Movie Battle: Django Unchained Vs. The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino is, as frequent readers might know, my favorite director. He has made eight films now (counting both “Kill Bill” movies as one) and there is not one terrible film (“Deathproof” is not that good, but I’ve seen worse). In that line of great films, there are two westerns. And what if I let them go head to head. Let’s see who wins the battle: “Django Unchained” Vs. “The Hateful Eight”

 

 

ACTORS

Django Unchained: Jamie Foxx stars and does a good job in portraying the lead character Django. He is very well supported by Christoph Waltz, who played Dr. King Schultz and won an Academy Award for his performance. Samuel L. Jackson plays the very unlikeable Stephen, who is probably the most racist bastard in the entire film. And Leonardo DiCaprio as villain Calvin Candy, who shows us he can play a bad guy like no one else.

The Hateful Eight: Samuel L. Jackson is the star of the film as Marquis Warren, he carries “The Hateful Eight”. Kurt Russell is good as John Ruth, but it’s Jennifer Jason Leigh who really surprised me as Daisy Domergue. She probably had the best part. We also see Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins and Channing Tatum.

STORY

Django Unchained: It’s a revenge movie, which is not new in the Tarantino repertoire. Look at “Kill Bill” and “Inglourious Basterds”. But it’s not a crime when it’s done right. The story gets more depth because of the interesting characters and the sharp dialogues.

The Hateful Eight: The story is fairly simple: eight strangers end up in a cabin during a snow storm and nothing is as it seems. But it’s the way it was executed. Almost the entire film is set in one location, just like “Reservoir Dogs” and the film is interesting from beginning to end. Again due to great dialogues and fascinating characters.

EFFECTS

Django Unchained: It looks very good, Tarantino did a great job and it looks like we are in the wild west. It has some great spectacle here and there.

The Hateful Eight: Hardly any effects needed. The greatest part is its simplicity and also the wide screen Tarantino used. You’re sometimes so close to the characters, that you can experience how small the room is they are in. This wide screen really does make a different.

WINNER

Both are not my Tarantino favorites, but they are very close to each other. I prefer “Django Unchained though.

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 19: Galaxy Quest

Director: Dean Parisot

Genre: Adventure/ Science Fiction/ Comedy

Runtime: 102 minutes

Year: 1999

Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Missi Pyle, Justin Long, Rainn Wilson

Description: The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help.

Review: Sigourney Weaver is no stranger to the science fiction genre. In “Galaxy Quest” this genre is mocked. Together with Tim Allen and Alan Rickman, they play actors from an old science fiction TV show called “Galaxy Quest”.

The movie starts with a segment from that show, that stopped running after 1982. Eighteen years later the actors are still going to conventions in the costumes of their characters. The relationship between all the actors isn’t as good as it used to be. Jason Nesmith, who played Commander Taggert on the show, is the only one who’s still happy with his fame. The others are annoyed by his arrogance.

The next day, Jason wakes up with a hangover and a group of strange people is waiting for him at the door. They ask Jason to join them on their spaceship, not knowing that they are actual aliens, to fight the evil General Sarris. Jason manages to get the rest of the cast to go with him. The aliens think that the TV show is a documentary and see the actors as their role models. Their spaceship is an exact copy of the one in the TV show.

If you know “Star Trek”, you can see many resemblances. This is what the creators wanted, because the film mocks the genre. “Galaxy Quest” is really funny, both when it comes to the characters and the situations they get themselves into. Tim Allen is perfect for a movie like this and Sigourney Weaver fits in as well. Alan Rickman not so much, so you would think, but this is one of his best roles. He is surprisingly hilarious and steals every scene he is in. I also loved Sam Rockwell, who plays a character who had a guest role on the show once and his character died. Now he is afraid he will die in real life.

“Galaxy Quest” is a movie that many people probably won’t like, because it’s sometimes a bit ridiculous. But I loved this movie!

Rating: 4,5/ 5

Top 5 Thursday: Movies I Watched for My Challenge (January 2016)

The start of a new year, the start of a new challenge. To kick it off I did see some good movies, but also some real stinkers. What about “Neighbors”, the Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi movie, “The Lone Ranger”, and the terrible “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer”. But we are not here to talk about shitty movies, I’m going to show you my five favorites for my movie challenge for the month of January.

5. The Informant!

The movie was better than I expected it to be and Matt Damon was hilarious. His character was so full of shit, the lies started to pile up and he stuck to his story anyway. Underrated and overlooked Matt Damon film.

 

 

4. The Hateful Eight

It’s not one of my favorite Quentin Tarantino movies, but I knew it was going to be good. It was “Reservoir Dogs” meets “Clue”, set in the wild west. Great performances and off course sharp dialogues.

 

 

3. Wreck-It-Ralph

Can Disney ever do something completely terrible? I don’t think so. “Wreck-It-Ralph” was such a heart-warming story, great animation, loved it. I just want to hug Ralph.

 

 

2. Sideways

I happen to love Alexander Payne movies. I liked “About Schmidt”, “Nebraska” and “The Descendants” and now I can add “Sideways” to that list. Who thought a film about wine tasting could be so interesting, funny and overwhelming?

 

 

1. Gravity

I never like it when people overhype films. That makes me NOT want to see a film. Like I did with “Avatar”, which is now one of my favorites and I still regret not seeing it in theaters. “Gravity” is also one of those film. People were raving about it and I didn’t see it in the cinema. Now I regret that, because this film was amazing. And it would be a ten times better on the big screen and with the full experience.

