Reviews

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino's 9th film, and the standard he set himself with his previous work and without a doubt this movie has lived up to it. The characters are well-written and explored in great detail and acted amazingly, especially by Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt.

The movie has a very distinct tone. It's a mood-film that serves as an experience to drop into. Setting a tone and exploring the scenery, period and characters seems to be primary next to Story and I love that. Whereas I think some people may have a problem with the scenes playing more to developing a world rather than telling a story, I loved each set-piece and small story that took place.

There's definitely some pacing issues with the beginning but the way the third act is written and the tone of the middle section makes up for it. I especially love how fairytale the movie is, everything is very perfect and intentionally cheesy which fits in with the title beginning with "Once Upon a Time,". This is a movie that takes place in its own movie world, where everything plays out like movies do but in reference to a real life event, something horrible and completely unfairytale, since movies, especially ones from the 60s, are meant to be, distractions from the horrific reality. This movie takes something horrible and inserts two cheesy action heroes into it, mocking the escapism found in classic cinema.

The movie has beautiful cinematography and editing choices and a very neatly-chosen soundtrack. It may be too slow-paced in certain parts but that's something I can get behind 9/10

This film has a surprising inability to invoke any fear at all. Any scary scene is completely ruined by the movie either trying to be funny, or it forcing terrible music or clichè sound effects.

The comedy is one of the worst aspects, it's annoying and cringeworthy at times and completely overshadows the "scary" tone. The characters are just as worse, not only is the main lead emotionless and inconsistent. She's a character that tries to be strong and independent by being needlessly mean and cold to many people. The rest of the characters fall into two categories. Needlessly mean/stupid or needlessly heroic/amazing-at-everything.

Horribly overrated. Completely devoid of any emotion, and sets things up to never be answered. This does not reward any viewers and it's ending is extremely disappointing.

Bohemian Rhapsody was a beautiful film, that proved itself to be better than I expected. There was without a doubt complete success in the emotive scenes and every character was loveable and perfectly developed, not to mention the actors did a fantastic job and had great chemistry with one another.

I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the cinematography was, not only do some shots seem like beautiful paintings but also there were themes with colour and blocking that lent themselves to depict the emotions they intended to without fail.

Although there were flaws, such as awkward delivery and possibly a weak antagonist, the pros definitely defeat the cons in this emotional, heartfelt and well-produced movie.

Nothing about this movie was creative or fresh, it had repeated tropes and a boring and uninspired near non-existent villain vs hero ending. Not to mention the pacing is incredibly rushed and awkward, this gives the movie a lack of structure and leaves you with a script full of holes.

A large problem is the comedy, most of the jokes are the same and are just seemingly shoved in at random, in addition Tom Hardy's physical comedy acting doesn't work at all in a movie like this, especially whilst acting like a drunk Ben Stiller.

The music was either unpleasant to listen to or just bland stock film music. The dialogue and acting was so cringeworthy at times not to mention the very problematic editing consisting scene after scene.

Would not recommend 3/10

Tarantino's supposedly "weakest" movie Death Proof has mixed opinions and reviews from audiences and critics alike. But personally, there's something very poetic to the Death Proof movie that not a lot of people see.

This movie, being a tribute to the exploitation era of cinema has a lot more to say that meets the eye. It presents the theme of Missing your own previous time. The fact that presence is constantly changing and you can never travel back in time. Stuntman Mike is the most important character in the film as his story and motivation is incredibly unique. He misses the old days and his job and lifestyle has been rendered useless, Mike desperately tries to cling on to his past. This may easily be a self-insert for Tarantino himself.

This isn't a complete tribute to Exploitation cinema, for the female characters that appear in the film are completely different to the ones audiences view in older movies. There are clear differences, proving Quentin didn't just watch a few Exploitation movies, take some notes and just make a movie out of it. He had interesting things to say about the "death of cinema" and having progressive, unique and interesting female characters compared to the ones feautured in the movies he was parodying. These women aren't objects or eye candy, they're characters you care for and become interested in. Whenever they're sexualised it's out of satire and mocking the strange nature of Exploitation cinema.

The term "Masterpiece," is over used and thrown loosely. And few films truly are a masterpiece, and 1957's '12 Angry Men' is deinitely one of them.

This film is paced beautifully. Taking place in real time; it's never boring and constantly a moving plot that gets more tense and more tense by the minute. Entirely revolving around a single, long conversation, the film makes the audience feel the same amount of suspense and tension as a movie full of action.

Each character is very different, with different levels of persuasion and logic. And most of these characters have linking backstories that directly influence the actions that take place in the script. Credit is also heavily due to the real and powerful acting, especially from Lee J. Cobb.

I'd recommend this film to anyone and everyone as it is a stamp on film history in its incredibly creative inclusion of Clarity and Tension around such a small premise.

I believe this is a great show, with such a strange premise and the certain type of comedy it aspires to be, it's hard to expect this show to be a home to great characters and a neat plot. Some of the acting might not be good at times but for the most part it's rather good. I'd recommend this.