Reservoir Dogs

Kids, here's a bit of sage advice for the future: Sometimes the worst career move you can make is to have a career.That seems to be so in the case of Quentin Tarantino, who made a brilliant film called "Reservoir Dogs," which elevated him to cult hero status. Then he issued "Pulp Fiction," which made him not only famous but powerful as well, and the inevitable backlash set in.The backlash mainly settled on the issue of plagiarism: Was "Reservoir Dogs," which seemed so powerful, so original, so shockingly new, stolen from a 1987 Chinese gangster film called "City on Fire," directed by heist specialist Ringo Lam?

I was more than a little surprised to hear that the DVD of Kill Bill Vol. 1 would precede by only three days the release of the second half of Quentin Tarantino's tribute to every grind house movie he ever loved. But since Vol. 2 turns out as promised to be simply the second half of a single movie, the reasoning may be less odd than it seems. In fact, I might suggest watching the first installment before seeing Vol. 2 at the theater to get the full effect of what is now revealed to be a true B-movie epic.

The boys are back in town -- and how."Reservoir Dogs," Quentin Tarantino's astonishing debut feature, which opens today at the Charles Theatre, appears to be set in a theme park called Testosteroneland, where nature isn't only red in tooth and claw, it's black as the heart of man and dank as any rag and bone shop of the human spirit.Yet its first astonishment is that in contrast to the relentless violence of the material, the movie itself is flashy, slick, giddy, audacious. It's a movie made by a man who has seen too many movies and can regurgitate technical credits from forgotten '50s B gangster melodramas with the best film nerds in America.

Pulp Fiction may have been the film that made an uber-hotshot of Quentin Tarantino, but it was his first film, Reservoir Dogs -- the hit of the 1992 Sundance Film Festival -- that announced him as a major talent. Watching the earlier film again, especially as it's so lovingly presented in the extras-laden 10th anniversary DVD edition released last month by Artisan, I'm loathe to say which is the appreciably better film. Certainly, all the things that everyone would rave about in Pulp Fiction are there in Dogs: the incredible energy; the homages to other directors and movies, the incessant cultural references; the jumping back and forth in time; the sure-footed, cutting-edge direction that somehow manages to never draw attention to itself, but rather seems perfectly suited to the scene or the characters.

The pattern is familiar, ancient, always dispiriting: A director with a vivid voice and a new way of seeing things breaks through, big time. Then they send in the clones.In this case, the director is Quentin Tarantino, of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," and the clone is Roger Roberts Avary, a buddy of his who co-wrote the first two and on the strength of Tarantino's recommendation has been allowed to make "Killing Zoe," with Tarantino as executive producer. The two met in that now famous font of movie culture, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Pulp Fiction may have been the film that made an uber-hotshot of Quentin Tarantino, but it was his first film, Reservoir Dogs -- the hit of the 1992 Sundance Film Festival -- that announced him as a major talent. Watching the earlier film again, especially as it's so lovingly presented in the extras-laden 10th anniversary DVD edition released last month by Artisan, I'm loathe to say which is the appreciably better film. Certainly, all the things that everyone would rave about in Pulp Fiction are there in Dogs: the incredible energy; the homages to other directors and movies, the incessant cultural references; the jumping back and forth in time; the sure-footed, cutting-edge direction that somehow manages to never draw attention to itself, but rather seems perfectly suited to the scene or the characters.

"Quentin Tarantino: Shooting from the Hip," by Wensley Clarkson. Overlook Press. Illustrated. 312 pages. $15.95 paper, $24.95 hard The breakneck ascent of Quentin Tarantino from video store clerk to Hollywood auteur was nearly legendary even before his first feature film, "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), had been widely released. By now the news feels a bit stale, but it's only lately that enough material has accrued to make a biography of the 32-year-old screenwriter and director a reasonable proposition.

Whatever "True Romance" lacks in artistic refinement or high intellectual and moral purpose, it has this one undeniable virtue: never a dull moment.A blazingly violent bad-boy story from the hyperfervid id of the same Quentin Tarantino who wrote and directed "Reservoir Dogs," "True Romance" is "It's a Wonderful Life" for the '90s, except that the wonders of life include guns, drugs, gaudy convertibles, great sex, and this time the hero is named Clarence, not...

I like rap music. I even like gangsta rap. You've been warned in case you choose to read further.I like the driving beat and in-your-face lyrics. I like the funky rhythms that take me back to the days of James Brown -- every rapper should genuflect when his name is mentioned -- and the flow of the lyrics as they syncopate with the beat.Do the misogynistic and violent lyrics of gangsta rap bother me? Yes, they do, in much the same way that the violence, sexism and Arab-bashing in Arnold Schwarzenegger's "True Lies" bothered me. In the same way that the scurrilous references to African-Americans in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" bothered me. In the same way that the current spate of "the black man as brute" literature popular with black feminist authors bothers me.So what's wrong with the picture of C. Delores Tucker, a self-professed liberal Democrat and head of the National Congress of Black Women, teaming with conservative William Bennett to jackboot Time Warner into selling its share in gangsta rap company Interscope Records last week?

I was more than a little surprised to hear that the DVD of Kill Bill Vol. 1 would precede by only three days the release of the second half of Quentin Tarantino's tribute to every grind house movie he ever loved. But since Vol. 2 turns out as promised to be simply the second half of a single movie, the reasoning may be less odd than it seems. In fact, I might suggest watching the first installment before seeing Vol. 2 at the theater to get the full effect of what is now revealed to be a true B-movie epic.

