Film Review: RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)

Co-Writer/Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary (Background radio dialogue)
Running time: 99 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Crime/Thriller/Mystery
UK Release date: 15^th January 1993

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 14^th January 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

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).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/

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).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/reservoir_dogs/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES: (WARNING: Strong Language)
Nice Guy Eddie: Did you see that, daddy?
Joe: What?
Nice Guy Eddie: That guy got me on the ground and he tried to fuck me.
Mr. Blonde: You wish.
Nice Guy Eddie: Listen, Vic. Whatever you wanna do in the privacy of your own home, go do it. But don't try to fuck me in my father's office - I don't think of you that way. I like you a lot man, but I don't think of you that way.
Mr. Blonde: Eddie, if I was a butt cowboy, I wouldn't even throw you to the posse.
Nice Guy Eddie: Of course not, you'd keep me for yourself, you sick bastard. Four years of fuckin' punks up the ass you'd appreciate a piece of prime rib when you see one.

Mr. Orange: What happens if the manager won't give you the diamonds?
Mr. White: When you're dealing with a store like this, they're insured up the ass. They're not supposed to give you any resistance whatsoever. If you get a customer, or an employee, who thinks he's Charles Bronson, take the butt of your gun and smash their nose in. Everybody jumps. He falls down screaming, blood squirts out of his nose, nobody says fucking shit after that. You might get some bitch talk shit to you, but give her a look like you're gonna smash her in the face next, watch her shut the fuck up. Now if it's a manager, that's a different story. Managers know better than to fuck around, so if you get one that's giving you static, he probably thinks he's a real cowboy, so you gotta break that son of a bitch in two. If you wanna know something and he won't tell you, cut off one of his fingers. The little one. Then tell him his thumb's next. After that he'll tell you if he wears ladies underwear. I'm hungry. Let's get a taco.

Mr. Pink: Hey, why am I Mr. Pink?
Joe: Because you're a faggot.
Mr. Pink: Why can't we pick our own colors?
Joe: No way, no way. Tried it once, doesn't work. You got four guys all fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Black, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Mr. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mr. Yellow.
Mr. Brown: Yeah, but Mr. Brown is a little too close to Mr. Shit.
Mr. Pink: Mr. Pink sounds like Mr. Pussy. How 'bout if I'm Mr. Purple? That sounds good to me. I'll be Mr. Purple.
Joe: You're not Mr. Purple. Some guy on some other job is Mr. Purple. Your Mr. PINK.
Mr. White: Who cares what your name is?
Mr. Pink: Yeah, that's easy for your to say, you're Mr. White. You have a cool-sounding name. Alright look, if it's no big deal to be Mr. Pink, you wanna trade?
Joe: Hey! NOBODY'S trading with ANYBODY. This ain't a goddamn, fucking city council meeting, you know. Now listen up, Mr. Pink. There's two ways you can go on this job: my way or the highway. Now what's it gonna be, Mr. Pink?
Mr. Pink: Jesus Christ, Joe, fucking forget about it. It's beneath me. I'm Mr. Pink. Let's move on.
Joe: I'll move on when I feel like it... All you guys got the goddamn message?... I'm so goddamn mad, hollering at you guys I can hardly talk. Pssh. Let's go to work.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Trailer:

Film Review: SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (2007)

Co-Writer/Director: Takashi Miike
Running time: 95 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Japan release date: 15th September 2007

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 2nd October 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is director Takashi Miike’s homage to the spaghetti western. I did find it kind of odd watching a western with Asian actors in an Asian setting, but at the end of the day it was pretty well done and there was a neat little cameo from a certain Quentin Tarantino. But more of that later, here’s a short summary first.

Two clans, the Reds and the Whites are fighting over a treasure believed to be buried in or around a small village. Most of the villagers have left, leaving the mayor and a few others in between the clans. Into this situation comes a lone gunman who immediately proves his worth. Both clans vie for his services but an old woman tells him to think it over first, which he does. She tells him of a woman, of the white clan, who fell in love with and had a child with a man of the red clan. They lived in the village until the young man was killed by the red clan leader. She then went to the white clan for sanctuary but was just abused and kept as a concubine by their leader. Their son will no longer speak and lives with the old woman. The gunman goes the whites and tries to buy the freedom of the young woman but is ultimately unsuccessful. So he sets up an ambush that results in the Reds and the Whites almost annihilating each other. Surprisingly, the old woman turns out to be a great ally in this adventure. I really don’t want to say any more, I think that’s more than enough to whet your appetite.

This is a very well made film, as I said at the beginning, the setting is Asia and all of the actors, apart from Tarantino are Asian. This unfortunately has the side-effect that the accents make quite a lot of the dialogue quite hard (for me) to undrestand clearly. Having said that, the cinematography is really well done, also the stunts are superb.

The plot seems to have been heavily based on the 1964 Sergio Leone film, A Fistful of Dollars which kind of makes it a bit easier to follow. There are, of course, plenty of twists and turns in it that deviate from the original which does keep the audience interested. Over all, it’s a pretty entertaining film although it can be a bit gory for those of a nervous disposition and there's the language problem I mentioned earlier. But I pretty much enjoyed it, so it’s recommended.

My score: 6.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0906665/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/screenplay/vi975372313/

Film Review: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)

Director/Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Running time: 153 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 18

UK Release Date: 19th August 2009

Watched on DVD Monday 29th March 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I’ll admit I’m not the greatest fan of Mr Tarantino’s work, for me he can blow hot and cold. He sometimes seems to be more interested in putting in subtle little twists and nods to obscure films that will only be admired by a certain few, rather than making a coherent movie. In this film, however, the twists and nods either too subtle for me, which I suspect, or he’s actually attempted to make a movie. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect and it’s very, very long, but it does all tie together quite neatly in the end.

When Shosanna Dreyfus escapes from the Nazis having seen her family shot, she thought she’d never see the man responsible for it, Col. Hans Landa, again. However, fate has a nasty way of playing evil tricks on people like Shosanna. Four years later she owns and runs a cinema in Paris, where, thanks to the attentions of a young German war hero, Pvt. Fredrick Zoller, she is to stage a German film premiere. All the German High Command, including Hitler himself, is to attend. News of this event comes through to Lt. Aldo Raine and his band of Inglorious Basterds, who are behind enemy lines causing havoc and fear in the German ranks. They are to destroy the cinema with the help of a spy, Bridget von Hammersmark, but the newly appointed head of security, Col. Hans Landa has other plans. I think that’s a pretty good summary, without giving too much away (I hope).

Let me first say that as a whole, I really enjoyed watching this film. It’s not Tarantino’s best, that’s still a tie between Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997) in my book. The performances are all outshone by Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa; he quite deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and BAFTA awards (plus quite a few others I see). Honourable mentions go to Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine (loved the accent), Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus, Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz, Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox, Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark and Daniel Brühl as Pvt. Fredrick Zoller.

Although I’m quite used to watching foreign language films, I found the switching between scenes in English, to scenes in German or French with subtitles quite distracting. Don’t get me wrong, many of the scenes were very well done and quite absorbing to watch, but they didn’t always fit together as well as they might. The music was pretty good too, although I did feel I was watching a Spaghetti Western at a couple of points near the beginning. So, over all it’s quite an engrossing film, if a little difficult to watch in one sitting at nearly two and a half hours in duration. But having said that, I do recommend it, it’s worth seeing if only for the performance of Christoph Waltz and Brad Pitt’s Tennessee accent.

My score: 8.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0361748/
Official Site: http://www.inglouriousbasterds-movie.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3738173977/