In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. If the praise lavished on this film and 1994's Pulp Fiction seem excessive in hindsight, Reservoir Dogs nevertheless remains a strikingly accomplished, ferociously entertaining film, all the more remarkable as a debut. Well-written, ambitious in its structure, and audacious in its effects, it rewrote the rules for the crime movie, upping the ante on casual brutality and suffusing the genre with a new sheen of post-modern, character-driven cool. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is a career criminal who takes a liking to newcomer Mr. Orange (Tom Roth) and enjoys showing him the ropes. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is a weaselly loner obsessed with professionalism. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) has just gotten out of jail after taking the rap on a job for Cabot; he's grateful for the work but isn't the same person he used to be. While Mr. Blonde goes nuts during the heist, the thieves are surprised by the sudden arrival of the police, and Mr. White is convinced one of their team is a cop. So who's the rat? What do they do about Mr. Blonde? And what do they do with Mr. Orange, who took a bullet in the gut and is slowly bleeding to death? Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth between pre- and post-robbery events, occasionally putting the narrative on pause to let the characters discuss such topics as the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men's room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana. The characters carry this film, and, as in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino draws them with enough sharp edges and interesting details that you gladly stick with them; it doesn't hurt that they utter instantly quotable dialogue and are portrayed by a top-rank cast. Harvey Keitel's role as Mr. White revived his career as the edgy, thinking-man's bad guy; Steve Buscemi's greasy Mr. Pink established him as one of the best character actors in independent film; Tim Roth turns in a career highlight as the doomed Mr. Orange; and Lawrence Tierney turned in his best work in decades as a decidedly non-lovable old man. Reservoir Dogs can be seen as the Easy Rider of the 1990s, a work of striking originality that lost some of its gloss from being copied to death. Be warned: neither Like a Virgin nor Stuck in the Middle with You will ever sound the same after you've seen this movie.