The story is of six strangers who are assembled by a mob boss named Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), all given fake names, who are all called to execute a robbery from a diamond store. It was supposed to be a 100% success, but once the police show up, things go wrong, and civilians and police officers are shot. When the remaining plan a rendezvous at a warehouse, they discover one of the "dogs" is an undercover cop, and everyone tries to figure out who the rat is.
The film stars a personal favorite of Tarantino's Harvey Keitel, up-and-coming actor at the time Tim Roth (both of whom worked in Pulp Fiction as less major roles two years later), and Michael Madsen, but the best performance by far is the one done by Steve Buscemi. He gives the most entertaining, serious, believable, and likable performance, and you enjoy every second of him. The dogs end up being one of the best ensembles of any film in the 1990s. They are all very unique, diverse, and some of them funny, too. It is disappointing none of these actors received Oscar nominations for their roles, as these were incredible parts written by Quentin Tarantino.
The story's pacing is very well done, also. It plays out very similar to Pulp Fiction, with the timeline not going in traditional linear fashion. Reservoir Dogs also has picture-perfect pacing to the film; there never seems to be a scene that lasts an eternity. Every scene is very exciting and suspenseful, and you feel sympathy for some characters and hatred for others.
Overall, Reservoir Dogs is one of the best mob movies ever made. Sure, it's nothing compared to Pulp Fiction and is also no where near the highest caliber, but unlike most gangster movies, it is a very short, very entertaining 1 hour 39 minutes, as Pulp Fiction is two and a half hours long. You can most likely buy it very cheap - I bought a used copy of it at a CD store for five dollars - and if unable to, it is absolutely worth a good weekend rent. Reservoir Dogs receives a terrific 3/4.
