Tarantino has never been that original. His whole schtick is taking what he likes from the past, combining it with something else and putting a pretty cool song on top of it. The guy isn't a revolutionary and neither is Reservoir Dogs a particularly innovative film.
I feel like Tarantino gets a bad rap for this kind of thing, maybe only because he's more open about his influences than some, but I don't find his various borrowings any more problematic than I do those of Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, Howard Hawks, etc.
Another thing that bothered me when I revisited the film is how "cool" (whatever that means) it tried to be. Everything that is done in the film is done to enhance the "cool" effect. From the music choices to the pop culture gabfest of the opening scene. Not really a flaw but it bothered me.
I think this read is a bit skewed by being sixteen years removed from the appearance of
Resevoir Dogs. Because, back then, there wasn't a built-in audience for the film, and no guarantee that Tarantino was going to become 'Tarantino'. I think it's much more likely that Tarantino was just filling his first film with things he loved, things he himself passionately found cool, without all that much regard for how they'd be perceived by an (imagined) audience. That's overstating it a bit, but you get the idea.
While Tarantino's film is meant to enthrall, this one is meant to linger.
I can't really praise or condemn your verdict without revisiting
Resevoir Dogs — I think I've only seen the whole thing once, and that was a long time ago. Still, it stuck with my pretty well, with a lot of its moments proving indelible (and not just the ones embraced by pop culture at large). On the other hand, it's only been two years since I revisited
My Own Private Idaho, and while I liked it, it hasn't lingered in memory at all ... except for that one damn song which I can't find anywhere ("Getting Into the Outside").
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