I didn't rate it first time around How does it fair 20 years on?...

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2012)

Lauded by many, despised by a few, it's been a long time since I saw 'Reservoir Dogs' and I have to come clean I didn't really rate it first time around. So I thought it was time I gave it another shot since it aired on TV (again) recently. How did it fair this time around? Well I'll tell you after this brief summary.
A jewellery heist has gone wrong and the perpetrators make their way back to a pre-arranged rendezvous, a warehouse. The cops knew about the robbery and they have a traitor in their midst. To keep themselves anonymous, Joe, the organiser of the heist had given them all names of colours. Mr Brown and Mr Blue were both killed during the heist and Mr Orange is injured. He and Mr White are the first to arrive, soon followed by Mr Pink. Later Mr Blonde turns up with a surprise in the trunk of his car a cop. They start beating up on the cop trying to find out if he knows who betrayed them, but he knows nothing. Nice Guy Eddie, Joe's son, turns up next and tells them to move the cars; leaving the psychotic Mr Blonde with the injured Mr Orange and the cop. At this point I'll leave it or the Spoiler Police (Tarantino Division) will have me making films with scenes stolen from just about every film I've ever seen (again).
I must admit I do like the rough style with which this film is made, there seems to be a lot of ad-libbing from the actors and, for the most part, it works pretty well. There are flashbacks telling us how some of the major players got involved in the job and these (to me) are more interesting than some of the stuff going on in the warehouse. As far as performances go, well Harvey Keitel as Mr. White - Larry Dimmick, Tim Roth as Mr. Orange - Freddy Newandyke, Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega and Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink all did an excellent job. Honourable mentions also go to; Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie Cabot and Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot.
As with many of Tarantino's works there is an awful lot of dialogue (just see my 'Favourite Quotes' section below for a taster). This, I find can be both confusing and distracting if not properly choreographed with what the audience is watching. Two talking heads in a room can get pretty uninteresting after a while and this is what you get in some scenes. There is no incidental music, the only music we here is from the radio that always plays hits from the '70's. For me second time around?... Well I can see some good things in there, but not enough for me to rave about it. I will deem it 'Recommended' but only for these good points (about three quarters of the way through the back-story of Mr. Orange definitely NOT the torture scene).
My score: 7.8/10.
IMDb Score: 8.4/10 (based on 277,019 votes at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 96/100 (based on 48 reviews counted at the time of going to press). Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 93/100 (based on 381,822 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).