Reservoir Dogs appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision image seemed very good.
Overall sharpness worked well. A few slightly soft interiors arose, but the majority of the film appeared accurate and well-defined.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Light grain appeared through the film, and no print flaws came along for the ride.
Colors seemed positive, as Dogs delivered a stark palette with some emphasis on red. The elements we got looked solid, and HDR added impact to the tones.
Blacks were dark and tight, while shadows delivered smooth material. HDR gave whites and contrast extra impact. This felt like a largely solid presentation.
The film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundfield mostly provided a forward emphasis and those elements were accentuated with a lot of general ambience. The audio seemed alive with a fair amount of environmental factors, such as the clatter of other diners during the opening restaurant sequence.
Music displayed some solid stereo imaging, and the tracks popped to life reasonably well during action sequences. Elements moved across the front channels smoothly and efficiently. Those also added better usage of the surrounds, which then complemented the material fairly well.
Audio quality seemed good. Speech was clear and concise, with no edginess or other issues. Effects appeared clean and accurate, and they packed a good punch when appropriate.
Music showed nice clarity and range. The songs sounded good, as they demonstrated clean highs and punchy bass response. This wasn’t a particularly ambitious track, but it worked well given the movie’s scope.
How did the 4K UHD compare with those of the 2007 Blu-ray version? Audio felt similar, without any notable differences between the tracsk.
Visuals became a different matter, as the Dolby Vision 4K fared considerably better than the mediocre and dated Blu-ray. With superior clarity, colors and general warmth, the 4K offered an obvious upgrade.
No extras appear on the 4K disc, but the included Blu-ray copy delivers a few. A 2006 featurette called Playing It Fast and Loose lasts 15 minutes, 43 seconds as it features comments from Internet film critic Harry Knowles, Rebels on the Backlot author Sharon Waxman, AFI Conservatory senior lecturer Peter Markham and Loyala Marymount University’s Mark Evan Schwartz.
They discuss Tarantino’s skills and the impact Dogs had on films. We get notes about the Dogs notion of “cool” as well as Tarantino’s writing style, his use of violence, and the movie’s legacy.
“Loose” offers a decent little piece but not an especially memorable one. In addition, Knowles’ constant reference to the movie as “ResDogs” gets really annoying.
For a look at the various movie characters, we head to Profiling the Reservoir Dogs. This seven-minute, six-second featurette examines Mr. Brown, Mr. Pink, Mr. White and Mr. Blond.
We get psychological interpretation of the different personalities. This is an odd but somewhat interesting take on the characters.
Five deleted scenes run a total of 12 minutes, 43 seconds. Actually, the disc includes only three true excised segments, as the fourth and fifth present alternate takes of the ear-cutting bit.
We find “Background Check” (4:41), “No Protection” (2:59), “Doing My Job” (2:33), “Cutting Off the Ear – Alternate Take A” (1:03) and “Cutting Off the Ear – Alternate Take B” (1:24). The ear-cutting bits are interesting to see but don’t add much.
The second of those presents a graphic view of the scene and comes with a warning before you view it. While the scene presents the potential to seem disgusting, in reality it comes across as goofy just because the prosthetic ear looks so fake. I’ve never seen some one slice off another guy’s ear, but I’d guess it’d look a lot scarier than this.
The other three scenes seem compelling. The first two concentrate on Mr. Orange’s background as a cop and his preparation for the undercover case, while the third shows Pink, White and Nice Guy Eddie as they drive to take Orange to a nurse. No remnants of that remain in the film.
Interestingly, this scene foreshadows Pulp Fiction. It mentions “the Bonnie situation”, which was the third vignette in that film. Indeed, the Bonnie in question clearly is the same one featured in the Pulp scenario.
Note that the Blu-ray included here offers a new transfer and doesn’t simply reproduce the old BD. It drops a text commentary from that release.
The prior Blu-ray already dropred a commentary as well as tons of other materials. Please consult the earlier review for a full list – the DVD provides too many now-gone extras for me to spell out all of them, and unfortunately, the 2022 release fails to reinstate them.
While Reservoir Dogs shows glimmers of Quentin Tarantino’s talent, it suffers from a little too much ambition and a stretched-out storyline. The movie usually remains entertaining and lively, but it seems padded at times. The 4K UHD provides very good picture and audio along with a handful of supplements. The absence of many pre-existing bonus materials remains a disappointment, but at least this becomes a solid rendition of the film itself.
To rate this film visit the DVD review of RESERVOIR DOGS
