Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has done it again. Django Unchained has quickly become one of the most popular films gracing the silver screens, and for good reason. Django is the story of a freed slave teaming up with Bounty Hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to take down a trio of brothers. After some gory gun fights and monologues we find out that Django is married and has been searching for his wife for years which is where the meat and potatoes of the plot arrive. In order for Django to be reunited with his beloved wife they must seek out Calvin Candie (Leo DiCaprio) and his infamous Candie Land (hahaha)....

This film is ruthlessly wonderful. The acting in this film is even better than Basterds!! Christoph Waltz gives us another Academy Award worthy performance (he also won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a dramatic film just the other day) as the bounty hunter King Schultz, and Leonardo DiCaprio (also nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category as Waltz) gave the best performance of his career. Jamie Foxx is, however, a little lackluster, he's good, and he suits the part but doesn't really compare to his supporting actors. Now all the characters will, at some point, make you laugh, but none will make your side split more than Samuel L. Jackson.

The plot does seem to draw a lot from other spaghetti western films as well as blaxploitation... But so are most of Tarantino's films... It is also fairly controversial, one thing I did pick up on was the, possibly unintended, display of the weak and submissive slave. We see only one slave rising above the metaphorical and literal chains to stick it to the oppressive slave owners of the south. But that's stretching it, it really shows more of how backwards and racist the south can be. I have no problem with the screenplay however the infatuation Tarantino has with using the N-word gets to be a little to much. So much so that I have to comment on it.

The overall cinematography of this film is classic Tarantino, nothing too tricky and just enough to accentuate the real beauty of this film and that is its characters. It's a little gory, but if you are a fan of his work it'll come off as comical rather than gross.

This film is great, it's edgy and will probably piss off a bunch of people (Spike Lee was quoted saying he is boycotting this film) I give it a 9.8 out of 10. Everything about this movie was great, except for Jamie Foxx who just didn't seem to impress me enough. The film is still in theaters so I strongly urge you to find time and see it once, or twice, or three times...

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

This is extremely late but it's still in theaters so.... go see it or somethin'...

To start off I loved this movie, the action, the characters, the additions to the story, and most importantly the cinematography were all fantastic. I did however have a few problems with some of the fighting sequences. To me they all seemed a little too goofy, fans of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy know that the fight scenes all throughout those films were nothing short of stunning. But in The Unexpected Journey we get a little too much comedy, maybe it's because everyone is too short.

The dwarves are all lovable, however not entirely developed. Only some of them have lines and Thorin is the only one with a back story. But remember we do still have 2 more films to come. Thorin Oakenshield has to be my favorite, with an incredible back story and a perfect performance from Richard Armitage. Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, is the most masterly portrayed character in the entire film, Freeman delivers an astonishing and very entertaining performance and of course Ian McKellan returns again as Gandalf and naturally is incredible....

But enough about the characters!!

There were a lot of disgruntled fans when news came out that The Hobbit would be filmed in a higher definition (it made it look like a soap opera). But during my viewing I really didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, except for some CGI on Gandalf's face to make him look younger. The wide landscape shots were still as beautiful as the LOTR Trilogy and the set design was basically orgasmic.

The plot was fantastic, I was never bored with any scene, even during my second viewing. The additions to the original story were actually very clever and were obviously done to connect this new Hobbit Trilogy to the Lord of the Rings (I won't mention them in case you haven't seen it).

All in all I give this movie a 9.2 out of 10. The only reason I didn't give this a 10 is because of it's goofiness within more dramatic parts. Yes, The Hobbit is extremely lighthearted but it still balances it's emotional tone whereas this film does not.