 

 

They almost made the top 5: The Croods, Princess Mononoke

Best & Worst: Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy keeps making great movies and has only a very few big misses. Here are my picks for Tom Hardy’s best and worst movies.

 

 

You would think it’s just another fighting movie, but it’s not. A has deeper layers, fantastic performances and great music. I love “Warrior”, it breaks my heart every time.

Honorable Mentions: “Mad Max Fury Road”, “The Drop”, “Locke”, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, “Bronson”, “Inception”, “The Dark Knight Rises”, “Layer Cake”

 

 

I still don’t know what Tom Hardy is doing in this film. First off all, I’m not a Reese Whiterspoon fan and why does she get to date both Tom Hardy and Chris Pine? And this film is super cheesy and unfunny. I would like to forget about this movie, I saw it on an airplane once.

Dishonorable Mentions: -

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 18: Interstellar

Director: Christopher Nolan

Genre: Adventure/ Science Fiction/ Drama

Runtime: 169 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon

Description: A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.

Review: Christopher Nolan’s movies can be called cold, but certainly have emotion. The (anti) heroes in movies like “Memento”, “The Prestige” and “Inception” are all driven by human emotion like heart ache or jealousy. In “Interstellar” we also meet those characters. That’s not a bad thing though, when they are portrayed by great actors like Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine.

McConaughey plays the disillusioned widow Cooper, former test pilot for NASA and now a farmer. The film is set in the near future, where the earth is exhausted and producing food is the main priority instead of science. What people don’t know is that secretly NASA is planning a mission to save mankind and move them to another planet, that can be reached through a wormhole. Cooper is asked to investigate the planet, together with a group of fellow astronauts. This means Cooper has to leave his two children and he can’t tell them when or if he will return.

The emotional scenes between Cooper and his daughter Murph are a highlight for me. They are so sincere and you feel it yourself. And although the drama is the heart of the film, Nolan focusses more on the scientific aspect of the story. Nolan likes old school effects, doesn’t use CGI if not necessary. The spaceship décor was build, very detailed and the robots CASE and TARS were all controlled manually.

The first half of the film is much better than the second and after two hours, you start to feel the length of the film. The happenings are randomly piling up and the characters can’t carry the drama anymore. And that ending, I don’t know.

Many say it’s Christopher Nolan’s best, I do not agree. Not even remotely. I think “Interstellar” is slightly overrated, although I can see and understand what Nolan wanted with this film.

Rating: 3/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 17: Robin Hood

Director: Wolfang Reitherman

Genre: Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy/ Musical

Runtime: 83 minutes

Year: 1973

Starring: Brian Bedford, Peter Ustinov, Phil Harris, Terry-Thomas, Monica Evans, Carole Shelley, Andy Devine, Roger Miller, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Ken Curtis, Billy Whitaker, Dana Laurita, Dora Whitaker, Richie Sanders

Description: The story of the legendary outlaw is portrayed with the characters as humanoid animals.

Review: The legend of Robin Hood has been turned into movie many times, it’s a very popular story. And off course there is also a Disney version, but it’s very different and original then all the others. This time all the characters are animals. Robin Hood and Maid Marian are foxes, King Richard is a lion and little John is a bear.

This is one of those Disney classics that will still be enjoyable for kids today. The boys will love the heroic Robin Hood and the girls will adore the sweet little rabbits Skippy and Toby, who are big fans of Robin. There is adventure, romance, humor, music.

The animations may look a bit dated, but I still love the look of it. I prefer it over computer animation. But the story itself is timeless.

“Robin Hood” is a classic Disney animation.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 16: Dumb and Dumber To

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 105 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle, Laurie Holden, Kathleen Turner, Bill Murray, Rachel Melvin

Description: Twenty years since their first adventure, Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) go on a road trip to find Harry's newly discovered daughter, who was given up for adoption.

Review: Comedy sequels happen seldom and there is a reason for that. They hardly ever work and are rarely funnier or as funny as the first film. The same goes for “Dumb and Dumber To”. It’s fun to see Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels team up again as the stupid Lloyd and Harry, but it’s much of the same and not as funny as “Dumb and Dumber” was.

“Dumb and Dumber” came out in 1994, which was a very good year for Jim Carrey. He also gave us “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Mask” that year. It was also the movie that put directing brothers Bobby and Peter Farrelly on the map. Both the Farrelly brothers and Jim Carrey haven’t made any successful movies recently, so it’s not that odd that they join forces again. Luckily for them Jeff Daniels wanted to join in too.

In “Dumb and Dumber To”, Lloyd and Harry go on another trip, this time to find Harry’s daughter. He just found out about her and she was given up for adoption. They also have to deliver an important package. Sound familiar? Well, in “Dumb and Dumber” they traveled miles for a woman Lloyd was in love with and they were carrying an important briefcase.

And that’s not the only repetition we get. Off course they did this to make it fun for the fans of “Dumb and Dumber”, but this way it’s not as interesting or surprising. Or as funny, because a lot of the jokes aren’t as funny.

This all doesn’t mean this is a total failure. There are many jokes that are enjoyable, although they are very juvenile, but come on, it’s Jim Carrey.

Overall “Dumb and Dumber To” didn’t break the curse, it’s not a very good comedy sequel. Fun for one time, when you’re in a silly mood.

Rating: 2/ 5