MovieChat Forums > Reservoir Dogs (1992) Discussion > Bad movie....sorry, bad movie....

Bad movie....sorry, bad movie....

posted 7 years ago by glzimm-661-822057
22 replies | jump to latest

I have to admit...'I don't get it'....blood and bad language do not a movie make! There is no mystery to this piece of cow waste and, given the opportunity, any junior high school kid with a skin problem and a hatred for his parents, could have written RD's. This may have been the beginning of substituting profanity and all things loud for cerebral dialogue that isn't shouted by lowlifes. Not all but many movies in these modern times, try to get by with f-bombs and high volume. I am not offended by the occasional use of the word '*beep*' but when it dominates every sentence ...I am not entertained. And the use of volume for the director (or writer) to tell me...'it's time to be 'excited'...is nothing more than insulting to an audience. Not judging all of Tarrantino's work...RD has a great cast....bad film...but, then some actors need the money and others are unknown and will take whatever they can get...Keitel, Madsen...wasted in this one....

[–] Stratego 7 years ago

Great movie. Not bothered at all by the cursing. Seems realistic to me, considerig the type of characters. There's certainly more to the movie than just the f-bombs.

[–] glzimm-661-822057 7 years ago

Glad you liked it....must be a simple difference in preference...I need a bit more substance....

[–] Stratego 7 years ago

Not exactly a thought-provoking movie, but I thought there was enough substance to be found past the profanity.

[–] glzimm-661-822057 7 years ago

Maybe I missed something....can you elaborate on the substance you found? Serious question...thanks!

[–] Stratego 7 years ago

Like I said, it's not the most thought provoking movie, but it has themes of loyalty and betrayal, (dis)honesty, trust, honor, redemption, morality, even identity crisis. And I find it extremely entertaining. It isn't just 100 minutes of blood, violence and profanity. There's the sting operation, the set up of the robbery, the development of White and Orange's relationship, a sort of whodunnit, the everyday conversations, excellent (improvised) acting of the cast, and the referential use of music and filming style.

[–] glzimm-661-822057 7 years ago

Ok....I was so turned off by the (what I deem to be) most base human emotions I stopped watching it...I will watch it all and see if I see the substance you make reference to above...I have to tell you....many years ago I went a few rounds with defenders of RD's...they were not nearly as polite as you are...and I promised then that I would watch the full movie...didn't but will see if I can find it and give it a full view....then I'll come back to this thread and state my opinion....thanks for continuing to justify your viewpoint...

[–] Stratego 7 years ago

Fair enough.

[–] db20db (16568) 7 years ago

Pretty good analysis. I once encountered a definition of profanity that this movie seems to exemplify : "....the effort of a feeble mind attempting to express itself forcibly. "

[–] chilone (17393) 3 years ago

I agree with that definition and unfortunately we see it illustrated, all day, every day.

[–] db20db (16568) 3 years ago

Yeah, I enjoy smart, catchy dialogue in a movie and the monotonous overuse of the f-bomb in this film really became annoying and wearisome.

[–] Burk48917 (11113) 3 years ago

It's probably extremely accurate to the type of people these characters are meant to represent. Like QT does with his use of the N word, it's intentionally overused to give it a sense of normalcy in his films. He's going for the opposite of shock value. It's meant to be mundane.

[–] db20db (16568) 3 years ago

I get your point. In The Sopranos tv series, we often saw Tony Soprano use the word "freakin", a euphemism I suppose for the f-bomb, but not to the extent that we see it with the characters in this film, which made it appear more authentic. QT's overuse, for me, had the exact opposite effect of trying to convey a sense of normalcy.

[–] Cheepshooter (672) 7 years ago

I always thought it was a "take" on the genre. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

[–] TaRaNRoD (1579) 7 years ago

The simple fact that the movies manages to give us the feeling that so much happens while 90% of the movie is set in one place is by itself impressive. If all you can see is violence and bad language and that you totally ignore the amazing dialogues and character development then this kind of movies is just not for you. But in no way is it a "bad" movie.

