This movie did not deliver

Rating: 6/10 (28 July 2019)

I say this with reluctance. This movie has a lot happening, but there was so little substance in each thing that happened, it still felt too flat.
Things that were great:
Acting - Leo and Brad are great actors and their relationship as characters were fun to watch. They both sold their characters for who they are. Rick Dalton is a great character who is afraid to be the has been of TV after failing to break into the silver screen, Leo portrays a great struggle of emotions that you can see he strives to be the best he can. Cliff was the saving grace of this movie, the Stunt double/assistant of Rick who is your guide of Hollywood throughout the movie, taking you through the hills, around the valley, and all the way out to the sticks where the bounty law series was filmed now rundown and overrun by hippies.
Style - You get a great sense of the period. I'm glad that they had a decent portion of the movie that just felt like you were back 50 years ago and the characters did ok portraying that time.
The Ending - There was a solid 20 minutes of this movie that rang true to Tarantino's style of filming and it was the last sequence of the story. This isn't due to the over the top violence or gore, or even the the crazy (severe spoiler) flamethrower as weapon of choice. I honestly feel it was the only scene that felt like tarantino was there for, like he really put in his time to make that scene awesome and it was very satisfying to watch.
Things that weren't great -
The story - I feel like there was too much story for this movie that went nowhere. Rick's scared because he's on his downswing, yet is getting praise from his director, his acting companions, and even his agent who literally tells him he's on his downswing. Then he goes to Italy and revives his image more so, when it never felt like he was losing his chops as it is. I didn't feel for Rick, and that he's upset over nothing. Then there's Cliff's story. He befriends a hippie who he picks up and takes her to her commune and has one of the most anticlimactic moments in any movie. Anti climatic isn't bad when done right, but this went nowhere, and it had potential to be so much more than what it was. Sharon Tate was in the movie for a whole 5 minutes, and she only had maybe 10 lines, she could have been omitted from the entire movie and nothing would have changed, it just would have been harder to explain how Manson's family showed up at Rick's door. I know Tarantino added her because of his feelings towards her as an angel on earth, but I feel like her presence was overhyped and unnecessary. I feel like all the characters except Cliff were one dimensional and because of that it felt far too dry.
The dialogue - I'm not sure how it happened, but the best dialogue of this movie came from a girl who was supposed to be 8 years old. This actress (or actor for her sake) is super young, but she is going to be in great roles down the line, because she nailed her part. I was ok with with the rest of the dialogue but I do feel like it needed to be reworked, there was no substance to it. There were a few truly amazing lines and some were spot on hilarious, but it was far and few.
This movie was ok, but it was an hour longer than it needed to be. I never thought I'd want to walk out of a Tarantino film but it was crossing my mind. I hate that people are going to try and say I just didn't get it. It wasn't hard to get, but it was hard to get into. I will eventually watch it again, but I feel like it's one that I'm going to wait years on. People who say people who don't like this are probably just cgi/fast in the furious fans, the modern audience is going to tear this to shreds are pretentious. I like movies, old and new, but when a movie leaves me feeling like it didn't live to its full potential, I don't feel the need to slobber all over it just because of the names attached to it. In the end, this movie is mediocrity in it's purist form.