Fantasy

Rating: 5/10 (18 April 2015)

I am not a weapons expert but know enough that the rifles and pistols used in the film predate their actual existence. This fact and the plot itself help turn the movie from fantasy to fantastical. For such a movie to succeed the characters had best be living in a fantastical place, which as depicted it is not. But fantastical things happen regularly, such as a man drawing while covered against a cocked shotgun and easily killing the holder without the shotgun firing. Or a derringer appearing out of a skin tight shirt sleeve, the never missed shots by the stars, the almost instantaneous transformation by a slave who had never touched a gun into Bill Hickok. All of these could be accepted, perhaps, if the depictions of just about everybody in the film did not seem slightly off key. They just don't quite fit, including the Oscar winner Waltz who unlike his perfect and even superhuman performance in Inglorious Bastards has to make ends meet with a very imperfectly written character. He does his best, the movie is well acted by DiCaprio as usual and all the secondary characters except Tarantino who by now should realize his talents do not extend to his acting. The movie plays like a bunch of parts installed to satisfy needs, rather than create a cohesive whole which is something Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, for example was brilliant at deflecting. Better luck next time.