Reservoir Dogs Coming To UHD

[Toyboy]

Have you seen it more than once?

Once when it was first released then again about 5 years ago.

[Matt H.]

Have you seen it more than once?

[Toyboy]

I guess the thing I need to consider is what QT's intentions were with JACKIE BROWN. Not knowing the history of that project, I would have to assume that after PULP FICTION he was in a position to do pretty much any film he wanted, and this was an opportunity for him to go smaller and deliberately low key. It's probably safe to say that he didn't intend for JB to set the world on fire the way PF did - his second film was an event, his third a simple adaptation that showed he had the ability to shift gears.

PULP FICTION was a cinematic experience in the way that stuff like 2001:A SPACE ODDYSEY, THE EXORCIST, EASY RIDER and THE GODFATHER was, and it would be extremely hard to match that much less top it (although in my Beastie Boys analogy I'd say that Check Your Head came about as close as you can to the genius of Paul's Boutique. Maybe I'll start a Beastie thread). Tarantino was smart to make that swerve before the excess of KILL BILL and it clearly worked in hindsight because JB has it's die-hard fans for sure. I'm just not one of them ;-)

[Mark Tolch]

And again, Jackie Brown isn't his. He put a cool twist on Leonard's book, but it's still mostly just what's on the page.

Not to negate anything written here, especially a rad reference to The Mix-Up.

[Matt H.]

The Tarantinoisms aren't entirely missing in JB; he manages to sneak a neat meta-reference to THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE into the mix. There's a character in EDDIE COYLE called Jackie Brown.... and he's a gunrunner, just like Jackson's character in JB! Pretty cool.

[Ian Jane]

A very big part of what makes Jackie Brown my favorite is the casting. Pam Grier and Robert Forester? I'll watch those two in anything and they're given excellent roles here. The Tarantinoisms come second, I guess. Those two seal it for me. I also really just genuinely like story. I will admit, seeing it first run after Pulp Fiction, I was seriously let down by it but having gone back to it a few times since then, I do enjoy it more than his other movies, and I'm someone who does enjoy his other movies. I'm not on the QT hate train at all, I own every one of his films and while not every one of them is a masterpiece, they're fun, entertaining and for the most part well made.

[Dom D]

There's a hell of a lot of wisdom in what Toyboy says. It sums up my feelings of JB pretty well- I don't know my Beastie Boys well enough to entirely follow the analogy but I think I got the gist. I like it a lot but its mid tier Tarantino for me. The reason it's not at the bottom is because I actively.dislike Inglorious Bastards and Django but otherwise if I'm going to watch a Tarantino movie I want to watch a Tarantino movie and JB only half scratches the itch. True Romance actually feels more Tarantino than JB.

[Toyboy]

Was just having the identical conversation with a buddy of mine who is a huge film fan. I told him, "You are saying the same thing that I was saying (the same thing that you're saying now, Matt)", and I lent him the blu-ray. He returned it a week later, shrugged, and said, "fuck, would have rather known that years ago so that I could have watched it a few more times, great film." It's got it's flaws, for sure, but having some great source material to stick to really kept Tarantino on a bit of a leash.

I think that often times I take a love for JACKIE BROWN as being indicative of a general distaste for QT as a whole, which I get for the most part. The problem with that take for me is that if the person is actually a Tarantino fan it would be like someone saying that their favorite Beastie Boys record was The Mix-Up: decent enough album but at the end of the day anyone who says that is also saying it's a stronger effort than Paul's Boutique, which would be madness. If that crazy person then admitted "I really just can't stand their voices" I'd understand that we live in two separate musical universes and wouldn't try to change their mind in anyway. On the other hand, if that same individual said they actually liked the Beastie's hip hop stuff I'd be more likely to want to argue the point.

By that same criteria I would believe that if someone didn't care for Tarantino's films generally that it would make total sense for them to gravitate to JB, but it would put them in the category of "non-fan" and again, two separate universes and useless to argue. However, a friend of mine who does indeed like the majority of QT's films told me he recently gave JB a rewatch and said it was his favorite. As with the B-Boys scenario, I find it hard to fathom that in a world where PULP FICTION exists someone could prefer JACKIE BROWN. It doesn't compute in my brain, but to each their own.

