Vintage

"K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s continues in this movie review where the 70s lives on..." 

Oga-Chuga. Oga-Chuga. Oga-Chuga.  Can't Stop This feeling...."

The movie that started it all for famed director Quentin Tarantino is the cult classic Reservoir Dogs. 

I found myself revisiting this film, which I must have watched a thousand fucking times when it first came out, but have not watched—so far as I can recall—in its entirety during the 2000s at least.  So some time has passed since my first viewing of this film that began a sordid love affair with Tarantino's flicks, which continues until this day and perhaps even inspired this site. 

Would I still feel this film would be just as good as it was the first time I saw it?  Would it enthrall me like it did when me and my buddies would kill a case of beer, watching this in our ramshackle dormitory repeating every line of our favorite characters by heart?  

Reservoir Dogs is a 1992 crime film and the debut of director and writer and CoolFillmz Hall of Famer Quentin Tarantino. It depicts the events before and after a diamond heist, though not the heist itself. Reservoir Dogs stars an ensemble cast with Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn and Lawrence Tierney. Tarantino even has a role, as does criminal-turned-author Eddie Bunker. It incorporates many themes and aesthetics that have become Tarantino's hallmarks: violent crime, pop culture references, memorable dialogue, profuse profanity, and a nonlinear storyline.

It was the a new sort of film back then and like many of the great genre-changing films, this one is still being imitated today many times and not nearly as a good.  Look no further than the Boondock Saints films and the Smokin' Aces flicks.  Much like Mean Streets (1973) was Martin Scorsese's harbinger of fame, so too is Dogs the forerunner of one of the top ten greatest films every made (in my warped mined): Pulp Fiction.  

The opening scene in Dogs, where all the ramblers are gathered at a diner just bullshitting about pop culture references, is perhaps the signature scene in this film.   Mr. Pink's (Buscemi) diatribe about not tipping waitresses is a classic. 

 Mr. Pink (Buscemi) "I'm very sorry the government taxes their tips, that's fucked up. That ain't my fault. It would seem to me that waitresses are one of the many groups the government fucks in the ass on a regular basis. Look, if you ask me to sign something that says the government shouldn't do that, I'll sign it, put it to a vote, I'll vote for it, but what I won't do is play ball. And as for this non-college bullshit I got two words for that: learn to fuckin' type, 'cause if you're expecting me to help out with the rent you're in for a big fuckin' surprise."

But more so than that...  This film is enhanced by the in between dialogue that is just downright hilarious.  Tarantino has the best ear for such quirky and smart-ass humor.

Nice Guy Eddie (Penn): "Yeah I'm sorry, I should have picked you up myself. This whole week has been fucked up, I've had my head up my ass the whole time."
Mr. Blonde: "You know, that's funny, 'cause that's what me and your dad were just talkin' about."
Nice Guy Eddie: "That I should have picked you up?"
Mr. Blonde: "No, that you got your head up your ass. I mean I walked in here and Joe's like, "Vic, thank god you're back. My son Eddie's a fuck-up. I mean I love the guy, but he's just flushin' everything down the toilet. He's ruining me." I mean that's what you said, right Joe? I'm not makin' this up."
Joe: "I'm sorry you had to hear it like this Eddie. Vic asked me how business was, and you can't lie to a man who's done time for you."
Nice Guy Eddie: "That's very true."

The funny thing is there is a lot of violence in this film despite the movie not showing a lot of it.  It goes to the point that our imaginations can be let in terror through the front door better than actually showing it (to somehow botch badly a Truman Capote Cold Blood passage).  Now, granted, I realize this was partly not by design.  This film was not produced on a Hollywood blockbuster budget you see.  So QT was forced to be insanely imaginative.  I am glad it wasn't produced with a billion dollars.  I think we get the best of Tarantino's creativity becuase he is so limited by the dollars he can afford in Dogs.

I personally think this film and Pulp Fiction are his best.  All the others since sort of play on the same elements that were started in Dogs and elevated, perhaps perfected, in Pulp Fiction. 

The Kill Bill films were creative but still, a general rehash of his Pulp Fiction success. Now granted, Kill Bill films blow away just about anything else ever done in this genre too.  Perhaps that puts the greatness of Dogs and Pulp into proper perspective. 

Nonetheless, I think it is time Quentin Tarantino puts a new spin on something.  What?  I am not sure?  I can't say it should be a zombie film.  I might be wrong but I thought I heard it mentioned that QT was interested in doing a Western?  If so, I think that would be a genre ripe for a new fresh spin that only Tarantino can provide.  And would a western be much different anyway from any of his films? 

I am convinced Tarantino was a huge Sergio Leon fan.  In the Good, The Bad and The Ugly, we  had Clint Eastwood as "Blondie."  Would it be much of a stretch to make him "Mr. Blonde"?  Maybe Blondie was the inspiration for a cast of nameless hoods in Dogs? 

 The bottom line is Reservoir Dogs is a Cool Filmz Straight Fucking Flush.  They don't come any higher on this web site.  And, K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s continues...