Absolutely brilliant from start to finish

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2007)

Coated with style, violence and wit "Reservoir Dogs" is Quentin Tarantino's entry into the cinematic world. A brilliant, well written and entertaining character driven film about a group of burglars that know each other only by the nicknames given to them by their employer. Hired by him to pull of a jewelery heist. But it all goes terribly wrong.
Told in an nonlinear fashion the movie focuses on the aftermath rather than the heist itself. Exploring the different characters using a narrative that goes back and forth in time. So when a scene ends what follows does not continue the storyline from the one that ended. Rather, it moves back into such a moment of the film's time-line providing answers to questions created in the former scene. In order for such storytelling to actually work, the scenes themselves must be structurally independent form one another. Each must carry enough plot points, tension and also have a certain sense of completion by the time it ends. Tarantino succeeded with staggering results. His "Reservoir Dogs" is a fast paced movie with tension building up into every scene and then exploding at just the right moments.
The acting in a movie like "Reservoir Dogs" plays a vital part in it's success, dare I say the most important part. If the actors couldn't play their roles well. If they couldn't pull of a strong performance all that careful planning, the setting, plot and dynamics would have gone to waste. But as it turned out once again everything is perfect, couldn't have been made better. Every character is acted with such professionalism, it's like the actors knew these people they were playing all their lives. From the cool but psychopathic Mr. Blond played by Michael Madsen, the calm, rational Mr Pink played by Steve Buscemi to the noble but sometimes unreasonable Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) who becomes something of a father-like figure to the morally confused Mr. Orange (Tim Roth). It's hard to imagine some other actors being to so perfectly deliver every line of Tarantino's witty, colorful dialogue the way the did it.
Looking at the style and directing techniques it's not hard to notice from where Tarantino draws his inspiration. The choice of fashion, the use of Mexican stand-off, the eyeglasses and long takes. It was from the works of people such as Sam Peckinpah, Martin Scorsese, John Woo. The movie pays tribute to them and to the look, feel and sounds of the seventies. But that does not leave Tarantino without any originality. His huge knowledge on cinema, unique writing skills and grounded approach help him to create this combination of different styles for which he has received both praise and criticism.
So what is "Reservoir Dogs" all about? I'll tell you what. It's about this ambitious guy named Quentin Tarantino who, armed with a great deal of determination, a low budget and a great cast made an unforgettable movie