Just to weigh in on the Tarantino inferno while it's still raging, I suppose I ultimately see him as the epitome of a style-over-substance artist. His works, while superficially engaging in certain ways, leave me entirely hollow, and even when speaking only to style I can't summon much admiration for him because of how frequently and eagerly he indulges in what amounts to masturbatory quasi-plagiarism. His ideas simply aren't his half the time. The whole thing is just kind of perverse... there's very little originality there, cloying caricaturism, terrible fucking writing... shit, even the action bits usually aren't convincing, to say nothing of the casting choices.

The most I can give the man is that he's a collage artist of sorts, and collage doesn't necessarily have to suck. I respect his knowledge of cinema, and his obvious ability to geek out on film is pretty intense. It's just his way of going about things doesn't create much of anything truly new, despite the attributions of "genius"; instead of a compelling synthesis of influences you get the cinematic equivalent of sitting in some man-child's poster-plastered bedroom, listening to him go through his top 200 favorite scenes in film history. It's just... kind of odious.

And one last point to end this on: One of the biggest failures of Tarantino's work is that it tries as hard as it can to co-opt the camp charisma that those 60s/70s films brought about, yet goes about it so extremely self-consciously that it can't hope to hold any of the DIY naivete that gave rise to that special personality in the first place.

Armond White skewers the racism of "Django Unchained": http://nypress.com/still-not-a-brother- ... unchained/

Eileen Jones skewers its failure as a genre film: http://exiledonline.com/free-me-from-django-unchained/

Who's German.

I actually laugh while reading these articles because while these people take Tarantino movies way too seriously and forget that all he's claiming to do is entertaining people, Tarantino himself is laughing all the way to the bank all the while winning Golden Globes and Oscars. It just amuses me that people get so worked up over a movie like Django Unchained which is just so obviously overblown and sarcastic.

...Tarantino himself is laughing all the way to the bank all the while winning Golden Globes and Oscars.

Django was good a bit boring and drawn-out in parts.

arent all directors are people of style over substance when we see the example of Batman movies - Tim's style vs. Nolan's. The substance is more or less the same with different variations in writing. Isnt it the style that we like or dislike about a director. QT is a style, Guy Richy is a style, Spielberg is a style.

I was never quite sure if Inglorious Bastards was a critique on how Nazi Germany has become this sort of demonic caricature, to the point where brutally killing every German soldier is totally justifiable in the eyes of Hollywood and it's audience... or if I'm giving the man some very undue credit.

Actually, you could make a case for that, especially considering how the Nazis are depicted as very educated, classy, and civilized, while the people fighting them are seen as savage, merciless brutes. Tarantino made it a point to give the movie some kind of Ying Yang styled POW; everything considered bad has something good to it, and vice versa.

Genocide doesnt get a cute touch all of the sudden just because those inflicting it being portrayed educated, classy and civilized. And everbody knows what the Nazis did.

Genocide doesnt get a cute touch all of the sudden just because those inflicting it being portrayed educated, classy and civilized. And everbody knows what the Nazis did.

This may come as a shock to you, but not only was most of Europe anti-semitic at the time (IIRC, many Jews were not allowed into other countries to escape the nazi regime), but very few people were actively involved in murdering Jewish people (I mean out of the population, not some sort of holocaust denial thing), despite being brainwashed into believing they were sub-human. I'm sure you could also find stories of American or Allied soldiers raping and what not, but that wouldn't mean it would be OK to just call every single person of an Allied country a disgusting monster.

Never said it did. It's just that the movie makes and emphasis in saying that there's no such thing as truly "black and white" morality. Monsters can be sympathetic, and heroes can do reprehensible things.

Death Proof is absolutely brilliant, dude. Maybe you just did not get the whole idea behind it.

I was reading a latest media report about The Weinstein Company ordering the halt to production of the Django toyline dolls/action after a couple advocacy groups complained. I know they're meant to be just movie collectibles but it's funny to imagine how a couple kids would go about playing with them: "I own you! Get back to work n****r!" -"No, fuck you, Candie!"