Positives
* As usual with
Quentin Tarantino films, he has great dialogue.
* As usual with Tarantino, he manages to pull off long
self-indulgent scenes with meandering dialogue, and yet still keep the tension
high.
* As usual with Tarantino, the sound track for this film is
awesome.
* As usual with Tarantino, the film has all sorts of clever
homages to the 1970s style of filmmaking.
* As usual with Tarantino, he’s managed to pull together yet
another all star cast.
* Great performances by the aforementioned all-star cast
Negative
* As usual with Tarantino, he’s being trivial with subject
matter he really shouldn’t be trivial with.
* As usual with Tarantino, there seems to be a degree of
sadism going on in this film.
* The film starts out strong, but the resolution is just a
boring shoot-‘em-up.
The Review
At this point in Quentin Tarantino’s
career, everybody knows what to expect.
The usual strengths are fully on display, as well as his usual
failings.
There’s a
thorny question about whether it’s appropriate to exploit real historical
tragedies for trashy revenge films. That
question is outside of the 100 words I’m giving myself for this review. But if you put that aside, and focus just on
the entertainment value of this film, I’d call it a success.
Rating :
7 out of 10 stars. (Assuming you focus only on the entertainment
value, and ignore questions of appropriacy, I think it gets a
solid 7 for entertainment.)
Links
In my review of Black Ajax, I made reference to the controversy surrounding Django Unchained. Having seen this film, I have to say it’s
even closer to Black Ajax than I
realized. Both stories involve a
Francophile sadist slave owner who trains his slaves as pugilists and forces
them to fight to the death.
Also see my other reviews of Tarantino films: Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill, Kill Bill Further Thoughts, Kill Bill 2, and True Romance.
External Links
The AVclub’s
review of this film does such a good job of capturing the ambivalence any sane
person would feel towards Tarantino, that I want to quote the first paragraph
in full:
The rest of the article is worth reading as well.
Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky "Globalization and Neoliberalism"
4 comments:
I think that quote you posted sums up how I feel about latter-day Tarantino. I think Kill Bill 1 is probably one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life. Not because I find it shocking - I wouldn't want to admit that, but honest I don't - but because it just became rather quickly a very tedious movie with lots of oh-how-shocking blood-spurting.
I didn't bother watching part 2 despite assurances that it was "better than part 1" (I've had better hangovers than part 1 so that really is not saying anything).
But I did watch Inglorious Barstewards, which I found gripping for the first ten minutes (the scene at the cottage), and was prepared to watch a good movie, but then it descended into the usual sadistic revenge formula. I found it simply horrible, and decided to switch it off when I realized I liked the Nazi characters more than the "heroes". Never keep watching a movie when you end up liking the Nazis.
When Django came out I was told that if I hated Kill Bill 1 and IG then I should not even bother with this film, so I haven't.
Anyway, for something completely different, is this documentary on the linguist who went into the Amazon and brought back some evidence that may undermine Chomskyan linguistics. I know that seems out of place on a thread about Tarantino movies. But if you liked Nim then you might find this pretty interesting as well:
http://putlocker.bz/watch-the-grammar-of-happiness-online-free-putlocker.html
I hope that the movie plays okay.
>>>When Django came out I was told that if I hated Kill Bill 1 and IG then I should not even bother with this film
Yeah, that's about right. This film is just more of the same revenge themed flick.
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately I can't really watch movies off my computer off the moment. I'm getting most of my Internet access through Internet cafes and work. (But I won't bore you with the details of my Internet access.)
It does look interesting though. If I ever get an opportunity to check it out, I will try to.
That's right, you're in Cambodia! I should have known that internet access is not going to be a given. I remember visiting in 2003 and there were connection problems.
Anyway, the documentary is interesting from the point of view of seeing how the Piraha live, although I think that the film-makers took some liberties with their description of the language dispute.
***By the way, it is REALLY difficult these days to prove I am not a computer!***
Actually Internet in Cambodia has gotten a lot better in recent years. It's more of a conscious decision for me. When I have Internet in my house, I tend to spend way too much time on-line. So I try and limit myself to Internet cafes and what access I get at work. (I have a computer, so I type out these blog entries at home, but then wait to upload them until I get to an Internet cafe.)
It does mean that i can't watch videos on line...but then I probably spend way too much of my life watching videos as it is already, so I think it's probably for the best.
Post a Comment