Given recent events, should we expect a kinder, cuddlier, less-well-attended Sundance Film Festival this year? To date, Sept. 11 has taken its toll on movie gatherings in Toronto, San Sebastian and Mill Valley. Last year's Sundance turnout topped 20,000. This year's event -- which got under way last night in Salt Lake City with the world premiere of The Laramie Project, with Steve Buscemi and Christina Ricci, is already a victim of Hollywood paranoia and belt-tightening. Organizers say there will be more security, and fewer studio reps trudging among the at-times makeshift venues, which include two hotel conference rooms and a library auditorium.

Jackie BrownMusic from the Miramax Motion Picture (Maverick 46841)Curtis MayfieldSuperfly (Rhino 72836)One of the best things about the "blaxploitation" flicks of the '70s was their soundtracks. Films like "Shaft," "Superfly" and "Slaughter's Big Rip-Off" may not have been masterpieces of the cinema, but the music that went with those movies often verged on the classic.That Quentin Tarantino would try to evoke that vibe for his latest film shouldn't be too great a surprise. After all, "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" got major mileage out of their use of oldies.

"Set It Off" never really gets down.Some are calling it a "Girlz N the Hood," but it bears a closer resemblance to glitzy armed-robbery films -- "Heat" or "Asphalt Jungle" or even "Reservoir Dogs" -- than to John Singleton's gritty probe of urban pathology.Where "Boyz N the Hood" cut deep, to bone, this one stays glibly on the surface. It's slick and routinely entertaining, if never quite persuasive. It chronicles how four black women, abused by "the system" (they claim), turn to violent crime to express themselves and find an identity.

"Quentin Tarantino: Shooting from the Hip," by Wensley Clarkson. Overlook Press. Illustrated. 312 pages. $15.95 paper, $24.95 hard The breakneck ascent of Quentin Tarantino from video store clerk to Hollywood auteur was nearly legendary even before his first feature film, "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), had been widely released. By now the news feels a bit stale, but it's only lately that enough material has accrued to make a biography of the 32-year-old screenwriter and director a reasonable proposition.

I like rap music. I even like gangsta rap. You've been warned in case you choose to read further.I like the driving beat and in-your-face lyrics. I like the funky rhythms that take me back to the days of James Brown -- every rapper should genuflect when his name is mentioned -- and the flow of the lyrics as they syncopate with the beat.Do the misogynistic and violent lyrics of gangsta rap bother me? Yes, they do, in much the same way that the violence, sexism and Arab-bashing in Arnold Schwarzenegger's "True Lies" bothered me. In the same way that the scurrilous references to African-Americans in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" bothered me. In the same way that the current spate of "the black man as brute" literature popular with black feminist authors bothers me.So what's wrong with the picture of C. Delores Tucker, a self-professed liberal Democrat and head of the National Congress of Black Women, teaming with conservative William Bennett to jackboot Time Warner into selling its share in gangsta rap company Interscope Records last week?

Kids, here's a bit of sage advice for the future: Sometimes the worst career move you can make is to have a career.That seems to be so in the case of Quentin Tarantino, who made a brilliant film called "Reservoir Dogs," which elevated him to cult hero status. Then he issued "Pulp Fiction," which made him not only famous but powerful as well, and the inevitable backlash set in.The backlash mainly settled on the issue of plagiarism: Was "Reservoir Dogs," which seemed so powerful, so original, so shockingly new, stolen from a 1987 Chinese gangster film called "City on Fire," directed by heist specialist Ringo Lam?

Given recent events, should we expect a kinder, cuddlier, less-well-attended Sundance Film Festival this year? To date, Sept. 11 has taken its toll on movie gatherings in Toronto, San Sebastian and Mill Valley. Last year's Sundance turnout topped 20,000. This year's event -- which got under way last night in Salt Lake City with the world premiere of The Laramie Project, with Steve Buscemi and Christina Ricci, is already a victim of Hollywood paranoia and belt-tightening. Organizers say there will be more security, and fewer studio reps trudging among the at-times makeshift venues, which include two hotel conference rooms and a library auditorium.

"Set It Off" never really gets down.Some are calling it a "Girlz N the Hood," but it bears a closer resemblance to glitzy armed-robbery films -- "Heat" or "Asphalt Jungle" or even "Reservoir Dogs" -- than to John Singleton's gritty probe of urban pathology.Where "Boyz N the Hood" cut deep, to bone, this one stays glibly on the surface. It's slick and routinely entertaining, if never quite persuasive. It chronicles how four black women, abused by "the system" (they claim), turn to violent crime to express themselves and find an identity.

The Baltimore Film Forum has announced its lineup for the 26th annual Baltimore International Film Festival, which runs from April 5 through April 29 and boasts 22 films representing more than 15 countries."

The pattern is familiar, ancient, always dispiriting: A director with a vivid voice and a new way of seeing things breaks through, big time. Then they send in the clones.In this case, the director is Quentin Tarantino, of "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," and the clone is Roger Roberts Avary, a buddy of his who co-wrote the first two and on the strength of Tarantino's recommendation has been allowed to make "Killing Zoe," with Tarantino as executive producer. The two met in that now famous font of movie culture, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.