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The Rewatchables ·

Reservoir Dogs

year 1992decade 90sdirector Quentin Tarantinogenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Sean Fennesseyhost Chris Ryan
All 18 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 30:32

The commode story

The opening diner scene is the first candidate: the Madonna 'Like a Virgin' theory leads into the tipping argument, and the clip of Mr. Pink refusing to tip because society says he has to is played.

A lot of guys came out of the movie with a new vision of the service industry; one host, who had worked as a busboy and waiter for two summers, was offended by Buscemi's character and says anyone who has worked food service knows you tip.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:19:38

"I'm hungry let's get a taco"

The category was left empty because the whole movie is the best quote; nominated small lines include 'asshole you better stop talking because we got shit we need to talk about', compared to Pacino in Heat, 'you're gonna be okay', 'Say the goddamn fucking words', 'Oh are you a doctor', the personal favorite 'I'm hungry let's get a taco' after the finger speech, and 'I got a big fucking problem'.

The film

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Directed by Quentin Tarantino · Drama

99 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Harvey Keitel Larry Dimick "Mr. White"
Tim Roth Freddy Newendyke "Mr. Orange"
Michael Madsen Vic Vega "Mr. Blonde"
Chris Penn "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot
Steve Buscemi "Mr. Pink"
Lawrence Tierney Joe Cabot
Randy Brooks Detective Jim Holdaway
Kirk Baltz Officer Marvin Nash
Edward Bunker "Mr. Blue"
Quentin Tarantino "Mr. Brown"
David Steen Sheriff #2
Steven Wright K-Billy DJ (voice)

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

21:46

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:46Read transcript
  • Ebert felt the script could have been better: the film 'feels like it's going to be terrific' but the script lacks curiosity about the characters; he gave it two and a half stars out of four, said he enjoyed it as a very good film from a talented director, and wrote 'I like what I saw, but I wanted more'.
  • The hosts cannot believe he missed on Tarantino's first movie; he and Siskel famously turned around on Tarantino after early criticism, and the 'Raj' bit is called offensive.
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30:32

Most Rewatchable Scene

The commode story; the Mr. Blonde and Mr. White showdown through the ear-cutting; the ending where Chris Penn's chara...

The commode story; the Mr. Blonde and Mr. White showdown through the ear-cutting; the ending where Chris Penn's character figures it out

