the almighty DOGS

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2005)

RESERVOIR DOGS: even the name reeks of gritty, serious, pulp storytelling. After all, that's what RD is all about-the story of 6 criminals who have just pulled off a diamond heist that turned into a disaster. They become convinced that one of their own number is a police informant or even, worse, an undercover cop. The whole film is very suspenseful and is very reminiscent of the classic noir films of the 40's and 50's, such as "D.O.A." and even the physcological "Gaslight", but Tarantino says that his biggest influence was Stanley Kubricks masterpiece "The Killing". The film is amazingly well written and directed, with superb acting from everyone in the cast, especially Harvey Kietel, Machael Madsen, and Steve Buscemi. All three of them manged to get in some of Tarntino's later projects, most notably "Pulp Fiction". RD even managed to spawn a whole generation of rip-offs. All in all, it is a very entertaining neo-noir film that is from an indie film legend. Great.