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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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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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1:09:46

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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1:15:20

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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1:22:17

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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