Django Unchained

Today's Guest Review is from my cousin Jon of Tucson AZ.  Like Jimmy Kimmel's Cousin Sal Iaconno (@thecousinsal) he's a witty writer.

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I had to get in a jab about a movie I keep getting hounded about to see , like it's the next Saving Private Ryan. This also served as my biased review of Taratino's latest movie.

Today it was finally time to get back to the theatre. Only been once in last couple months due to illness. My hiatus was based on enough respect for fellow movie goers not to be the asshole coughing throughout the flick. It was a coin flip type decision. I had recommendations for one versus the previous history from the director of the other. In fact the director of the recommended movie was a negative in my mind. Then I thought about the general audience I had seen going into that movie. Had I wanted to pick up women my age or a decade older it was definitely the place to be. But that was far from my desire. The more I thought about its choice , the more I realized it reminded me of a mini series I might see on PBS or the History Channel. Not that there's anything wrong with that , but something which made it all the more the choice as a future DVD. Had I not seen a negative review in a movie column I trust ; giving it the same rating as Taken up he A$$ 2 ; there wouldn't have even been a coin flip. But the few times I bucked the reviewer's ratings i got burned. On top of that the movie was nearly three hours long. Normally anything over two hours has been drawn out to excess in my book. Despite the negatives I made a gut decision to see the latest movie from my favorite movie director.

Django Unchained was just what the doctor ordered. Not a classic Tarantino like Pulp Fiction , but another fine flick like Inglorious Bastards. Django pays homage to the great spaghetti westerns while dealing with the atrocities of slavery. Not the preacher / teacher approach of documentary style movies or shows. Instead a more humorous approach getting its point across. Paraphrasing a line ' What , you're telling me a black man can get paid money to kill white folks ' sums up the hatred and revenge feelings slaves held for their mistreating masters. Add an off the wall scientific explanation showcasing the misconceptions towards the black race.  Definitely a more subtle approach to history rather than a recreation of facts I am familiar with. Toss in a great gun fighter along with an intelligent side kick and QT seems to be showing his admiration for the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Typical of QT one can expect some graphic shooting scenes. Gotta see some bodies blown into bloody bits.

The movie is not without its flaws. Surprisingly some of the transitioning and segues were very poor. Very unlike QT movies. One beautiful scenery shot may actually be what I thought it was. I looked at the background and said to myself that sure looks like the Grand Tetons. The film credits showed some scenes were shot in Wyoming. This is a big screen movie which will not be as enjoyable on DVD. On a scale of 1 to 5 it deserves 4 stars.