Review Detail

This edit is an interesting way to rewatch Reservoir Dogs, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a first-timer. I also vastly prefer the original cut, in particular since it has one of my all-time most favorite movie scenes ever, which was ruined in this cut, sadly.

Firstly: the A/V. I think it was a mistake to use the best available source because the quality for the deleted scenes is pretty poor. The end result is that it's highly-distracting when they pop up, because it's such a striking visual difference. Would've been better to keep the immersion of the viewing experience I think. There were also a number of times where it seemed to me like the audio was slightly off-synch...I'm not positive since it could've been my bluetooth headphone signal or something, so I didn't take points off for editing, but I was occasionally distracted by it.

The narrative and scenes.... Well, you ever watch a DVD/BD and think "wow, these deleted scenes are great! I know it would've made the movie pretty long, but why didn't they include them in the theatrical cut?!" Yeah, well that's not the case here. The scenes are all very smart cuts, and feature either
-clunky writing
-weak acting
-awkward framing/camera movement
-a combination of all three.

There's only one brief exchange that I think makes the film better instead of worse, which is the dialogue where Mr. Orange explains that he knows the cops aren't coming until Joe shows up. Knowing that HE knows he just has to sit there and die to catch the big fish is powerful. Everything else just messes up the flow of the movie, makes it less original (not that Tarantino copying City On Fire is that original anyway), and weights it disproportionately into being a cop movie. The original film is a gangster movie, and that's where it's strongest.

The biggest strike against this is just that a weak scene of Mr. Orange practicing his monologue is added and the ending of him actually delivering it, the whole performance that gets him in with the gangsters, and their reactions, selling why they trust him, and the Inception-esque sandwich of the scene inside the scene inside the scene, is all broken. Now the story just peters out without the ending comments from the gangsters. It not only weakens the scene, it actually almost becomes a plot hole in the film. You could easily think "Either Joe is an idiot or Mr. White is or they all are. They talk so much game about being professional, but they don't even know this kid!"

So all in all, this is a curiosity, an interesting glimpse into what could have been. But it's a much weaker film, and not one I'd ever play for someone to show them how effective a Tarantino movie can be.