Ultimately a failure but Tarantino die-hards won't care

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2013)

It genuinely starts out well, with a highly intelligent and educated German immigrant bounty hunter engaging a slave to help him find his quarry, and linking his search with that of an ancient German legend. An engaging relationship builds up between these two. Christoph Waltz as the German acts well. Jamie Foxx as the slave has a cliché deadpan role.
My first suspicions came early on, when there was a completely pointless scene about a KKK raid in which all the characters were dumb. This episode didn't move the story on. So why include it? I can only think that, although the director had the ability and resources to make an intelligent film, he was worried he would lose the interest of the less sophisticated end of the market.
Then the film gets going again, as a storyline develops of the pair hatching a plot to rescue Brunhilde ('Broomhilda') from her plantation owner. At this point we meet the other of the really good actors (Samuel Jackson as the plantation's aged family retainer).
I'd advise stopping watching at the point when the German gets shot. After that it's crowd-pleasers, the sort of thing that populates film trailers - shootings, explosions. Exciting a generation ago maybe but we've seen it all before. There's no point in even fast-forwarding to the ending because it's obvious.
It had the potential to be a great and memorable movie but Tarantino compromised and the last part is a waste of time. Don't pay to see it.