In the discussion (21)
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:32Read transcript
  • The opening diner scene is the first candidate: the Madonna 'Like a Virgin' theory leads into the tipping argument, and the clip of Mr. Pink refusing to tip because society says he has to is played.
  • A lot of guys came out of the movie with a new vision of the service industry; one host, who had worked as a busboy and waiter for two summers, was offended by Buscemi's character and says anyone who has worked food service knows you tip.
  • Mr. White is teased as woke for dropping knowledge that waitressing is the number one job for non-college-educated women; the scene is said to foreshadow the rat, since Mr. Orange snitches on Mr. Pink when Joe demands to know who did not tip.
  • A low-key favorite detail is the Budweiser bottles at breakfast; Tarantino scenes often happen in the morning with people behaving as if it were night, like the wolf arriving at six in the morning.
  • It occurs to one host that the crew, dressed in uniform right before the heist, should not be seen together in public; it is called ludicrous and parked for nitpicks, defended as pre-surveillance state, and the waitress they stiffed would remember five guys in black suits smoking like chimneys and drinking Budweisers at nine in the morning; Joe should never be seen with them.
  • A nerd question asks whether the roving camera around the table, shooting backs and sides of heads, was stolen from someone; Terry Gilliam loved it at Sundance, it is Scorsese-ish, and the handheld over-the-shoulder following of Madsen going for the gas can feels like a flex.
  • The Copacabana tracking shot in Goodfellas is the comparison, called the greatest tracking shot in movie history; a Goodfellas episode could run four hours and needs a live audience.
  • The shooting style is read as naturalism, putting the viewer inside the conversation, and the scene characterizes everyone at once: a beef between Blonde and White, jumpy Pink, Orange lying in the cut watching, Nice Guy Eddie showing who runs what, and Eddie Bunker as pop critic preferring the early stuff.
  • It is one of the hosts' favorite opening scenes; an opening-scene week bracket is floated, half of Tarantino's openings would qualify including Inglourious Bastards (as transcribed), and openings and kickers are what matter most.
  • Keitel versus Buscemi over the bleeding Tim Roth is the second candidate: a long, escalating, well-acted scene; it is argued as the best Buscemi performance, intense, neurotic and imposing, and the two guns pointed at each other was the first John Woo reference one host caught.
  • Buscemi rankings: this first, The Sopranos second, Domestic Disturbance third ahead of Fargo and Miller's Crossing; Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, remembered for 'boat drinks', Amongst Friends and Very Bad Things are recalled as the Tarantino rip-off era.
  • The ear-cutting scene followed by the unexpected Tim Roth murder is the third candidate; Madsen gets the gleam in his eye once White and Eddie leave, talks to the severed ear, and the cutaway to the graffiti above the door at the perfect moment is why the scene does not gross one host out.
  • Tarantino, for someone so violent, often does not show things: Marvin's head in Pulp Fiction is quick and the trunk dummy is obvious, though Hitler's body and Jamie Foxx's forty kills in Django are counterexamples; he also had no money and never shows the suitcase, and Mr. Blonde's speech before the torture is recited.
  • The movie does not get many Fraternal Order of Police screenings; Mr. Orange's unexpected murder of Mr. Blonde is a great twist nobody saw coming the first time.
  • Tim Roth performing the commode story, from meeting his boss at the diner through the different settings, is a candidate, with the 'panic hits me like a bucket of water' passage recited.
  • He had never seen anything like it at the time: the color palette shifts to the graffiti background and the movie comes alive, Roth's energy changes completely as he learns to be the character, and it layers Tarantino's recurring themes of story within a story, seeing Freddy instead of Mr. Orange, and the former actor's process of memorizing lines in the apartment with the Silver Surfer poster; the jumps between settings were unlike anything he had seen. — Chris Ryan
  • Roth gets to flex his chops with some of the most anguished yelling in a movie, but his accent is called very bad even though a dialect coach was on set the whole shoot; is he supposed to be Dutch? A rare bad accent inside a great performance.
  • Roth delivering the monologue in the bathroom to cops who stand still while the German shepherd watches showed one host that writing could do that.
  • Buscemi arguing about the name selections is a shorter but iconic scene, with the trade request and Joe's 'city council meeting' refusal recited; the Joe Cabot bit is saved for later.
  • Chris Penn doubting Mr. Orange's story, and Vic Vega's return from prison with the Scagnetti talk and the wrestling with Chris Penn and Tierney, are thrown in as further candidates.
  • The final choices split three ways: the commode story; the ear-cutting scene, taken as the whole twenty-five-minute stretch from the Mr. Blonde and Mr. White showdown to learning what a psychopath he is, since the shootings are never shown; and the ending with Chris Penn figuring it out in seven minutes, which displaced the opening diner for one host after twenty years. Three-way shootouts in general are loved and are said to have influenced one host's later work.
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46:43

Nerd Corner

Stanley Kubrick's The Killing; The Big Combo and Django for the torture scene; Jean-Pierre Melville's films; The Taki...

Stanley Kubrick's The Killing; The Big Combo and Django for the torture scene; Jean-Pierre Melville's films; The Taking of Pelham One Two Three for the color names; Ringo Lam's City on Fire; John Woo's The Killer for the three-way standoff

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:43Read transcript
  • Nerd Corner is a new category built for one host's reactions: Tarantino is quoted calling the film his take on Kubrick's The Killing rather than a rip-off of it.
  • Given thirty seconds on The Killing, he calls it one of the great Sterling Hayden performances with a top-three final shot in movie history, the film that let Kubrick leap from crafty photographer making B pictures to the most significant film artist of his time, and says its traces run throughout Reservoir Dogs. — Sean Fennessey
  • Joseph H. Lewis's The Big Combo and Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Django inspired the cop torture; The Big Combo is fine, Django is a better rewatch after Django Unchained, Tarantino has a relationship with Franco Nero rather than the rights, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has Django-esque flourishes.
  • Jean-Pierre Melville's tough-guy French films, Le Cirque La Rouge (as transcribed) and Army of Shadows, are recommended to anyone who loves Reservoir Dogs.
  • The color names come from The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3, a great homage with Walter Matthau, and the Denzel remake is not bad; the 1987 film City on Fire is so close that watching it raises whether Tarantino is good or just stole it, the one complicated thing about him, with critics saying he ripped off seven movies rather than paying homage.
  • He calls Tarantino a metatextual artist and himself a postmodernist. — Chris Ryan
  • Tarantino is not interested in human beings so much as weaving pre-existing stories together; City on Fire is a cool movie, Reservoir Dogs is a masterpiece; the three-way standoff is traced to John Woo films such as The Killer.
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49:53

What’s Aged the Best?

