Waltz Unchained. Django Unseen

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2012)

I applaud Tarantino's drive to write movies only for his actors. In comparison to David Fincher and Christopher Nolan who use the actor as a prop to the plot, Tarantino's every word is to serve the actor first and foremost. Often, it pays off such in the case of Jackie Brown. It can also backfire, however. Inglorious Basterds was simply a Mamet-esque demo reel to the point of being painfully boring. While Django Unchained is a big improvement on Basterds, its pleasures don't exactly come free of charge.
Django is a recycling and reworking of the Basterds formula into pre Civil War Texas. Instead of a band of forgettable commandos claiming Nazi souls, we are gifted Chris Waltz and Jamie Foxx claiming bounty poster heads. Waltz is virtuoso and while Foxx is good, he's strictly a supporting role. You never really identify with Django and it's mostly in Tarantino's lap for that. The social aspects will undoubtedly offend with a tiring use of the N- Word and violence that tests any decency, but if you take any of this seriously, the joke is on you.
The whipping scenes and table talk violence are all carried over as is the feeling the editor was out to lunch and Tarantino took the print right to the distributor. There's at least twenty or thirty minutes to trim out here that would easily make this good movie into a great one. Also, Tarantino's Aussie cameo is the worst acting performance in a film since Eli Roth's gag inducing turn in Basterds. And Jonah Hill, really? REALLY?
All that being said, it's good stuff for the most part. By this point, the violence has been done to death so to speak and I wonder why he bothers anymore with it. Other than QT and one or two other useless cameos, performances are all solid. Sam Jackson really putting a signature stamp on a character that would be tricky, if not impossible to do right in any other hands.
It's worth seeing just to laugh your Blazing Saddle butt off for the holes in the hoods scene.