Django Unchained

 

 

 

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, & Christoph Waltz

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most unique and interesting writer/directors in all of Hollywood, a man who's style and wit seem to transcend time and history, but would he be able to apply this talent to slavery and the wild west, I had my doubts. Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is not your typical bounty hunter, as he has a very unique and unorthodox way of getting his job done. Schultz thinks the best way to shock people is to free a slave, make him his partner, and let him ride into town and stay with him wherever he goes, which usually leads to shock, outrage, and more N words than your typical Jay-Z album. Eventually the successful duo goes in search of Django's wife, who is being held at the plantation of a truly evil man, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). In order to get her back, the two attempt to con the southern "gentleman", but will everything go as planned? This film is vintage Tarantino, filled with the unique characters you won't find anywhere else, ridiculous cameos you'd never expect, tremendous back and fourth dialogues, and of course the unexpected. as everything and anything will happen. Every actor under Tarantino's direction has a way of stepping up their game in his films, but Christoph Waltz was truly spectacular. There is a good reason he won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as somehow he manages to give an even stronger performance than he did in Inglorious Bastards. I really can't say enough about Tarantino, and out of all his films, this was the one I was the least excited about, but as it turns out, Django may actually be one of the best films he's ever done, and it is now the newest entry on our list of must see movies!

The Ox-Bow Incident

Starring: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, & Harry Morgan

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I'm not one for early cinema, as I find most films prior to 1970 to be way over the top. The Ox-Bow had it's fair share of over the top cliche, but it also vividly illustrates a time in American history we don't learn much about. American history is often about the wars and the personalities, simple things like the wild west are left to films known as Westerns. The vast majority of these films tend to tell stories of historic figures, or focus on shoot outs and war, but Ox-bow stands apart, as it shows just how wild the frontier was. Taking place in 1885, the Ox-Bow incident follows the residents of a small town, who decide to take justice into their own hands following the murder of one of their own. Despite warnings from the local judge and sheriff, the towns people form a posse, and search for the men responsible, and they find them in an area known as the Ox-Bow. Once these men are found, the posse is divided and must decide which is the proper method of justice. I don't like Westerns, but I enjoyed the Ox-Bow, because it is just so radically different from every other film of this type and despite the cliches, it gives a real depiction of the problems the government faced when trying to tame the west. The legendary Henry Fonda stars in an era when it was very easy to tell a good actor from a bad one. He was level headed and didn't do things completely over the top, but the same can't be said for the rest of the cast. Perhaps the most interesting thing to see just how much Fonda style stood out and how it still resonates today in the performances of people like George Clooney. The other styles of acting portrayed have long since gone to the waste side, but Fonda's endures, showing that he was good enough to stand the test of time. The Ox-Bow isn't the most exciting film you'll ever see, in fact, many thing just don't make sense, but it still remains one of the defining accounts of the ordinary citizens of the wild west. People are still talking about it 70 years later and I suspect they'll still be talking about 70 years from now as it has to be included in any discussion of early American cinema.

A Million Ways To Die In The West

Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, & Liam Neesson

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Seth MacFarlane is a comedic genius, who has succeeded in everything from musicals to fart jokes, but could he pull off a romantic comedy, taking place in the wild west? MacFarlane plays Albert, a sheep farmer, who has a reputation for being a coward. After backing out of one duel, he is forced into another, after falling for a woman he didn't know was married to a psychopath. With Seth MacFarlane, you know there is going to a range of comedy from ingenious to low-brow, but this recent film is completely the latter. It is impressive that he got such a large cast to star beside him, but unfortunately they all have very little comedic experience and it shows. Writing, Directing, Casting, and Starring in a film is an admirable feat, but it is completely wasted when the film is a stupid as this one. If your film is going to be rated R, why not go all the way with it? If you take out the sheep fornicating and the fowl language, A Million Ways To Die In The West, is nothing more than an awful kids movie, full of potty jokes, and misleading heroes. The story here is very simplistic and half the time it's not even funny. The parts that are meant to be humerus, turn out to be little more than jokes for the young teens that watch Family Guy. When I saw this film, I was hoping for another unique MacFarlane comedy, like Ted. That film was hilarious and extremely unique. By comparison, A Million Ways To Die In The West is about fifteen minutes of content, and an hour an half of complete and utter nonsense. I suspect some of the big stars in this cast wish they could remove this film from their IMDB page, because it really was that bad.

Maverick

Staring: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, & James Garner
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

I'd actually never seen this Richard Donner directed, western about a con man before. To be honest, it had everything you'd expect to see in a Richard Donner film, including a terrific cameo by Danny Glover. It was a little predictable at times, but the ending was classic. I also loved the scenery and custome design. Overall it was a pretty good movie. If I had one desire, it would be that the movie was a little more edgy, but other than that it was a great film. Mel Gibson was very likable, ashame that's only the case on the big screen huh?