The opening credits sequence; young Madsen; the ironic juxtaposition of music and violence; the who's-the-mole device...

The opening credits sequence; young Madsen; the ironic juxtaposition of music and violence; the who's-the-mole device; Steven Wright as the radio host; the L.A. setting

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:53Read transcript
  • The opening credit sequence is fun to watch after Swingers blatantly ripped it off four years later with the slow-motion strut out of a diner, while joking that everyone was ripping off Tarantino; the Swingers characters are exactly the guys whose lives were never the same after Reservoir Dogs.
  • The shot remains influential: The Farewell, an immigrant story out this year, has a slow-motion group walk that reads as meaningful; the hosts joke about filming themselves walking the Sunset Gower lot, which one once did with Jalen, walking away from an exploding car.
  • Young Madsen is another: a top-five lottery pick who became a whatever-happened-to like Tom Gugliotta, with a bit of Newman and Dean Martin, tall, black-haired and calm; he has had a complicated life, and a college friend loved even bad Michael Madsen movies.
  • Madsen is likened to Kenny Anderson and may have market-corrected himself; it is telling he is not in Pulp Fiction, though the long-term plan was a Vega Brothers movie with Travolta, and he returned in Kill Bill and The Hateful Eight.
  • Species is one of the great cable movies with no Oscars; Madsen then went down the road of Man with a Gun and Donnie Brasco and became the Skinamax lord, and his once olive-oil voice now sounds like gargled concrete, hard to understand in The Hateful Eight.
  • The juxtaposition of music against what it scores, easy-listening soft rock during the ear cutting, was mind-blowing and has been copied so often it is now undetectable; who's-the-mole plots remain a favorite device, as in The Loudest Voice.
  • Steven Wright as the radio host sets the scene; it is a good L.A. movie, with the warehouse in Eagle Rock, Tarantino living in Glendale, and his first three films being L.A. movies set in different parts of the city, like the True Romance hotel on Sunset.
  • The closing personal pick is the opening credits sequence.
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56:40

What’s Aged the Worst?

The N-word dialogue; six white guys with no Black or Latino crew member; Buscemi's theory on Black women; Lawrence Ti...

The N-word dialogue; six white guys with no Black or Latino crew member; Buscemi's theory on Black women; Lawrence Tierney as Joe

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:40Read transcript
  • The N word stuff was controversial even in the nineties and has gotten worse; Tarantino goes for it here and in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, where Spike called him out and Sam Jackson came to his defense.
  • It is weird that none of the six is Black or Latino, which would play differently now; but the movie is purposefully about bad, racist people, no character stands outside it, and even the cop is implicated when Tim Roth kills the woman in the car after watching Keitel gun down cops.
  • Tarantino is quoted at the time of release wanting the characters to say very ugly things and profound things, idiots one moment and geniuses the next, guys who did time in San Quentin; it is not palatable now but it is self-conscious.
  • Buscemi's theory on Black women is a tough two minutes, complicated by Tarantino's obvious adoration of Black culture and the characters' talk of Pam Grier, Honey West and the E. Lois story; in general these guys are idiot crooks.
  • Lawrence Tierney as Joe is called bad, with disbelief that Keitel could not call in a favor from a good old actor; one host disagrees, and the comparison is Mike Francesa if he could not act; Tierney visibly muffs a line before 'my way or the highway' in a take left in the film.
  • Tierney's fat Skeletor body brings a presence; a podcast interview is cited saying everyone had a hard time with him because he was distracted and forgot lines, and he was fired after the third day, so he is kept out of the third act until the last scene.
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1:00:43

The Ewing Theory Award for Best Theory

Buscemi's not-tipping theory; Tarantino's 'Like a Virgin' theory

Buscemi's not-tipping theory; Tarantino's 'Like a Virgin' theory

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:43Read transcript
  • Four nominees: Tarantino's theory that Like a Virgin is about a John Holmes type, Madsen's line that Ladera Heights is the Black Palos Verde (as transcribed), an inside L.A. joke that slayed one host, Keitel's torture theory of pinky first then threaten the thumb, with the 'let's get a taco' clip, and Buscemi's theory on not tipping.
  • One pick is not tipping, because Madonna herself negated the Like a Virgin theory; she liked the film, refuted the interpretation and gave Quentin a signed copy of her erotic album (as transcribed) saying it is about love, not dick.
  • Another's favorite is the Madonna theory regardless, since artist intent is not interpretation and nobody cares what Tony Scott believes Top Gun is about; the finger theory is also loved, with a joke about a jewelry store manager living his hand life with three fingers.
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1:02:13

Casting What-Ifs

James Woods received five cash offers his agent refused; Tarantino wrote Mr. Pink for himself; Madsen, Vincent Gallo,...

