Review of Django Unchained (2012) by Efrain — 25 Dec 2012

Quentin Tarantino has given us the best Christmas present, another one of his "Epic" cinematic accomplishments. Not only one of the best but my favorite movie of the year. Underneath the bloody, revenge, slavery theme of Django Unchained is also a love story. Django's only priority in this story is rescuing his beloved wife from the "evil" hands of Calvin Candie (Dicaprio) and his loyal black land owner Stephen (Sam L. Jackson). The Western genre is one of my, if not the most, favorite genre of all movie genres. Spaghetti westerns are even superior, in my opinion. So I knew all the little homages Tarantino placed in this film. Including the original Django, Frank Nero, in the same scene with Jaime Fox's Django. These small features of the film just added more fun to my experience not to mention how well the comedy blended while in this portrayal of a dark horrific time in America. The songs used in this movie, MY GOD! Every song fitted so well into the scene it was introduced. The soundtrack is just another reason why Quentin is so unique when it come to film making. From Ennio Morricone to Rick Ross to Jim Croce everything was blended spectacularly to its southern setting.

To say the acting is great is a bit of an understatement. Jamie Foxx plays such a fantastic lead as his character develops from a shy slave to the fastest, ballsy, gunslinger in the south. Christoph Waltz, like in Inglourious Basterds, steals every scene he's in with his witty charm and his lovable character's way of escaping out of a tight spot very unexpected. Leonardo Dicaprio gives another great performances and probably one of his best. A very flamboyant evil character at that. Now Samuel L. Jackson just blows it out of the park by a long shot. He gives such an astonishing performance as great as on the level of Jules in Pulp Fiction. He steals the scenes from the scenes Christoph Waltz is in. He was by far the most evil and outrageously funny character in the entire movie. He deserves an Oscar nomination for this role. Kerry Washington is great but is not the usual strong female performance you usually get in a Tarantino film. Probably because of the plot and its setting in history. All the secondary characters were flawless as well, including Jonah Hill's comedic small role. I adored everything from the stylized beginning to the showdown in the end. Even the small little details to the actors Quentin uses in his movies like Charles Parks or himself. I honestly found more humor than any comedy I've seen this year. The heavy use of gore and buckets of blood is exactly my taste in movies. Does it drag on? Of course, in the second act it tends to drag on a bit which is probably the set up of Dicaprio's character development. As a fan I wouldn't mind it being five hours long but as a reviewer perspective it could have been trimmed just a tad bid. The death scenes were a spectacle to experience. I was in awe from every death scene.