Django Unchained

Having been sidelined with he flu for a few days now, finally summoned enough strength to brave the elements to check out "Django Unchained", and I was simply whelmed by Tarantino's latest film. Just a warning, there are a lot of n-words in the film, so if that bothers you, you may want to skip it.

Christoph Waltz (as a loquacious bounty hunter named Schultz) and Jamie Fox (as slave turned bounty hunter Django) make for a good pair. Schultz needs Django's help to find a trio of bounties, and later helps Django find his long-lost wife Hildy (Kerry Washington), a quest that leads them to a Mississippi plantation, where they find Calvin Candie (Leo DiCaprio, chewing up scenery at an alarming rate) as the owner, and the one who could release Hildy. Samuel L. Jackson (as Stephen, Calvin's lead valet of sorts in charge of the slaves) steals every scene he's in.

The gun-violence on the human body is laughably ludicrous, the amount of blood splatter upon each bullet entering any character's body would lead you to believe all humans are simply blood bags with little in bones or muscle mass. I suppose you have to make it cartoony enough to laugh at the stark brutality of it all. Combine that with blood-curdling screams by those shot, it does interject a brief bit of humor amongst the carnage.

Script-wise, I wish there were more surprises, but it plays pretty straight, even if does contain the patented over-writing excesses by Tarantino in some of scenes, and feels a little long in spots.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.