Django Unchained, you had my curiosity now you have my attention

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100 movies of 2013

Django Unchained

With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Quentin Tarantino films don’t come around all that often. There’s always a whole lot of fuss when they do come around. The fuss is about the same old stuff that Tarantino’s been faced with whenever any of his films come out. Violence and language. It’s not surprising that Tarantino threw a giant fit when faced with the question on doing the PR rounds for Django.

Who the fuck cares? For decades we’ve seen Tarantino’s films splattered with blood. Django’s probably one of the tamer ones. And yet, people still want to wag their finger and worry about ‘the children’.

I like my Tarantino films. Reservoir Dogs is probably my favourite. Kill Bill’s up there too. Along with Pulp Fiction. From Dusk Till Dawn is one of my favourite vampire films. To the sadness of many, I don’t see the wow in Inglorious Basterds (Due for a rewatch on that one to probably change my mind.). Far from a Tarantino fan. Merely, a film fan who appreciates his films.

Django Unchained is one step to making me a QT fan. It’s got Tarantino’s finger prints all over it, but at the same time, it feels like a different Tarantino film. To me. It felt a whole lot more mature. More heart and more fun. Totally entertaining. Fantastically paced. Don’t think I can knock this one.

Christoph Waltz – where do I start? For whatever reason, he didn’t really make an impact on me in Inglorious. But everything changed here. His Dr. King Schultz was a brilliant character. Charming. Gracious. Despite being a somewhat cold-hearted killer, he was a very warm and kind character. Quite possibly my favourite character and performance in the film.

Not seen a performance quite like this from Leonardo DiCaprio before. Excellent. At times, maybe a little over the top. But, isn’t that what was needed out of him here? Now I understand the outcry over his lack of an Academy Award nomination.

I’m itching to see Django Unchained again. I think I might class Django as one of the most fun Tarantino films I’ve seen in a good long while.

Oh and Calvin Candie is taken out by a dentist? HA!

Django Unchained (Viewed: 25/01/13 | Rating: 5/5)

Check out all of the films I’ve seen this year:

5 films so far…

  1. Flight (Viewed: 01/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  2. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Viewed: 09/01/13 | Rating: 3/5)
  3. Gangster Squad (Viewed: 15/01/13 | Rating: 4/5)
  4. Les Miserables (Viewed: 23/01/13 | Rating: 5/5)
  5. Django Unchained (Viewed: 25/01/13 | Rating: 5/5)

28 Comments

  1. The phrase “Not a Tarantino fan” doesn’t compute, but I’m glad you liked Django. One of my favorite movies from last year. A bad ass shoot em up… QTs speciality! 😀

    • You know what? I do definitely enjoy his films. I’m not fanatical about them. And when he does make films and they’re released, I definitely get excited about them. But I’m not sure that’s enough to call me a fan, you know?

  2. Glad you liked this one! I too loved Waltz, his character was fantastic. The movie kinda fell apart for me in the third act but until then it was really fun.

    • Yeah, the third act is a little weak. QT just goes mental a bit there, but it’s still a very enjoyable Tarantino flick/

  3. I loved this movie! I’ve always been a QT fan and this movie really reaffirmed that for me.

    I agree with you on Waltz’s character. He plays the whole bounty killer with a warm and fuzz heart really well. At first, I didn’t think I would like his character, but ended up being my most favorite one. I’m kinda shocked that DiCaprio didn’t get a Oscar nod. I don’t blame him for taking a “long break” from acting. I would do the same thing. Honestly, he is a good actor in my eyes, but doesn’t seem to get that respect. IDK if it’s because he is a child actor or his party persona, who knows.

    How do you feel about that whole Spike Lee-Quentin Tarantino feud about this movie?

    • Leonardo is a fantastic actor. Though, I don’t put much stock in the Academy awards. They rarely reward the people and films that really deserve it. Might just be my cynical viewpoint of a lot of these award shows.

      Spike Lee should have just shut up. No idea why he was being so damn overly sensitive!

