I recently had the pleasure of viewing director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter and writer Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty, a pseudo-representation of the decade-long search to find and kill Osama bin Laden. I was delighted to discover the film to be a great follow-up effort to 2008's The Hurt Locker, which featured both the same writer and director. Read on to find out more of my thoughts on the film.
Read MoreI've been meaning to see Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained for a while now, and, yesterday, I finally got the opportunity. Critics promised it would be violent, controversial, shocking, and more classic Tarantino. I had fairly high expectations, and, though the film did not quite meet them, I have to say it was a good movie. Beware there are some minor spoilers ahead
4/5 Stars
Honestly, it felt more like a 3.75/5. I was surprised to have such mixed feelings about the movie. It started off great, with superb interaction between Jamie Foxx and Christopher Waltz. The early scene in a small Texas town in which Foxx rides in on a horse and both bounty hunters encounter quick resistance from the racist townsfolk was quite entertaining, and as was the Ku Klux Klan's unlucky raid on the good dentist's wagon. Both scenes had some memorable laughs while still incorporating the trademark hyper-violence present in most Tarantino films.
However, fewer laughs are found in the far darker second act of the film, which pits Foxx and Waltz's characters against plantation owner Calvin Candie, played with some distinction by Leonardo DiCaprio...
Read More