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Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut is an audacious, low-budget, neo-noir thriller that immediately established the former video-store clerk as the '90s filmmaker to watch. Armed with a terrific script that employs jarring, temporal shifts and mesmerizing, pop-culture-obsessed dialogue, the budding auteur assembled a letter-perfect cast of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers. Perennial screen heavy Lawrence Tierney plays the career criminal who recruits a team of supposedly top-notch triggermen -- Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Chris Penn -- to pull off a big diamond heist. The desperadoes bungle the job, however, instigating a massive shoot-out that sends them scrambling for the deserted warehouse they've chosen for a rendezvous. Tarantino makes his characters colorful, violent, desperate men who are generally garrulous and often comically profane. What's more, they don't flinch from the sight of blood, something in which Resevoir Dogs is awash. Violent and nihilistic, this stylish picture boosted Tarantino's stock and influenced a slew of Gen-X filmmakers to crank out similarly gritty but less effective imitations. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is a career criminal who takes a liking to newcomer Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and enjoys showing him the ropes. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is a weaselly loner obsessed with professionalism. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) has just gotten out of jail after taking the rap on a job for Cabot; he's grateful for the work but isn't the same person he used to be. While Mr. Blonde goes nuts during the heist, the thieves are surprised by the sudden arrival of the police, and Mr. Pink is convinced one of their team is a cop. So who's the rat? What do they do about Mr. Blonde? And what do they do with Mr. Orange, who took a bullet in the gut and is slowly bleeding to death? Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth between pre- and post-robbery events, occasionally putting the narrative on pause to let the characters discuss such topics as the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men's room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 012236198376
• Source: LIONS GATE
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound, Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Anniversary Edition, Subtitled
• Time: 1:40:00
• Sales Rank: 5,713

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Reservoir Dogs / the Bad Lieutenant

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