  4. I don’t consider myself a QT fan either, but I actually enjoyed Inglorious Basterds the most out of all his films I’ve seen so far. Will give this a rent for sure.

    • I gave Inglorious a rewatch the other day and while I think I enjoyed it more than the first time I saw it, I still don’t quite get the love that film gets. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but personally prefer the likes of Django, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs over it.

  5. I also loved Christoph Waltz character. Such bad ass, ignorant but still very likeable. Like Inglorious Basterd, I find Django entertaining but sometimes I just hated the violence. I’m curious about Reservoir Dogs.

    • Reservoir Dogs is excellent. My favourite. Though, it’s pretty damn violent. More of a real violence too.

  6. How did I miss that Calvin Candie was killed by a dentist?!

    that is one of the reasons to appreciate Tarantino – he’s so subtle but also wickedly brilliant.

  7. Great review. Although, with the 10,000 blood packs per gunshot, I’d disagree with you saying this is one of the tamer Tarantino movies. I’d say it’s probably the most gratuitously violent. But it is done in a cartoonish way. I suppose Inglourious Basterds and Reservoir Dogs are more violent in the visceral sense. Yeah, DiCaprio and Waltz were both totally awesome in this movie. Even though Django is the title character, the supporting cast outshines him at various parts of the film.

    • Personally thought the violence was a whole lot less gratuitous than Kill Bill, but more than average. I guess.

      Thought both Waltz and DiCaprio totally outshone Foxx in this film. Especially Waltz. Man was on fire.

  8. Wonderful review, Jaina! I am really looking forward this this film. I am a fan of Inglorious Basterds but I am not crazy about Reservoir Dogs (opposite from you). 🙂 I also love Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.

    I always shake my head when people fuss about extreme movies because we need to “protect the kids.” Sheesh, people. If you don’t think your kids should see a movie, don’t let them watch it, and let other parents make decisions for their own children. 🙂

    • I’ve not seen Jackie Brown yet. On my to-watch list 🙂

      Yes. Not to sound like an old fogey BUT when I was young there were plenty of films my parents didn’t want me to see. And guess what, they made sure I didn’t. They ranged from the likes of Robocop to Pretty Woman. Though I guess they had it easy back then – all they had to do was press STOP on the VCR when I was recording!

    • Is it the style of his films? Django is a VERY QT film, but reckon the little bits of humor would get you through this. If you liked Kill Bill, there’s a strong chance you’d enjoy this one too.

  9. I enjoyed Django Unchained too, and while I liked Waltz’ performance a lot, I did feel it was too soon for QT to bring back that well-spoken German. So in the originality area, I think it isn’t quite as strong as say Pulp Fiction or R Dogs.
    Maybe Django Unchained will be remembered in 20 years, because of the memorable one-liners 🙂

  10. This is a film that was very close to hitting the flawless mark with me until the last act which felt a bit unnecessary and way too over the top for the kind of film we had seen in the first two hours.
    Reading upon Chris’ thoughts about Django, I can’t help but agree with him a little bit in that it didn’t seem all that different from Inglorious Basterds. From the casting of Waltz to the pace and humor of the film, they were both a bit too similar for my liking. Having said that, I do think Django is a little superior in terms of dialogue and heart. In fact, it’s a bit less lighthearted than Inglorious, possibly because of the sensitivity of the subject matter in America.
    As for the performances and the dialogue there’s nothing else that can be said that hasn’t been said before. All of the top-billed were pretty great, though my favorite aside from Waltz was Samuel L. Jackson and Leo Di Caprio a close third.

    • After rewatching Inglorious Basterds, I definitely prefer Django. Despite it still being perhaps a little bit too long, it still feels like a tighter film. And yes, it has a whole lot more heart. I cared for every single one of the characters. Rarely happens for me and Tarantino films.

      Sam Jackson was great. He played his character so well, right to the end.

    • Definitely. It might be in my best of 2013 list as that’s when it finally got released here. Such a long wait.

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