helping of '80s Hong Kong action thriller City On Fire with countless 'nods' to other crime classics along the way), or b) as an exciting, stylish and highly entertaining exercise in revisionist film-making that sees a bold director mining the work of others to forge a classic of his own.
Even though I find description a) applicable to a fair number of QT's films, I cannot help but fall in the latter camp with his debut offering, finding it to be a testament to his deep understanding and appreciation of his medium and his remarkable acuity as both writer and director (he acts in the film too, but two out of three ain't bad, I suppose). In the hands of a lesser film-maker, such an 'homage' would simply be deemed a lazy and unethical exercise in plagiarism, but with Quentin at the helm, infusing proceedings with his unique sense of cool, the whole affair becomes a mesmerising melange of movie-making techniques, a patchwork of pulp excellence that bristles with pithy dialogue and contains many a memorable moment.
I can't say the same about Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol.2, Death Proof or even Django Unchained.