Reservoir Dogs - Limited Steelbook Edition (4K Ultra HD) (+ Blu-ray)

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By this stage, Reservoir Dogs surely needs little introduction. The debut film from Quentin Tarantino already felt like an established classic when it was first released in 1992; as the decades have rolled on, not only has film itself remained a consistent high point of Tarantino’s career, but the cinematic language, style and tone that it introduced have seemingly never left us. For 90s cinema especially, and perhaps even for cinema in general, Reservoir Dogs stands as a Rubicon moment, a definitive before and after that helped herald in a stylistic shift that shunted film towards its modern era. One thing you can't accuse Quentin Tarantino of is subtlety. Reservoir Dogsburst onto the scene in 1993 paving the way for one of the more controversial auteurs of recent years. You could easily take issue with a white, middle class, male director who mixes huge amounts of racism and misogyny into his stories. His stories are inherently masculine, violent and exploitational… and fun as hell. Reservoir Dogs is no different. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Another thing, used earlier, but NEVER on such scale, was to take low life characters and make them have really elaborated conversations on all kind of unexpected topics. And it worked BIG TIME. His earliest films were more subtle affairs, with Reservoir Dogs perhaps being the smallest. Play-like in scope, the majority of the story takes place in one room, with a The Thing like approach to paranoia amongst a group of men.

Let me stress, this is not a bad looking image, indeed it positively pops, and many might regard it as demo material, but to my eyes the slight The whole point of Reservoir Dogs, and its simple plot was to give Tarantino an opportunity to display his skills at writing dialogue. It certainly does that.Reservoir Dogs tells us the tale of a group of hardened criminals brought together by old gangster Joe ( Lawrence Tierney– Born To Kill, Dillinger) for a simple diamond heist. The men are mostly strangers to each other, with the exception) of Joe’s son Eddie ( Chris Penn– Footloose, Starsky and Hutch) and Mr. Blonde ( Michael Madsen– Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Hateful Eight), a close friend of the family. As the film opens we see our crew sitting together dissecting the songs of Madonna and discussing the relative merits of tipping. There is very little film grain throughout, but don’t worry, the transfer hasn’t been DNR’d to death. It looks wonderfully rich, filmic and organic, with a very good encode to boot. Overall, the 4K presentation of the film is absolutely beautiful. Reservoir Dogs is Zavvi's first Mondo Steelbook release, and is every Steelbook collector's dream! This limited edition Steelbook comes with a translucent sleeve so you can protect the fantastic, blood-stained artwork by Mondo illustrator Tyler Stout. Cast:Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Chris Penn, Edward Bunker, Kirk Baltz, Quentin Tarantino, and Lawrence Tierney

Reservoir Dogs comes with a brand new 2160p UHD 4K transfer with Dolby Vision. This is the first time this timeless film has been released in the 4K format. When Blu-ray first debuted all those years ago, Reservoir Dogs was one of the first releases. Since then, it's only been released a couple of times in either a boutique set or a limited release - and even that was several years ago. Reservoir Dogs has enjoyed an excellent 4K resoration and looks as bloody as ever. You can still see no more of the implied violence than you ever could, but the gruesome aftermath is crispier than ever. Reservoir Dogs is a magnificent film: a violent, bloody, intense character study of criminals in the aftermath of a heist that went horribly wrong and turned into a bloodbath. Whilst director Quentin Tarantino’s influences are well known, his razor-sharp script and shooting style, demands attention and the film still feels fresh and new, and maintains its visceral impact 30 years later. Lionsgate are releasing Reservoir Dogs in a limited edition 4K steelbook on the 21st November. Any 4K release of a Tarantino film is an interesting proposition, as the director himself has professed a preference for watching films on VHS. In a recent Sight and Sound article, he stated that a higher resolution isn’t always desirable, criticising the ‘clean’ digital look of modern restorations compared to the more dirty, yet organic feel of the film prints used on many VHS masters. Tarantino intends to retire after his 10th feature film, plans he has had in place as early as 2009. The director even considered capping his career with a Reservoir Dogs remake but ultimately decided to leave his fan-favorite film alone.When it opened in 1992, this film was clearly an almost revolutionary event. Nothing like that was ever shown on screen before and it changed the whole face of world cinema - FOR EVER! It begins with eight dangerous criminals eating breakfast at a Los Angeles diner. Being what they are it is clear from the first moment that they are up to no good. The breakfast is hosted by Joseph "Joe" Cabot (Lawrence Tierney), an important, respected (and feared) figure in local criminal world and his seemingly less formidable son Eddie "Nice Guy" Cabot (Chris Penn). Although the atmosphere is supposedly light-hearted, it becomes very fast obvious that this is in fact a kind of solemn farewell party before the six guests go on some BIG mission. Those six men are: The color coded names they use are of course Tarantino's tribute to the great 1974 thriller "Taking of Pelham 123". One of those six men is a traitor - and another one hides an even bigger, uglier, more horrible secret. For many of them this is the last day of their lives... Nothing more will be said. Lionsgate is excited to announce the arrival of RESERVOIR DOGSon 4K Blu-ray for the first time to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary. The SteelBook and regular edition 4K Blu-ray available on November 15, 2022.

For all its zeitgeist quaking influence, however, how does Reservoir Dogs fare thirty years later, viewed at a time when its innovation and daring will no doubt feel more conventional? Thankfully, Reservoir Dogs has never been a film solely defined by its originality. Underneath all the hallmarks that would go on to define Tarantino and his career, it is a gripping story filled with, ugly, tragic, humorous and flawed characters.VIDEO....The transfer of the video is very clean with strong colors despite a muting of the entire color grading throughout the film. Contrast is excellent and details, even some of the very small ones, are clearly defined. The lines of the tiny tiles in the meet-up building are easy to see without a blurring of lines despite the depth of field which brings them slightly out of focus. I saw no dirt or artifacting at any time in the watching of this Blu Ray. Shot on film, naturally there will be a slight patina of grain but it is difficult to really see and is not a viewing problem in the slightest. In 1992, Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) came bursting onto the scene with a crime thriller so unlike anything else that had come before that it changed the face of the genre overnight. This is an absolutely amazing, ground breaking film and I adored it! Below, more of my impressions, with some very limited SPOILERS.

Quentin Tarantino cast his net far and wide when he conceived of the idea of Dogs, though it is recognised that most of his inspiration came from the Asian market, more specifically City on Fire (1987) from which large chunks are ‘homaged’ wholesale. And adding his own personal thoughts on the world (tipping, Madonna’s Like a Virgin etc) by giving his characters their wit and snappy dialogue; andExtras wise, this release certainly comes up light. I only received the 4K disc for this review, which contains no extras at all (not even a commentary). An accompanying Blu Ray will contain some deleted scenes and two featurettes, Playing it Fast and Loose and Profiling The Reservoir Dogs. It is a great shame that the wealth of extra features from previous special editions has not been included. I also cannot confirm if the new 4K transfer appears on the Blu Ray (although one thinks that it would).