[–] Philhelm (480) 3 years ago

I haven't bothered to look at the exact screen time for each scene, but I think we are tricked into thinking that 90% of the movie takes place in one location, since there are the meetings between Mr. White/Blond and Joe, the heist flashbacks, the diner scene, the name assignment scene, Mr. Orange's reveal, etc.

[–] degree7 (821) 4 years ago

Yeah, it’s wildly overrated by Tarantino fanboys. The basic plot doesn’t even make sense. There’s no way police would knowingly allow a heist by armed robbers to proceed when they know where and when it going to take place, and have <one of their own guys on the inside .
An undercover policeman isn’t going to aid in committing any crimes like this where innocents are going to get hurt.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg in this obvious style over substance ripoff of prior movies.

[–] LemmyLugosi (411) 4 years ago

Ummm, I think that they intended to stop it before things went ape-shit crazy because of Mr. Orange's actions inside the jewelry/diamond business. "Catch them all in the act", as it were.

I'm not a fan-boy, but Tarantino's first three films are excellent. After that....not so much. Although Inglorious Basterds is pretty great.

[–] davodikum (6006) 3 years ago

They never planned to catch them in the act of the robbery. The whole plan by the cops was to lure the big boss out to pick up the diamonds.

[–] Burk48917 (11113) 3 years ago

Exactly, and police DEFINITELY allow crimes to be committed in the hopes of catching bigger fish down the road, which seems a little messed up.

[–] Threadkiller (2964) 3 years ago

I don't think it's bad but I do think it's MASSIVLELY overrated and easily Tarontino's most overrated film. It felt like a solid, college film with VERY simple plot & characters. The film was largely overlooked initially but retroactively benefited immensely from the massive success and popularity of Pulp Fiction two years later, which overnight made Tarantino the hottest new director in Hollyweird. Pulp Fiction was just leaps and bounds better in every way that became such a cultural phenomenon that it managed to significantly elevate the perception of Reservoir Dogs after the fact.

[–] avortac4 (3660) 9 months ago

There are good and bad points about this movie, in my opinion it lacks substance.

It's almost as if it's solely based on 'gimmicks', like jumping back and forth in time, then there are the boring bits, as in 'training to be a mole', then a lot of blood, violence and weird acting.

The movie could've been salvaged, but the absolutely ridiculous ending ruins the whole thing - basically, you watch a movie, get attached to the characters, think there's going to be an interesting story to unfold, and then.. everyone dies. What did I watch this for, if everyone just dies? It all becomes MEANINGLESS at that point.

Granted, Mr. Pink seems to have escaped at least death, but the ending is just so depressing after you think something good could come out of it.

Also, the torture scene with the ear and all.. what's the point? That's not entertainment, that's just disturbing. Sure, it shows the character is a psycho, but that's not enough justification, and that's just too sadistic.

This whole mess does feel like there's really not much story to it, and everything revolves around a stupid, horrible crime that then expands to multiple murders and a lot of swearing and blood.

The only useful part about this movie is the discussion about tipping, though people have such biased view on it - I wish it could've been discussed with more civilized and neutral way, pointing out things and not getting emotional/angry/heated about it.

I do tip sometimes, but I do it because of actual reasons, not because 'I am expected to'. Thankfully, I don't have to live in a 'tipping culture', but I can't imagine my viewpoint about tipping differing much even if I did, because it's just a ridiculous, stupid practice to move the payment of someone's wages onto the customers, when the employer should take better care of their employees in the first place. PAY THEM WELL so we don't have to tip them, god damnit!

Anyway, it's not a completely bad movie, but it's hard to get much out of it..

[–] pjl69 (2529) a month ago

It had two good scenes in it: 1) the cop ear cutting scene and 2) the meeting when they had their code names (mr white, mr pink, etc).