I don't hate JB by any means, but I was really disappointed with it when it came out and at the time felt like it was a mediocre experience, and on top of that, because the Tarantino-isms were fewer and farther apart they actually stuck out much more than in his films where he is off that proverbial leash. By that I mean that if you're at the bar with Quentin, going shot for shot and bump for bump, it would be tolerable because you're on the same train. If you arrived late and he's been at it for an hour already you may be better off taking a cab home. I guess what I'm getting at is that JB feels like watered down QT, which then places it among all the post-PULP FICTION, neo-Noir, Tarantino wannabe crime films that came out in the late 90's. I'm also saying that overall, I'd much rather be on the coke train with him at full speed than being half sober and looking at Jackson and DeNiro watching TV.

[Mark Tolch]

I need to talk to my therapist about the visceral gut reaction I have to people's love of JACKIE BROWN. It genuinely causes gastro-intestinal distress in me, followed by thoughts of "Should I try watching JACKIE BROWN again and see if maybe I'm missing something?" followed by thoughts of Samuel Jackson and Robert DeNiro sitting on a couch watching TV followed by more GI problems. It's the same feeling I get when I hear people refer to pizza as "Za"

Was just having the identical conversation with a buddy of mine who is a huge film fan. I told him, "You are saying the same thing that I was saying (the same thing that you're saying now, Matt)", and I lent him the blu-ray. He returned it a week later, shrugged, and said, "fuck, would have rather known that years ago so that I could have watched it a few more times, great film." It's got it's flaws, for sure, but having some great source material to stick to really kept Tarantino on a bit of a leash.

[Randy G]

I wrote a review of Reservoir Dogs in my high school paper. So yeah I'm still a fan. Agree though that JB is his best film. I find it endlessly rewatchable as well, very chill.

[Toyboy]

Jackie Brown is the one film of his that I go back to over and over again.

I need to talk to my therapist about the visceral gut reaction I have to people's love of JACKIE BROWN. It genuinely causes gastro-intestinal distress in me, followed by thoughts of "Should I try watching JACKIE BROWN again and see if maybe I'm missing something?" followed by thoughts of Samuel Jackson and Robert DeNiro sitting on a couch watching TV followed by more GI problems. It's the same feeling I get when I hear people refer to pizza as "Za"

[Mark Tolch]

I never really understood that criticism. The similarities are relatively minor. However, the Japanese film Blood and Diamonds (血とダイヤモンド) (1964) is a whole different tale. Or, the exact same tale in fact. The entire plot from start to finish is the same as in Reservoir Dogs.

Blood and Diamonds is about a group of criminals who get together for a diamond heist (SPOILERS AHEAD). The heist goes wrong and one of the members gets shot in the stomach. They hide in a war time bomb shelter, including the shot man who keeps bleeding throughout the film, where the criminals start arguing amongst themselves. Near the end one of the criminals in revealed to be an undercover cop. Then there is a shoot-out at the end as the police surround the bomb shelter.
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162240/reference/

Sounds like Blood and Diamonds is worth tracking down.

I like Reservoir Dogs. I have to admit, I did LOVE it when it came out, but that was because I didn't really know much about film at the time, and just thought that QT was a damn genius. I do still enjoy watching it, though. Like Ian, Jackie Brown is the one film of his that I go back to over and over again.

[Takuma]

but I understand why people think it's a rip off of City On Fire and that QT should have been honest about taking from it.

I never really understood that criticism. The similarities are relatively minor. However, the Japanese film Blood and Diamonds (血とダイヤモンド) (1964) is a whole different tale. Or, the exact same tale in fact. The entire plot from start to finish is the same as in Reservoir Dogs.

Blood and Diamonds is about a group of criminals who get together for a diamond heist (SPOILERS AHEAD). The heist goes wrong and one of the members gets shot in the stomach. They hide in a war time bomb shelter, including the shot man who keeps bleeding throughout the film, where the criminals start arguing amongst themselves. Near the end one of the criminals in revealed to be an undercover cop. Then there is a shoot-out at the end as the police surround the bomb shelter.
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162240/reference/

[agent999]

For me, the turning point was Kill Bill. Before that, he was taking elements from genre films and improving on them (even City on Fire), but then he started to make films with lesser impact than the genre films he was referencing + adding a tonne of bloat. He also started acting like he was fucking Shakespeare with none of his recent work being able to back him up on his inflated opinion of his own abilities.

[Ian Jane]

Personally I like it quite a bit, but I understand why people think it's a rip off of City On Fire and that QT should have been honest about taking from it. But I have no problem putting that aside and enjoying the movie on its own merits. FWIW, I enjoy most of his movies, though Jackie Brown is probably the only one I genuinely love.