James Woods received five cash offers his agent refused; Tarantino wrote Mr. Pink for himself; Madsen, Vincent Gallo, Tim Roth and Tom Sizemore were in the mix for Mr. Pink; Buscemi auditioned for Mr. White; George Clooney read and Christopher Walken passed on Mr. Blonde; Robert Forster auditioned for Joe Cabot; Tony Scott wanted to direct

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:13Read transcript
  • Tarantino wanted James Woods and made five cash offers, which Woods' agent refused without telling him because they were below his salary; Woods fired the agent after learning the story, and Tarantino never told him which role; online speculation says Mr. Orange, which the hosts doubt given Woods' age, preferring him as Mr. White.
  • Tarantino wrote Mr. Pink for himself; Madsen auditioned for Pink, Vincent Gallo turned it down, which is doubted as half-assed research, Tim Roth almost played it, and Tom Sizemore was a finalist, which could have broken brains.
  • Sizemore has a very outsized role in the Tarantino universe over the next few years. — Chris Ryan
  • Sizemore's Natural Born Killers character is the brother of Seymour Scagnetti, one of the most messed-up characters in movie history; asked which part he wanted and why, Sizemore told Tarantino 'the action is the juice'; Buscemi originally auditioned for Mr. White.
  • George Clooney read for Mr. Blonde, which the hosts can see, and later did From Dusk Till Dawn; Christopher Walken refused Mr. Blonde, almost too obvious a choice, perhaps never even replying to the script.
  • Robert Forster auditioned for Joe Cabot; one host never thought Forster was that great, including in Jackie Brown, and never bought the attraction with Pam Gray (as transcribed), which the others call a crazy, bad take given his Oscar nomination; he would still have been better than Lawrence Tierney.
  • Tony Scott read both scripts, wanted Reservoir Dogs and was told he could have True Romance; his version would have shown the heist with more cop stuff, a Hans Zimmer score instead of seventies songs, and Gary Oldman as Mr. Blonde with dreadlocks and gold teeth.
  • Cross-echoes with True Romance: 'a diddle-at-joe' to Drexel's 'damned if I know', and Mr. White saying he used to work with Alabama; the theatrical release has no female speaking parts beyond the woman who shoots Mr. Orange, nor does this podcast.
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1:06:29

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:29Read transcript
  • Madsen is the first name; the heat is pretty equally distributed, but Tim Roth's shirtless boss in the vest does a lot with a little, chewing up 'that invisible bitch'; Madsen in the ear-cutting scene is compared to Vinnie Johnson in game five of the 1990 Finals, going for it in a career-altering way, except his career was not altered.
  • Barely worth mentioning is the extra Buscemi bangs into while fleeing the robbery, who yells 'fuck you, asshole' like an acting buddy making the most of one opportunity.
  • One more Dion Waiters: the earnest, mustached cop telling his story during the commode monologue, repeatedly ordering the motorist to put his hands on the dash; he looks like he is from Wisconsin rather than California and is handed the best that-guy award instead.
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1:09:16

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Baltz, who played the cop Marvin Nash

Baltz, who played the cop Marvin Nash

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:16Read transcript
  • The mustached cop from the commode story is given the best that-guy award; the Joey Pants pick had been Baltz, who played the cop Marvin Nash and has not been seen since, with his 'I'm fucking deformed' and 'I'm dying over here' lines recited.
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1:09:46

Half-Assed Internet Research

Walkouts at screenings including Wes Craven and Rick Baker; a 2006 video game with only Madsen's likeness; actors wor...

