Review of Django Unchained (2012) by Lahaine2012 — 14 Jan 2013

Certainly not for the squeamish, Django Unchained was a bloody good time. Tarantino paints a violent and slightly farcical (though, not offensive) portrait of slavery in his new film. Riddled with sensational action sequences and ripe comedic dialogue this film proved to be a good time, for the most part.

Tarantino's trademark dialogue allowed his cast to give some memorable performances. The two performances towering over all, was Leonardo DiCaprio as the evil, yet charismatic slave owner, Calvin Candie; and Samuel L.

Jackson as his black hating, black servant, Steven. The movie, which greatly lagged in its first half, really picked up steam when these two entered the picture. Though it was ravishingly entertaining there wasn't really much to enjoy beyond the violent and stylized surface.

Unlike his previous work, I found this one far more self indulgent and it was hard to take some of its more dense moments seriously, given the overload of pastiche. Along with its staggering runtime, the film lacked some structural ingenuity; often proving to be long winded and excessive.

Everything on the surface was gorgeous though, thanks to the well crafted production elements and Robert Richardson awesome cinematography. I may call this one of Tarantino's weaker efforts, if not weakest; but he still maintains his record of always delivering a good movie.