Django Unchained (2012)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Rated: R
Length: 165 min.

Django Unchained made its premiere on Christmas Day, and was the best present a movie lover could ask for. Quentin Tarantino's unique style of direction was yet again on full display on this celebrated holiday. His incorporation of multiple music genres included songs from the likes of rap superstars Rick Ross and Tupac Shakur, whom of which gave this Western a much more modern feel to it. Christoph Waltz (Dr. King Schultz), who shined as the Nazi "Jew hunter" in Inglorious Basterds, once again stole the show with his wonderful depiction of a highly intelligent, fearless bounty hunter on a mission to provide equality for all. Jamie Foxx was a great lead for the role of Django, and his transformation of character made for a very interesting plot outcome. As to be expected, Leonardo DiCaprio (Calvin Candie) played the role of the villain to the tee, and was surprisingly easy to hate, which is hard to contemplate considering the role he usually plays of the archetypal hero. The extremity of gore and violence was all too familiar in this Tarantino picture, and sometimes seemed to take things too far. The explicit racism of this film was excessive and ridiculous, but probably fairly accurate to this pre-Civil War era film. Although the bigotry and violence was a bit much, it all came together so well at its conclusion. All in all, this was the best film I've seen this year. If this film doesn't win best picture, I have no hope for humanity. Go see it as soon as possible, but be ready for a blood bath.