Walkouts at screenings including Wes Craven and Rick Baker; a 2006 video game with only Madsen's likeness; actors wore their own clothes and Chris Penn used his own car; the soundtrack budget went to Stuck in the Middle with You; 272 fucks; no police traffic control for the carjacking; Madsen's aversion to violence; Roth peeled off the fake blood; the Vega brothers and the unmade Double V Vega; the title from Au Revoir les Enfants

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:46Read transcript
  • Many people walked out of screenings, including Wes Craven and makeup legend Rick Baker; Tarantino is quoted saying the Last House on the Left director walked out of his movie and that it happens every screening because the violence or rude language is a mountain some cannot climb, which he wanted to be disturbing.
  • A 2006 video game for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 used only Madsen's likeness, which he needed for the paycheck, and GameSpot labelled it an out-and-out failure; the budget was so low actors wore their own clothes, Chris Penn used his own car, and Tarantino is quoted in 2014 saying the whole soundtrack budget went to securing Stuck in the Middle with You.
  • Guesses at the number of fucks run from 400 to 117; the answer is 272. With no budget for police traffic control, Buscemi's carjacking could only be shot when the lights were green, a dangerous true-indie move.
  • Madsen allegedly struggled with the torture scene due to a strong aversion to violence, which feels half-assed for a man in forty action movies; Roth lay in fake blood so long in the summer heat that it dried and he had to be peeled off the floor, which is how the hosts expect to feel at the end of the podcast.
  • Vic Vega and Vincent Vega were brothers, and Tarantino always wanted a prequel called Double V Vega until Madsen and Travolta got too old; the unmade Tarantino movies would make a good podcast.
  • The title came from a Video Archives customer who mockingly refused 'Au Revoir Les Infants' (as transcribed) as 'reservoir dogs'; such weird, oblique titles were possible before everything was optimized, Tarantino treats them as his artist's flourish, as with the Inglourious Bastards spelling, and this one means nothing since there is no reservoir where they live.
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1:13:30

Apex Mountain

Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:13:30Read transcript
  • Madsen is a yes: a case could be made and nobody argues against this being his Apex Mountain; Chris Penn is floated as a possible case.
  • Tim Roth is not a yes here; Pulp Fiction is his peak, and he is not thought that great in this movie.
  • Chris Penn's peak is somewhere between this and Shortcuts, maybe At Close Range, though people would point to Footloose; one host loves him in this movie and no decision is made.
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1:14:00

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Chris Penn

Chris Penn

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:00Read transcript
  • Lawrence Tierney cannot win because he is a bad actor rather than an overactor; it has to be Chris Penn, bad for about ninety seconds after he shoots the cop, spit flying and eyes bulging, trying too hard like he is taking a shit, though he is really great overall; Sean Penn or James Woods are imagined in the scene.
  • Another nominee is the last thirty seconds of Keitel, climbing on Roth almost romantically after their father-son bond; they bet on the Brewers.
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1:15:20

Recasting Couch

David Caruso as Mr. Orange; James Gandolfini as Nice Guy Eddie or Joe Cabot; Dennis Farina as Joe Cabot; William Pete...

David Caruso as Mr. Orange; James Gandolfini as Nice Guy Eddie or Joe Cabot; Dennis Farina as Joe Cabot; William Petersen as Mr. Blonde; Daniel Day-Lewis as Mr. Orange or Joe Cabot

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:20Read transcript
  • A new category that might stick around: recast any key role in the movie with an actor you like, as long as it makes sense for 1992.
  • He sprang the recasting category on the others without warning. — Bill Simmons
  • Caruso could have been Mr. Orange because of that hair; Gandolfini as Nice Guy Eddie instead of Chris Penn, or as Joe Cabot given his physical bearing, is called a great pick; Schwarzenegger as Mr. Pink is a joke.
  • Dennis Farina as Joe would be awesome, a little older but realistic as Eddie's father, and his reaction to Buscemi getting mad about being Mr. Pink would lift the scene to another level.
  • William Peterson (as transcribed), 'Bill Pete', as Mr. Blonde is called really good; Daniel Day Lewis as Mr. Orange would bring in a different Brit Pack, or Oldman; DDL as Joe Cabot gaining seventy pounds and shaving his head draws a Lincoln impression.
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1:17:54

Picking Nits

Eating breakfast together before a heist; the female driver pulling a gun on two carjackers; how Keitel gets two shot...

