Reviewed by Trent Sellers:
I am making more of a warning than a review on this one. Just a couple of things that you probably already suspected.
Quentin Tarantino is the greatest film maker of all times. He is known for making exciting, bloody, vulgar, weird, and intriguing movies. So when you tell me he is going to make a movie set two years before the Civil War and set it in the south and it be about a slave that becomes a bounty hunter I thought one thing, “I wonder how many times he is going to use the n-word.” The answer: more times in 3 hours than I have heard in my entire life, and I live in Alabama. Instead of taking that on face value, if you can separate being shocked at hearing that word so much then you need to look out for the blood. I could be wrong but almost every scene with shooting in it (which is most scenes in it) there is more blood than in the Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves. Now, having said that I thought this movie was awesome. Had it been set in any other time I wouldn’t have appreciated the language or the violence but when you boil it down it’s almost like a continuation of Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill. It’s a major revenge piece with all the actors firing on all cylinders. QUASI-SPOILER: Keep an eye out for Samuel L. Jackson. All the actors are amazing as they always are in QT’s movies but when Sam comes on the screen you almost want to cheer. Then he steps in the middle of Christoph Waltz, Jaime Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio and just eats the scene up around them. Completely overshadowing everything any of those acting titans could possibly do. I don’t think anybody else could have possibly done this movie. Certainly not with another director and not with any other actors. Don’t miss this on the big screen…if you can handle it.
And! Reviewed by Sadie Broillet:
First of all, I am a girl. Second of all, Christoph Waltz is the sexiest man I have seen on the big screen in a long time (Although I did see a preview for something with Ryan Gosling in it, and actually said, “Oh, I get the Ryan Gosling thing all of the sudden”), so I am a bit biased where he is concerned. I could listen to Waltz speak all day long. His accent is something like German, by way of Brooklyn, and his eyes have a sparkle that just don’t quit. But I digress. Quentin has done it again, although for just a little bit too long (20-25 of the 2 hours, 45 minutes, could have gone to the floor, in my opinion, including Quentin’s own scenes). His dialogue (especially between Jamie Foxx (Django) and Waltz (Dr. King Schultz)) is amazing, snappy, and SO funny. The relationship between the two main characters feels like an honest exploration of two people who really get (and, ultimately, really care about) each other. It’s not every day you meet someone that you can have this sort of rapport with, but Quentin wrote it that way, and I believed it. At times, I almost felt guilty, given the subject matter and the frankness with which it is treated, for enjoying myself so much. And I haven’t even gotten to DiCaprio and Sam Jackson yet! DiCaprio was beguiling, adorable, and intriguing, as a ruthless, vicious, horrible racist plantation owner. Quentin’s direction must have been, “OK, Leo, chew scenery!” and Leo obeyed. I don’t want to even say anything at all about Jackson’s performance. It’s got to be seen to be believed. For reals. If you got a problem with violence, with the terrible truths about slavery and antebellum racism, blood, blood, blood, the n-word, and blood, don’t go. If you are a fan of any of the people in this movie, you gotta go. No scenery was left unchewed. (And no horses were harmed in the making of this movie.)