Amazon.co.uk Review
Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere (i.e. a video store in Manhattan Beach, California) and turned Hollywood on its ear in 1992 with his explosive first feature,
Reservoir Dogs. Like Tarantino's mainstream breakthrough
Pulp Fiction,
Reservoir Dogs has an unconventional structure, cleverly shuffling back and forth in time to reveal details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled them to pull off a simple heist, and has gruffly assigned them colour-coded aliases (Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White) to conceal their identities even from each other. But something has gone wrong, and the plan has blown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronology of this bloody fiasco--and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the police. Pressure mounts, blood flows, accusations and bullets fly. In the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, loyalty, professionalism, deception and betrayal.
As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). Along with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensemble of actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is violent (though the violence is implied rather than explicit), clever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspenseful and even--in the end--unexpectedly moving. (Don't forget that "Super Sounds of the Seventies" soundtrack, either.) Reservoir Dogs deserves just as much acclaim and attention as its follow-up, Pulp Fiction, would receive two years later. --Jim Emerson
Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 English
Dolby Digital 2.0
Original Trailer
An Introduction By Quentin Tarantino
Dutch\English
Empire, March 2004
"It introduced Quentin Tarantino to the world. And things haven’t been quite the same ever since"
From the Back Cover
Quentin Tarantino rocked the film world with this powerful and controversial debut movie. Set mainly in a warehouse in the aftermath of a bungled robbery the story gradually unfolds to introduce the colour coded gangsters and the planning of the crime step by step, through Tarantino's trademark flashbacks. Four have survived after a police ambush - betrayed. What went wrong and who is the betrayer? Brilliantly scripted and complemented by the 70's retro soundtrack, the scenes are stylish and violent yet intelligent and full of dark humour.
