Amazing acting performances saves poor story

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2019)

I'm a HUGE Tarantino fan. Every movie release is an event with me and my friends. This alone makes his movies a notch better than most. You are never disappointed with the EVENT. You leave the theater saying the 2.5 to 3 hours were worth it. This film isn't an exception. Actually I was surprised when it got to the ending so fast because it didn't seem like we had been in the theater that long.
With that said, the problem with this film is that DiCaprio's and Pitt's performances literally carry the 3 hour running time. Unlike his classics, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, that had a stellar script with amazing performances, this one had a C-rated script with Phenomenal performances. As a duo, I think Pitt and DiCaprio's performances were the best of all of Q's films. Even better than Pulp Fiction mainly because I thought S. Jackson was the better out of the two between him and Travolta.
The story is basically about a struggling actor who is at the end of his relevance and his friendship with his psychologically more grounded stunt man. This alone is a GREAT premise and really is enough to give those two actors enough material for them to hypnotize the viewers with magical acting.
The development of that premise alone would've made this film a beautiful study about male friendships and brotherhood. But instead of completing that story arc, Tarantino abandons it to add, what I think, is a expository on the changing of the guard....or times......or generations......or Hollywood. The point is.....whatever he was trying to say wasn't clear at all. On the surface , if the above mentioned was the secondary premise, it was done WAYYYYY better by the TV series MADMEN . In this film, it just didn't work or gel within the 3 hour time frame. I don't know if he was saying that the Hippie Generation ruined Hollywood or that DiCaprio's character couldn't stomach the change that Hollywood was going through or both . The reason it is was unclear was because it wasn't carefully crafted. As a matter of fact , to me it was developed clumsily by tying the whole story with the Manson killings, especially in the films finale.
The end, although taunt with suspense and high in action, was really pointless, except to maybe say that the," OLD guard wins at that end"..... "Or that they should've won"...... Either way, this was done better in Tarantino's previous film ". This one, with the few exceptions of DiCaprio's character yelling "G-D Hippies", had only one developed set up scene ( of which was done extremely well) and that was with Pitt's character. The next thing we know we are viewing a major battle between the two generations at the end.
I gave this one a 6, one of the lowest ratings by me for a Tarantino movie because it ranks right there with his other average film Jackie Brown. The big exception is that Jackie Brown lost points for its acting and not its story. OUATIH is the exact reverse. I seriously think this film desperately needed DiCaprio and Pitt, because without them , we may have actually witnessed a first and that's a failed Tarantino film.