Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Movie review - "Django Unchained" (2012) ****

Having done his re-imaginings of gangster movies, kung fu epics, and WWII guys on a mission flicks, Quentin Tarantino then turned his attention to the Western. He comes at it with a fresh (ish) angle, focusing on slavery - this is really more of a "southern" than a Western, being set in the south before the civil war. Just like Inglorious Basterds was a revenge fantasy for Jews, this is one for blacks, with Jamie Foxx released by bounty hunter Christoph Waltz to go around shooting slave owners.

It's very long, too long really, but there's plenty of interesting action and moments - the only time I really felt it dragged was the last bit when Django is captured and escapes again and in between meets a very fat Quentin in an Australian accent and an over-acting John Jarratt.

It helps that on the journey there are plenty of interesting cameos - Robert Forster, Zoe Bell (covered up), Don Johnson, James Remar, Tom Wopat, Franco Nero, Jonah Hill. I didn't think that much of Foxx's performance - it wasn't bad, just "whatever" - but Waltz is excellent, as is Leo di Caprio and Samuel L Jackson. Those looking for strong females in the vein of Kill Bill probably should try elsewhere - Kerry Washington is very much a damsel in distress and there aren't many other strong female roles either.

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