RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) **1/2 Think mobster movies without the fake glamour, good taste, and interesting plot lines. This is real crime, of the sort available to entry level participants without a million dollar stake. It's not just a "guy movie," it's more a movie for recalcitrant bloodthirsty psychopaths. I guess we all have a little of that in us or no one would fund or attempt anything this nauseating. The multi-layered flashback device usually credited to Stanley Kubrick (for The Killing) and used to its best effect in the delightfully disorienting The Usual Suspects should probably be traced to Spinoza's "Sub Specie Aeternitas," the timeless perception of God, but there's nothing transcendent here. In fact the sequencing is easy to follow due to the spare plot and despite the uniformly blood drenched nondescript suits of the principals. Good actors, Michael Madsen stands out as a believable loyal tough guy with attitude and lovingly nourished sadistic tendencies when he hears the word "cop." At some point you become saturated with all the fake blood and it becomes a grotesquely whimsical movie, whatever that's worth.
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