Runtime:
99 minutes
Directed
by: QT
Starring:
Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn,
Lawrence Tierney
From:
Live Entertainment
It was about time I watched and reviewed this. I say it's very good:
I've mentioned it before but many of Tarantino's movies, it's like each time I watch it I will probably give it a different rating. That is one of the reasons why I haven't watched and reviewed most of his movies here. I haven't even seen this one in ages, although this and Pulp Fiction are the two movies of his where I am pretty certain of my ratings as I've always thought the same about them; pretty soon I should review Pulp and unless my opinion suddenly changes, I'll give high marks to that also. After that... QT is hit or miss with me, and when I review his other films I can give a better explanation for why that is the case.
QT will always be a divisive person, whether it's his personality, charges of plagiarism or other factors. I've never seen City on Fire but I'll talk about that later. I can say that the opening is still great in 2018; I imagine audiences were at least a little surprised in '92 to see and hear a scene filled with rapid-fire dialogue about such topics as Madonna's music/hidden meanings, random 70's songs and Steve Buscemi's character being against tipping. It sets the mood and tone, for sure. I am sure that some of them were not big fans of how loud and profane this picture is.
The rest of the film, it's not just a heist movie as you never see the group of criminals committing the diamond heist that goes wrong... you just see what happened before and after; rather, it's about how the characters react to things going South and growing suspicions that one of them “is a rat” who set them up. After all, the sextet who did the job, the guy who set up the robbery (Joe) selected them for the task so as they don't know each other except for some interaction the past few days, of course there is distrust and finger-pointing when they all have code names based on color... one of the many homages is that this detail was taken from the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
I say that this is very good, as it's always an intriguing motion picture, even if you remember important details from previous viewings. Having a very talented cast definitely helped as all that fiery dialogue and all the arguing happens; there are plenty of memorable lines for sure and it was an entirely fresh way of hearing movie dialogue and definitely after Pulp Fiction there were many films that tried to be like Tarantino yet most majorly failed at that task. You can try to be like Michael Madsen and what he does to that cop as Stuck in the Middle With You plays but it's difficult to be as cool or as memorable without being overly crass and vulgar. Trying to do a non-linear timeline and making it work is never an easy task
Like I said I've never seen the 1987 Hong Kong movie City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam and starring Chow-Yun Fat, but I know many say it was pretty much an uncredited remake. Considering that I just rewatched Assault on Precinct 13 and it “borrowed” its plot from Rio Bravo and also Seven Samurai-which has had countless films steal its plot... that sort of thing has happened often in film history. Of course, Tarantino boldly displays all the old genre films he has been inspired by... I say sometimes to the detriment of his films (when I watch Grindhouse again I'll talk about Death Proof and my issues with it) but his influences are definitely obvious. Soon I'll try to watch City on Fire so I can know for certain how offended I should be that
Hearing that soundtrack again, it was clear from the beginning that QT chose old songs well for the purpose of them being used in his pictures. It is impressive that THREE tunes (the aforementioned Stuck in the Middle with You, Blue Swede's version of Hooked on a Feeling on and Little Green Bag by George Baker Selection) would be obscure now if not for this movie and two of them will forever be connected with Reservoir Dogs.
What an unforgettable debut for Quentin Tarantino. It should not be a surprise from such a beginning that he went on to have a storied career.
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