Review of RESERVOIR DOGS

RESERVOIR DOGS

Quentin Tarantino, undercover police, heist, diamond heist, action movies, sadism, psychopath, 1992

Eight men are sitting in a diner and discussing Madonna's song, Like a Virgin. The consensus is that the song is a metaphor for a woman with a large vagina having sex with a man whose penis is so big, it hurts her--like she was a virgin again. Only the leader, JOE CABOT, uses his name. The others have color-coded aliases. Joe pays for the breakfast, says the others should pay the tip, and leaves. MR. PINK refuses on principle to leave tips and agrees only when the others remind him he didn't pay for the meal itself.

And so the director establishes what kind of people we're dealing with.

The scene switches to a speeding car where MR. ORANGE, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the gut, is crying that he's going to die. It's pretty clear a robbery didn't go as planned. MR. WHITE, covered with Orange's blood, comforts and reassures Orange, but when they reach an abandoned warehouse, White refuses to take Orange to the hospital. Pink arrives, conspicuously free of blood, and complains how BLOND psychotically shot civilians in the jewelry store. Pink and White agree the cops arrived so quickly an informant must have tipped them off. Blond arrives and says with utmost casualness that if no one had tripped the alarm in the store, no one would have been shot. More gang members arrive and express their reactions to the botched heist. The only bright spot in the fiasco is that Pink managed to grab the diamonds and stash them.

Was there a police informant in the group, and if so, who? With so many people dead and one of their own wounded, what should the thieves do now? These questions become ever more prominent as the characters squabble about their remaining options.

The personalities are further shown in flashbacks (and sometimes flashbacks within flashbacks). Most are racist are sexist, and one is a sadistic psychopath who dances while torturing a cop he captured during the robbery. And one is indeed a police informant. In spite of the flashbacks, the move is easy to follow.

This is not a movie for someone struggling with depression. However, it does draw you in and get your heart pumping. As a workout movie, I give it +++++. It will get your pulse up to a sprint.

Review of RED

RED

FRANK MOSES (played by Bruce Willis) is a lonely, harmless looking retiree who tears up his monthly checks to have an excuse to talk with SARAH ROSS, a pleasant agent at the pension office.  But Frank is not your typical pensioner. When hit squad attacks his house and tries to kill him, we see that Frank is actually an ex-CIA special ops agent classified as RED - RETIRED, EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. He kills the hit-men and, realizing that his talks with Sarah have put her in danger, finds her and--well--kidnaps her because she thinks he's nuts and fights him off. Luckily, she soon realizes he really is trying to save her life, and the two of them search for old frenemies and other members of Frank's former CIA squad.  These include terminally ill JOE MATHESON (Morgan Freeman) in a nursing home, paranoid MARVIN BOGGS, bored former CIA agent VICTORIA, ex-Russian secret agent IVAN SIMONOV who was once Victoria's lover, and others. These old friends generally greet Frank by asking if he's going to kill them, and then showing him that they have their own guns. It all gets straightened out, and the reconstituted crew goes on the hunt for WILLIAM COOPER, the CIA agent who is trying to kill Frank to prevent revelations of past atrocities in Guatemala in which the Vice President was involved.

Yeah, a little complicated, but all laid out logically enough to be easily followed.

Why the CIA decides now, so many years after the event, to try to silence Frank is a bit vague.

Do not confuse this movie with REDS, Warren Beatty's movie about Bolshevik sympathizers around the first World War. REDS is carefully crafted, intellectually stimulating, and worthless as a workout film.

Frank and the other members of his team are pleasant and often funny. Unfortunately they're killers who not only do not regret taking life, but in some cases, actively relish returning to that activity. In other words, they are psychopaths. None of the reviews I saw mentions this little detail.

As a cinematic production, RED is, well, stupid. But it's exciting, suspenseful and humorous. As a workout movie, it deserves ++++ - it will frequently get your pulse up to a run, and I, for one, plan to see the sequel, RED2.