Eating breakfast together before a heist; the female driver pulling a gun on two carjackers; how Keitel gets two shots off in the three-way shootout; Tim Roth's accent

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:54Read transcript
  • They would not eat breakfast before a bank heist, already covered; the female driver pulling a gun on two scary carjackers is questioned, though guns and carjacking were an early-nineties thing, especially in L.A., and it makes less sense against two men than one.
  • How Keitel gets two shots off in the three-way shootout has bothered one host for twenty-seven years; the explanation is a vanishing quarter second in which Mr. White, already shot, turns and shoots Nice Guy Eddie, since being shot does not drop you instantly and the story needs them all to die; the curved bullet joke follows.
  • Earlier, during the opening scene, the crew being seen together in public in uniform before the heist was flagged for nitpicks.
  • Roth's accent, meant for nitpicks, goes up and down, sounding Dutch or Rhode Island; his character's surname Neuendijk (as transcribed) might excuse Minnesota, but it is a British guy doing an L.A. accent that does not add up, better in the commode scene than elsewhere.
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1:19:38

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"I'm hungry let's get a taco"; "are you gonna bark all day little dog or are you gonna bite"; "I'm acting like a fuck...

"I'm hungry let's get a taco"; "are you gonna bark all day little dog or are you gonna bite"; "I'm acting like a fucking professional"; "I'm fucking deformed"

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:38Read transcript
  • The category was left empty because the whole movie is the best quote; nominated small lines include 'asshole you better stop talking because we got shit we need to talk about', compared to Pacino in Heat, 'you're gonna be okay', 'Say the goddamn fucking words', 'Oh are you a doctor', the personal favorite 'I'm hungry let's get a taco' after the finger speech, and 'I got a big fucking problem'.
  • 'are you gonna bark all day little dog or are you gonna bite' stuck most because it was in the trailer, watched a million times when the movie could only be rented; also 'I'm acting like a fucking professional', Nice Guy Eddie's 'Mr. Fucking Compassion', 'A fucking snake charmer', 'I'm fucking deformed' and 'This sick fuck'.
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1:21:13

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

No new Reservoir Dogs content

No new Reservoir Dogs content

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:13Read transcript
  • A case is made for a ten-episode Netflix remake: twenty-seven years later the movie is dated, seven guys could each get a Lost-style backstory episode, and done straight it would be a show about Roth building up to being a cop and then infiltrating the gang.
  • Nobody wants any new Reservoir Dogs content; the case was only played out.
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1:22:17

Probably Unanswerable Questions

What is happening in Gardena? Is this a better movie if we see the heist? Did Mr. Pink survive? What would Tony Scott...

What is happening in Gardena? Is this a better movie if we see the heist? Did Mr. Pink survive? What would Tony Scott's Reservoir Dogs have been?

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:22:17Read transcript
  • What is happening in Gardenia (as transcribed), where the crew meets with Nice Guy Eddie and Joe, also a huge location for Den of Thieves; is it a Mos Eisley spaceport where all the armed robbers live? A road trip in black suits is proposed.
  • Is this a better movie if we see the heist? No: as No Country for Old Men shows, Mr. White confronting Mr. Blonde and slowly unfurling what happened is more effective; the devil's-advocate case is that watching these actors rob a bank would be fun, and Tarantino might have shot it with money.
  • The heist is already given through Mr. Orange's account to Mr. White and the car-ride plan; one host loves bank scenes more than anyone in the room and would have liked to know who took it too far, probably Madsen.
  • Asked whether he has mapped out a bank robbery, one host recalls pitching an amusement park called Felony Land seven years ago with Wilds, which the others say predicted Westworld; he insists Westworld ripped off Felony Land despite the seventies movie and the Michael Creighton (as transcribed) book, and it is no bachelor party pitch.
  • Did Mr. Pink die, and does anybody live? Tarantino is quoted saying Pink survived while Orange and White die, and with the volume up he can be heard yelling not to shoot; a present-day Mr. Pink movie is imagined, though the 1992 LAPD would not have gently cuffed a man who shot eleven cops.
  • What Tony Scott's Reservoir Dogs would have been is also filed as an unanswerable question.
  • Earlier, during nitpicks, the very last shot at the end was flagged as an unanswerable question to be held for later.
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1:26:26

Who Won the Movie?

