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76
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60
9
17
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37
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53
Astro Boy
66
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45
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61
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55
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43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
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29
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23
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80
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61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
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30
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34
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60
Funny People
32
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27
Gamer
41
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39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
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42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
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39
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78
Afghan Star
61
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66
Afterschool
xx
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58
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72
Amreeka
48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
Beeswax
35
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71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
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76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
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70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
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75
Crude
82
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67
Departures
xx
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71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Reservoir Dogs

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 54 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Quentin Tarantino
Roger Avary (background radio dialog writer)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 1, 1992
DVD: November 20, 2001
Running Time: 99 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R
Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Randy Brooks, and Kirk Baltz
Quentin Tarantino's debut cult classic chronicles a jewelry heist gone wrong. (Miramax Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Grindhouse Jackie Brown Kill Bill: Volume 1 Kill Bill: Volume 2 Pulp Fiction
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr
You may not like the terms Tarantino sets, but you have to admit he succeeds on them.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A brutal movie, brutal in all the right ways -- brutally stark, brutally funny, brutally brutal. [30 Oct 1992]
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Reservoir Dogs sizzles - it's dynamite on a short fuse, and you watch it with mesmerized fascination, simultaneously attracted and repelled by the explosion you know will come.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
If Quentin Tarantino's gritty, bone-chilling, powerfully violent new film, Reservoir Dogs, doesn't pin your ears back, nothing ever will...[It's] as caustic as battery acid. It's brutal, it's funny and you won't forget it. Guaranteed.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Grabs you by the throat and digs its claws in deep. From the moment that the unwitting viewer tumbles into the realm of Lawrence Tierney's gang of eight, they are hopelessly trapped there until the final credits roll.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
With the exception of the opening scene -- whose purpose is chiefly comic -- the movie is one, extended climax. Even with flashbacks and other time jumps, it never lets up. You have to go back to Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1952 "The Wages of Fear" to recall suspense this relentless.
Read Full Review >Empire Jeff Dawson
The hippest crime flick this side of "Goodfellas," Reservoir Dogs has all the hallmarks of a modern classic.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Vincent Canby
Though small in physical scope, Reservoir Dogs is immensely complicated in its structure, which for the most part works with breathtaking effect. [23 Oct 1992]
Variety Staff (Not Credited)
An intense, bloody, in-your-face crime drama about a botched robbery and its aftermath, colorfully written in vulgar gangster vernacular and well played by a terrific cast.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Brad Laidman
The truth is that for all the controversy there really isnt that much violence in Reservoir Dogs. The reason people were so affected was because the film shows you the true impact of its violence.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Most of the movie is Actors Acting: gifted guys (Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Chris Penn) running nattering riffs on familiar lout themes. [16 Nov 1992]
USA Today Mike Clark
Too lingeringly creepy to ignore. [23 Oct 1992]
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
It's unclear whether this macho thriller does anything to improve the state of the world or our understanding of it, but it certainly sets off enough rockets to hold us and shake us for every one of its 99 minutes.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
It's not the most violent picture ever; what film could aspire to that title? But it's so well made, the violence is so gratuitous, and the general reception has been so delighted, that attention must be paid. [23 Nov 1992]
Film.com John Hartl
All of it is vital and involving, and some of it is hilarious...I've rarely seen a group of people in a darkened theater react as viscerally as they do to Reservoir Dogs.
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
The film's look and themes also recall those of Howard Hawks. Avoiding artful, fussy compositions, Tarantino constructs much of Reservoir Dogs from simple medium-shot long takes.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Though its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, Tarantino has created a movie with all the gritty punch of a .44 in the belly.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Tarantino's palpable enthusiasm, his unapologietic passion for what he's created, reinvigorates this venerable plot and, mayhem aside, makes it involving for longer than you might suspect. [27 Oct 1992]
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
Tarantino's debut directing job acknowledges the sloppiness and silences that are typically squeezed out of most crime films, but we get the point early on and the remainder is macho posturing. [23 Oct 1992]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The part that needs work didn't cost money. It's the screenplay. Having created the characters and fashioned the outline, Tarantino doesn't do much with his characters except to let them talk too much, especially when they should be unconscious from shock and loss of blood.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
I must report that Reservoir Dogs has little of intelligence to say - except for a few implicit comments on the nature of loyalty and betrayal - and that it's violent to the ponit of sadism. [5 Oct 1992]
The New Yorker Terrence Rafferty
Less than the sum of its outrageous gags and inventive bits of business. The story is impressively bloody, but the blood is thin, and it keeps leaking out; Tarantino has all he can do to maintain the movie's pulse. Mostly, he tries to get by on film-school cleverness a homemade pharmaceutical cocktail of allusions, pop music, and visual jolts. [19 Oct 1992]
Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
The only thing Mr. Tarantino spells out is the violence. I have seen much more blood spilled, yet I felt sickened by the coldness of this picture's visual cruelty. [29 Oct 1992, p.A11(E)]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 54 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tyler G. gave it a10:
The debut film of the greatest American director to ever look through the lens of a camera. Tarantino doesn't make anything but great movies. Every single thing he has directed, written, or even produced has all been outstanding work. If you love movies and you want to see the debut film of one of the greatest directors in our time then check this movie out.
Ben B. gave it a9:
Speaking as a Tarantino fan, this film is great. His first film (written when he was 28) is extremely original, with a clever script and a unique outlook. The acting is top-notch, and carries the film, although the trademark Tarantino script goes a long way also.
Bill B. gave it a7:
It wasn't THAT good. The acting was great, but the script is below average.
Jinson C. gave it a10:
Reservoir Dogs, the movie that started it all. Such a widely replicated directorial debut has never been made and never will be. Tarantino presents an alternate view of reality as in the perspective of those that break the law as the good guys. Police are the perpetual villain, always present yet out of sight and all the characters know it. This is one hell of an adrenaline ride and a must see for any fan of film.
Adam B. gave it a10:
This movie was so awesome. And though Tarantino was not the first director to make use of non-linear plotlines (Mystery Train by Jim Jarmusch), he very much brought a quirky style of direction and storytelling into the end of the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first. Reservoir Dogs remains my favorite gangster movie only because it isn't so stereotypical of that genre of film.
Mr. Hankey gave it a7:
This movie sparked the millions of fans of Quentin Tarantino and made him a big name in independent film. But is the movie good? Yes because it is a interesting look at the jobs of killers and No because it doesn't add up as well and some of the acting isn't as good as I would hope. The violence is very visual and surreal but it shows the brutality of people in a way that you may never have seen before. Also interesting how the incognito's of the killers are colors and also how the language is over used and makes the characters less appealing. The movie is good but not the best out of Tarantino in any form.
R Dalvi gave it a10:
Excellent performances. Dialogues contain a lot of abusive language but its worth it. Tarantino'ds performance as Mr. Brown as well as the director and writer is excellent. The other performances also shine. Overall, a great movie with great content.
