The plot let the movie down! 4/10

Rating: 4/10 (20 February 2020)

Review:
As this movie isn't based on true events, and none of the storylines actually lead to anything, I really couldn't see the point of this film. I have to commend the cinematography, costumes and props for portraying the period immaculately, and the terrific acting from Brad Pitt (Cliff Booth), and Leonardo DiCaprio (Rick Dalton) made the film watchable, but after sticking with the movie for so long, hoping that something would happen, I ended up feeling really disappointed. It's very rare that you see two A-List stars of this calibre joining forces, so I was expecting something special, especially after all of the award buzz surrounding it, but it turned out to be Hollywood love letter from Tarantino, which I didn't find that interesting. There are so many irrelevant scenes, and half of the characters, like Margot Robbie (Sharon Tate), Al Pacino (Marvin Schwartz) and Bruce Dern (George Spahn) were totally wasted. The saving grace of the whole film had to be the gruesome action scenes towards the end, but it was too little too late. When you usually spend nearly 3 hours watching a film, you hope to find a moral to a story, but in this case, there really wasn't one. The only thing that I'm left with, is that Brad Pitt has a huge range, in terms of his acting skills and his ability not to age, but I personally think that DiCaprio looks, and acts the same in all of his movies. That's not to say that he is not a good actor, but I would like to see him play a role which is out of his comfort zone. Anyway, as Tarantino takes so long to release his films, I have to say that it feels like he has lost his spark of late. Like Guy Ritchie, he hasn't hit the form of his first couple of movies, so maybe it's time for him to go back to the drawing board because he's slowly becoming a distant memory. Disappointing!
Round-Up:
This movie was directed by Quentin Tarantino, who also brought you Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol.1 & 2, Sin City, Grindhouse, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. After the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, Tarantino cut ties with Weinstein and sought a new distributor for this film, after having worked with Weinstein for his entire career. Sony Pictures agreed to take on the project, and they agreed on the $90million budget, including final cut privilege, 25% of first-dollar gross, and stipulation that the rights revert to him after 10 to 20 years. As the movie was successful, and he earned high praise for the look and cast, I can't see Tarantino thinking that it was a failure, but I personally think that it could have been much better. He did all of the hard work, in terms of portraying the 1960s, but he should have paid more attention to the plot, which really let the movie down.
Budget: $90million
Worldwide Gross: $375million
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino, Nicholas Hammond, Samantha Robinson, Rafal Zawierucha, Lorenza Izzo, Costa Ronin, Scoot McNairy, Clifton Collins Jr., Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, James Remar, Damon Herriman and Lena Dunham. 4/10