A movie full of stereotypes and with not much happening...

Rating: 2/10 (10 September 2019)

When I first came out of the movie, I felt like it was a pretty decent movie. There was good suspense at certain parts of the movie and we got to see a lot of late 60s retro along with very good acting. But the more I think about it, the more I'm realising the lack of depth and actual content. Don't get me wrong, I love Tarantino. but this movie felt much like a show off of how much Tarantino knows about film history. Most of the movie felt like pointless plot lines that didn't end up anywhere and exist for no other reason but to show off nostalgia. There were only a few "actual scenes", which to be fair were very good.
A couple scenes do not make a movie though. All in all, characters were very shallow and didn't develop at all, except for Leonardo's character a tiny bit. The characters were very one-dimensional and mainly reinforced old stereotypes. Such stereotypes include the ditsy, air-headed, blonde Sharon Tate, the tough, confident chauffeur/kind of bodyguard Cliff, the annoying, stupid hippies and the laughable Asian (in this case Bruce Lee!). All characters are only there for one specific purpose and we don't learn much about the characters.
In this way, it feels like this movie takes a step back in how Hollywood has been progressing. Shallow, stereotypical characters with no development are something of the past. I understand that this is a movie set in the late 60s, but that doesn't mean that it has to be written with those values in mind.
On another note, I don't want to turn this into a "social justice warrior" kind of thing, but I greatly took offence with how Bruce Lee was portrayed in this movie. Mocking a legendary Martial Artist who has passed away is in bad taste. Imagine if a movie depicted Muhammad Ali being beaten by some random character in an unimportant side scene, or if Robin Williams was casually used as the butt of a joke. Both of these would be very unacceptable. The only reason I can think of why Bruce Lee's case seems to be acceptable to the press is because Asian actors tend to be comedic reliefs most of the time. They mostly play ridiculous characters (e.g. Ken Jeong in Hangover) and when there are strong Asian characters, white actors are casted for that. As a result, when the first famous Asian actor, who didn't play this self-mocking role, is mocked, it seems to be normal to everyone. But if we imagine mocking for instance a legendary, now-dead African-American actor, or mocking an African tradition, that would be unacceptable.
All in all, I give this movie 2 stars because of its lack of depth and its very weak, clicheed characters. I will say that the movie has some great scenes with excellent suspense, but as mentioned above a few scenes don't make a movie.