"Django" is the Best of 2012!

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2013)

"Django Unchained" is without a doubt the best film of 2012, a slick, sharp-tongued, bloody action epic that has Quentin Tarantino's fingerprints all over every smartly homaged frame. Smart dialogue, an incredible soundtrack, and more blood than all the horror flicks of 2012 combined are what usually make Tarantino's films so indulgently fantastic, the kind of movies that real movie-lovers love. And that's all here, with a double check on the amount of blood as Django teams up with a Dr. Schulz to rescue his wife from the hands of a mad man, and violently exacts vengeance on her captors. But Tarantino's films have also always featured strong, wonderfully defined performances, and there's no shortage here. Jamie Foxx as the vengeance-seeking Django, Christoph Waltz as the dentist-turned-bounty-hunter King Schultz, Leonardo DiCaprio as the violently eccentric plantation owner Calvin Candie, Kerry Washington as Django's lost love, and Samuel L. Jackson in a scene-stealing performance as Steven, Candie's right-hand man. That only Waltz managed to get Oscar's attention is a travesty. I would have given a nomination to Foxx, DiCaprio and Jackson as well, if I had the choice. Unfortunately, I don't. An incredible host of famous faces rounds out the epic cast, including a bit part by a lazy-eyed Jonah Hill and a hilariously explosive cameo by the director himself. Don't like Westerns, you say? This will be your exception, as it both affirms and breaks the sacred and longstanding rules of the genre, and throws in some new elements to redefine and reinvigorate (an Oscar-worthy original rap song, for instance). At 165 minutes, the film seems to be reaching a ridiculously violent climax during a shoot-out for the ages, but Tarantino is only beginning to turn on the heat at this point, and the ending will have you boiling over with excitement.
-Thomas Bond