 15th Anniversary Edition Four Perfect Killers. One Perfect Crime. Critically acclaimed for its raw power and breathtaking ferocity, it's the brilliant American gangster movie classic from writer-director Quentin Tarantino. They were perfect strangers, assembled to pull off the perfect crime. Then their simple robbery explodes into bloody ambush, and the ruthless killers realize one of them is a police informer. But which one? Storyline: Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss, Joe Cabot, to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with the intention that they won't get too close and will concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But, when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members, and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout, along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. Written by Soumitra Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Greg Maltz on August 12, 2007 -- As the opening credits roll in Reservoir Dogs, six men in dark suits and sunglasses walk across a parking lot. With 1080p resolution and an MPEG-2 codec, the BD reveals significantly more detail than the 480i versions on DVD. Judging by their appearance, the cast could be salesmen heading back to their office. But Reservoir Dogs is a gangster film and after a few minutes of dialogue, it becomes clear that these are not lawful citizens. Reservoir Dogs is an exploration of honor among thieves and each thief has a pseudonym: Mr. White, Mr. Brown, Mr. Pink, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue. One year after Goodfellas brought mafia movies into the 1990s, Quentin Tarantino takes the genre in a new direction in his first and most serious effort as a filmmaker. Of Tarantino's many cinematographic ploys in Reservoir Dogs, the most brazen is his use of nonlinear time. When the credits stop rolling, the picture goes black. We suddenly find ourselves hearing screams of agony in a car. Mr. Orange, in a riveting performance by Tim Roth, lies writhing in the back seat, drenched in his own blood. Mr. White, played authoritatively by Harvey Keitel, tries to console his partner as he carries Mr. Orange into the safehouse. "Who's the tough guy? Tell me who's the tough guy. You're the tough guy!" One by one, the other mobsters who survived the heist appear at the safehouse, each with their own story that reaches back in time, each pulled in different directions by their allegiances and experiences. Steve Buscemi delivers an especially strong performance as Mr. Pink, but all the actors are at the top of their game. The realization that one of the thieves is an undercover cop and that the law is closing in around them drives the characters toward a brutal climax where honor and the gangsters' code are stressed to the breaking point. Shocking violence and heated dialog pepper the film, showcasing many of Tarantino's writing and directing trademarks. If Tarantino is divided into four parts, he would be one part genius, one part ham, one part fudge and one part child, and I don't use any of the terms lightly. Some of his work is brilliant, some is absolutely sophomoric. He takes many chances, and they all work in Reservoir Dogs. It is nowhere near his most popular film, but I find it his strongest. The question remains whether his nonlinear time gimmick strengthened the story or held it back. The technique certainly added intrigue to the first viewing experience, but what if the story flowed in a linear manner? I believe this approach would have been more successful. The audience would relate better to the characters, gaining insight as the characters gained insight, rather than jumping around. Plenty of intrigue is built into the plot by virtue of the fact that the six gangsters were strangers. They refer to each other by their pseudonyms. Why make the story more confusing by jumping around in time? Each mobster in Reservoir Dogs is generally distrusting of the other except for one strong relationship that develops between veteran wiseguy Mr. White and the new kid, Mr. Orange. The reason they bond is never adequately explained. In fact, one would expect them to be at odds based on their characters' histories. It's not in Mr. White's nature to trust people. But the White- Orange friendship and mutual respect is convincing and a credit to Tarantino's character development as well as the strong performance of Roth and Keitel. By the end--which thankfully unfolds in a linear manner--we see that this respect between Mr. White and Mr. Orange has grown to defy all logic and chain of command. In the climax it develops into a gangster triangle, in which the boss, the boss' son, Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn) and Mr. White stand with guns drawn. The dramatic way the tension unfolds stands alongside the most powerful scenes in mafia film history. Some of the characters, such as the psychopathic Mr. Blonde, are a study of the two-dimensional or juvenile criminal mind that Tarantino uses more frequently in his later work. I prefer the more complex relationships and motivations as character studies. For sheer impact and video definition, the Blu-ray far exceeds any previous home video version of this film. And I've had most of them, from the original VHS cassette to the first version of the DVD to the Mr. White collector's edition. Any fan of Tarantino or the mafia genre should not hesitate to get this 15th Anniversary Blu-ray. Cast Notes: Harvey Keitel (Mr. White - Larry Dimmick), Tim Roth (Mr. Orange - Freddy Newandyke), Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde - Vic Vega), Chris Penn (Nice Guy Eddie Cabot), Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink), Lawrence Tierney (Joe Cabot), Randy Brooks (Holdaway), Kirk Baltz (Ofcr. Marvin Nash), Edward Bunker (Mr. Blue [as Eddie Bunker]), Quentin Tarantino (Mr. Brown), Steven Wright (K-Billy DJ [voice]), Rich Turner (Sheriff #1), David Steen (Sheriff #2), Tony Cosmo (Sheriff #3), Stevo Polyi (Sheriff #4 [as Stevo Poliy]). IMDb Rating (07/25/14): 8.4/10 from 475,821 users Top 250: #75 IMDb Rating (01/04/10): 8.4/10 from 194,788 users Top 250: #64
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