Django Unchained is a pretty decent action movie that everyone is raving about as if it had a God-like cinematic quality. It’s good, but it’s not THAT good and here’s why.
Django starts Jamie Foxx as Django, Christopher Waltz as the man who frees and mentors him and Don Johnson, Leonardo DeCaprio, Jonah Hill and Walton Goggins as various Southern racists and Samuel L. Jackson in probably one of his best roles ever. The basic plot you probably know. Waltz is a bounty hunter and only Foxx’s Django can identify his targets. He frees Django and they both discover he has a natural affinity for being a gunslinger. Eventually, the duo go after Django’s wife, who is owned by Leonardo DeCaprio’s character.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino, the movie moves well and has a pretty solid story. But Tarantino is still doing a remake here of sorts. More of a “reimagining” of the original Django. (The actor who played the original Django, Franco Nero, has a cameo as a losing Mandingo fighter owner.) Personally, I’m not a huge fan of that, but since I didn’t see the original Django, it didn’t bother me. But since the original Django didn’t involve a slave turning into a gunfighter, why even call the movie Django? The answer probably is that Quentin Tarantino is a movie geek and he loves the movie. This is his homage.
But homages don’t rise to the level of greatness. There are derivative movies that do. Star Wars is an incredibly derivative movie that borrows from many sources but is still a pretty great movie. I seriously doubt people will be watching Django 20 years from now. Pulp Fiction, on the other hand, is a classic; a great movie with original scenes. Everything in Django is a composite of something else, mixed with relentless N-bombs.
The audience in the theater loved this movie, but they were the same audience that loved Inglorious Basterds. Something I found uneven, weird and with an incredibly misleading trailer. Django holds up a lot better, but I don’t think the audience knew the difference. Django feels more like an event or product. Calling Django Unchained a great movie, is like calling Quentin Tarantino, Orson Wells or calling a roller coaster an epic piece of art.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good action movie. The sequences are well done and most of it makes sense. (Although, don’t check Wikipedia for the year that dynamite was invented.) But it’s Die Hard, not the Godfather. With that in mind, I give Django Unchained 7.5 keggers out of 10. Totally worth seeing.
Twitter in Focus: Samantha Bee
by tonyd on January 2, 2013 at 12:01 amHey Bros!
Welcome to Twitter in Focus, where media comes to die. Today’s contestant is Daily Show correspondent and admitted Canadian, Samantha Bee. She’s funny on the show, let’s see if her tweets stack up.
@iamsambee
October 16th: “When Obama is talking, Romney makes the same face my Catholic grandmother would make at a Wiccan wedding.
#debate”That’s probably the same face he made pumping his own gas.
October 22nd: “Romney: I will smother you under a cozy blanket of meaningless words! So many words! Olympics! ”
C. Montgomery Burns was a more appealing candidate.
October 22nd: “Romney’s expression: fugue state
#debates”I think he was just mad his money didn’t buy him what he wanted. If he had just paid everyone directly to vote for him, it would’ve been a lot easier.
October 22nd: “Please let the last moment of this debate be the sound of an audience member’s hearing aid squealing.
#debates”Either that or one of the Koch brothers muttering, “God dammit, Mitt! God dammit!”
October 27th: “A great litmus test for how much you *actually* like eggs, is to stare into a chicken’s cloaca for a few minutes. ”
I think if you really want to test how much you like chickens, you should have to kill one and make it look like an accident.
October 28th: “There is not a single rotisserie chicken left on the entire Upper West Side. http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/samantha-bee-allana-harkin-eating-over-the-sink/2012/10/28/an-idiots-guide-to-scary-hurricanes/ …”
The hurricane was a scary time. I nearly lost power to my Xbox.
November 2nd: “Here’s an idea! Run 26 miles through NYC any day and on your own time. Right now, all those cops/emt’s/generators are needed elsewhere.”
Why not stop the subways and let them run in there? Then we can watch it all via security cameras.
November 8th: “I wrote this. http://blogs.babble.com/babble-voices/samantha-bee-allana-harkin-eating-over-the-sink/2012/11/08/suck-it-hurricane-sandy/ …”
You poor Canadian. You must’ve been so confused by water falling from the sky instead of ice.
December 6th: “I think instead of eating this banana, I will fly into a hangry rage and burn my kitchen down. ”
You must’ve been without power longer than most New Yorkers.
December 12th: “Men’s Gift Guides, I reject you. http://www.babble.com/babble-voices/samantha-bee-allana-harkin-eating-over-the-sink/2012/12/10/mens-gift-guides-the-voyage-of-the-damned/ …”
You can never go wrong with porn-related gifts.
December 12th: “Gift idea for
@jonesinforjason: quietly destroy all of his gadgets/personal effects and then replace them, for loads of Christmas fun. ”Well, I guess it beats back bacon and hockey tickets.
Okay, let’s rate Samantha’s Tweets. I give her a 6 for Mustness, an 8 for Insanity and an 8 for Style. That’s a 7.3. Would’ve been higher if she tweeted more. Still worth a follow, especially during times when the Daily Show does political stuff.
And if you have a suggestion for Twitter in Focus, email us here.