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:26:26Read transcript
  • Tarantino is the no-brainer: nobody ever launched a career so aggressively, he was compared to Orson Welles as a debut shot out of a cannon, and unlike Welles, whose next movie was Magnificent Ambersons, he topped it with Pulp Fiction.
  • Agreement comes surprisingly easily; the runner-up would be Roth for his performance, which prompts the missed nitpick about his accent.
  • The Caruso call is praised, one host claims to have won the pod and a who-won-the-pod category is suggested, and the guests are thanked before the closing Vudu read.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Quentin Tarantino
Speaker not identified
Quentin Tarantino
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More from the conversation

Asked whether this is the first 1990s movie, he says it was for him: the first years of the decade were high school and the start of college, and this movie changed his life and is what he associates with the nineties.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:06Read transcript
Others say it is not the first: Sex, Lies and Videotape and Boys in the Hood (as transcribed) signal the indie festival wave it continues, and Do the Right Thing from 1989 feels like a nineties movie for its influence; this one may have been the most influential to people who went on to make movies.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:36Read transcript
The film did not make a lot of money and many came late after Pulp Fiction, like the Clemens twenty-strikeout game whose remembered crowd grows every year; it was a critical sensation among movie nerds, yet one host says it changed how his generation talked and related to one another, and shaped what music and movies he sought out for years.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:47Read transcript
It made about three million at the box office but was a huge home video release; one host was ten when it came out, rented it from Blockbuster two years later, and had downloaded the trailer over a phone line, puzzling out Steeler's Wheel and the soundtrack as a pop culture puzzle to reassemble.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:07Read transcript
In Boston it was underground for a year, an experience of one for one host, while it was huge in another's high school; it came out around Singles in fall 1992, when a movie that mattered really mattered.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:10Read transcript
Opening with the Madonna argument felt like 2:30 a.m. college roof talk put inside a heist movie; Tarantino announces 'this is my fucking movie' by making Keitel, Roth, Eddie Bunker and Chris Penn listen to him talk for five minutes, a bold move against the ironic slacker aesthetic of the decade.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:58Read transcript
Media context: Premiere, Spy, William Goldman in New York Magazine and Entertainment Weekly; the story of how a movie got made became part of selling it, as with Sex, Lies and Videotape and She's Gotta Have It; video stores with curated shelves were a free film school whose aesthetic Tarantino distilled, marrying the high and the low.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:33Read transcript
The hunt was more fun with no internet; those who saw it early were scandalized, it was not a date movie, and one host lists the 1992 firsts: Sundance darling, bad guys arguing pop culture, the who's-the-mole question, out-of-order sequencing, not showing the heist, the ear-cutting hook, cult status and the soundtrack.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:42Read transcript
Video store memories: one host worked at TLA in Philadelphia, whose annual encyclopedia was like film school, and at Kim's in New York; Tower Records on Sunset and the Johnny-recommends shelves in L.A. in 2002 are missed.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:36Read transcript
Production backstory recited: Tarantino worked at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, planned a $30,000 black-and-white 16mm shoot with Lawrence Bender as the cop, the script reached Harvey Keitel through Bender's acting teacher's wife, Keitel co-produced and paid for casting; the $1.2 million film made $2.8 million domestically and 6.5 million pounds in the UK because of Tim Roth, with a 91 on Rotten Tomatoes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:54Read transcript
Keitel's 1991-94 run of Thelma and Louise, Bugsy, Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant, The Piano and Pulp Fiction, naked in two of them, is admired; Buscemi blossomed here after Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink; Chris Penn had a Reservoir Dogs, Shortcuts, True Romance run; Madsen came off The Doors and Thelma and Louise and culminated in Species.
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:33Read transcript
Tim Roth was a huge star in Britain as part of the Brit Pack with Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Bruce Payne and Paul McGann; a colors quiz follows, matching White to Keitel, Pink to Buscemi, Orange to Roth and Brown to Tarantino.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:52Read transcript
The rock-starification of Tarantino has never been matched: he put himself in the movie, gave unreal quotes such as the Empire profile three Guinnesses deep in a London pub, hosted Saturday Night Live and sat first on Jay Leno's couch; Spike Lee via the Jordan ads is a rare comp, and Ava DuVernay's presence today is not the same.
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:04Read transcript
One host reveals he worked with Tarantino: in his first year at Kimmel, Tarantino picked his Tarantino-parody audience-theater script, gave notes, directed it with a three-way shootout ending, and it aired about sixteen years ago; the others cannot believe they never heard the story.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:54Read transcript
One host's family is split on the movie; he does not know what his dad thinks but doubts he likes how the cops are treated.
Approx. transcript time · 00:40:09Read transcript
The hosts announce a 'one for us' Collateral episode around its August 6th fifteen-year anniversary, with one host away, and more good episodes coming.
Approx. transcript time · 01:28:40Read transcript