Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is A Surface-Level Though Enjoyable Trip To 1969

Whether it's in characters discussing the definition of a TV pilot or sadistic movie stuntmen, Quentin Tarantino has always made his love for all things cinematic a prominent part of nearly all of his directorial efforts. Keeping that in mind, it's shocking that it's taken him this long into his career as a filmmaker to make a movie entirely set in Hollywood. Well folks, the time has finally come with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which see Tarantino doing his fourth-consecutive period piece in chronicling the exploits of a trio of characters across Hollywood in 1969, a pivotal year for Tinseltown if there ever was one.

Half of Grindhouse Is Utterly Sublime, But The Other Half, Well, Is One-Note Even By B-Movie Homage Standards

Grindhouse is a project only a filmmaker with as much clout as Quentin Tarantino could get off the ground. A 191-minute-long homage to old B-movie double features consisting of two feature-length films, one directed by Robert Rodriguez and the other helmed by Tarantino, it's a project that sounds like a perfect fit for the midnight movie festival circuit but something that would have limited appeal as a conventional wide release project. The Weinstein Company decided to make a big go at bringing Grindhouse to general audiences and pushed it out into 2,629 locations in April 2007 only for it to end up grossing only $26 million domestically, the worst box office performance ever for a movie Tarantino directed outside of his inaugural feature Reservoir Dogs, which never played in more than 61 locations.

It Looks Like The Next Star Trek Movie Has Been Put Into Port

Yesterday, Deadline broke the news that Jessica Jones director S.J. Clarkson would be directing the debut episode of a still-untitled Game of Thrones spin-off, a project she could undertake because a schedule had opened up in her schedule due to a prior directing commitment being shelved. That prior directing commitment? The next installment of the Star Trek film series. Clarkson had been set last Spring to make her feature film directorial debut by helming a sequel to 2016's Star Trek Beyond, but the project ran into a roadblock last August when pay disputes between Paramount Pictures and stars Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth led to the two actors walking away from the project, putting its very existence in jeopardy.

Kill Bill Slays Thanks To Thoughtfully Realized Characters And Uma Thurman's Formidable Lead Performance

In retrospect, it's nuts that Quentin Tarantino had a whopping six years separating the release of his third film, Jackie Brown, and his fourth film, Kill Bill (which was split into two individual movies upon its initial release). In every part of his career, Tarantino has only taken three or four years maximum in between projects, but then again, he hasn't really done anything as large in scale as the expansive Kill Bill saga in the rest of his filmography, perhaps that extensive break between films was necessary for him to properly prepare for a motion picture of this magnitude. Whether that's true or not, that extensive wait was totally worth it as Kill Bill is a terrific feature that gathers up depth as it goes along like a snowball picking up snow as it travels down a snow-covered mountainside.

Nibble On Some Thoughtful Cannibalism With Raw

The most sublime entries in the world of horror fare tend to work best when its lead characters are well-rounded individuals whose plights already make for interesting cinema even before the blood, guts and what have you get unleashed. John Carpenter's The Thing and Halloween movie are great examples of this as are recent horror classics like Get Out, The VVitch and It Comes At Night. Hailing from France, the motion picture Raw, it turns out, is yet another example of a modern-day horror movie leaning just as heavily on characterization as it does on scares. This allows it to have an extremely thoughtful base rooted in relatable human experiences for it to build its insane, disturbing and gore-filled storyline upon.

Fun, Style And Boldness, Not To Mention Some Great Acting..Ya Get It All In Pulp Fiction

Watching Pulp Fiction for the first time was a fascinating experience on multiple levels but I was particularly astounded to watch it and discover just how many moments from assorted pieces of pop culture I'd consumed over the years were, in fact, direct references to this movie. Little jokes in Space Jam and the Simpsons episode 22 Short Films About Springfield immediately come to my mind as examples of this while it's obvious that the entire indie movie scene of the second half of the 1990's was heavily influenced by the way Pulp Fiction wedged its way into the zeitgeist. Quentin Tarantino's 1994 masterpiece became a pop culture touchstone practically overnight, but 23 years later, it's amazing to watch the movie removed from its initial hype and discover that there very much is a great movie nestled in here.

The Hateful Eight Review

In his past two movies, Quentin Tarantino went wider in scale than he ever had before, allowing Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained to depict the time period their stories were set in an appropriately sweeping manner. One got a sense of the scale of depravity that Nazi's and slave owners in these movies were inflicting on individuals via the scope that each plot possessed. Now, with his newest film, The Hateful Eight, Tarantino goes smaller, much much smaller. Much more in the vein of Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight sticks to one location for the majority of its run time and centers itself on eight morally dubious individuals existing a few years after the Civil War has concluded. And none of these eight fellows can be trusted.

Inglourious Basterds Review (Classic Write-Up)

Inglourious Road

Quentin Tarantinos penchant for depicting violence of a most gruesome sort makes him a natural fit for a war movie, so it's shocking it took him 17 years into his career before he brought a cinematic depiction of combat to life. That kind of wait was more than worth it though, as Basterds is insanely riveting cinema, chock full of smart screenwriting and excellent acting. Those elements serve a tale spanning numerous characters, with the most prominent being Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), the leader of a squadron dubbed the Basterds, and Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), the owner of a movie theater who wants violent vengeance against the Nazis.

Wanna See Movie Directors Like Spielberg And Hitchcock Have A Rap Battle? Who Doesn't!! (From The Interwebs)

I've focused on the Epic Rap Battles Of History YouTube program before, but as a major cinema fan, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to highlight their most recent endeavor, which pits Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock and other famous movie directors against each other in a truly epic rap battle. Check it out below!

There is graphic language ahead, just so ya know.

Classic Write-Up: Django Unchained Review

Movies always have a natural disconnect between the viewers and what's happening on screen. However, several movies have this selfish attitude in them where it seems like the filmmakers behind the endeavor are having tons of fun with the plot, but refuse to allow the viewer to connect or engage with what's happening onscreen. In Django Unchained, it's pretty freaking apparent Quentin Tarantino is having an absolute blast with the cinematic adventure he's concocted thanks to how great it is. Plus, he eagerly allows anyone and everyone to join him in having fun with the venture. 

So, I Was On Netflix: Reservoir Dogs Review

This is quite a monumental review for me, for you see, this is the very first Quentin Tarantino movie I've ever seen. And when one is going to start watching one of the most iconic directors of all-times work, why not start at the very beginning? In this case, that is indeed a very good place to start, as this movie not only shows why the director is so beloved, but is also just a damn fine piece of cinema on its own merits. Gripping, terrifying, unflinching, shocking, astounding; those are the words that come to mind when considering this movie like no other.