Django Unchained

As we know Quentin Tarantino is a fan of Blaxploitation films. He also likes to take things to the extreme and does that with his new film.
I am a big fan of Quentin Tarantino. I am a fan of writers who can write such brilliant dialogue. Most of his films are dialogue driven and that is his strength, so that's why I love his films so much. I could sit and watch an entire movie that is only dialogue written by Quentin. Part of his skill is creating interesting characters. All good dialogue comes from great characters and Quentin knows how to write great characters. Django is certainly an interesting character. He looks to be modeled off the 'Man With No Name' character that Clint Eastwood made famous. Quentin knows how to make his leading characters cool and that is one way to describe Django. On the other end of the psectrum you have his partner Dr. Schultz. He is a lot more forthright than Django but has a very kind side that is refreshing in a film like this. My only problem with the film is that it is too long. While I enjoy the way he crafts a story but sometimes he takes too long to tell it. Some scenes and situations stretch out longer than they need be and there were a few moments where I became bored.
One of Quentin Tarantino's greatest strengths is his ability to cast his films so well and get amazing performances out of them. I got really excited when I heard that Will Smith as cast in this film. Then I got disappointed when he had to drop out. But Jamie Foxx is brilliant in this role. Jamie plays him like a very tightly wound spring that is ready to explode. Jamie manages to keep this tension nicely simmering away throughout the film and makes Django the cool man he should be. After playing a villain in 'Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz only seemed to play bad guys. So it was nice of his mate Quentin to write him a good buy role. Christoph is brilliant as always. He has the nice suave, sophisticated manner that suits his character and the language he uses. Despite being a killer he has a softer side. Another disappointment I had with the film was Kerry Washington. Not with Kerry and her performance but with the fact that I thought she should have been used more in the film. In the small role she has Kerry is excellent. Also excellent is frequent Quentin friend: Samuel L. Jackson. Many may not recognize him under the make-up but he is brilliant as the cantankerous house servant. The best thing about this film for me though is, Leonardo DiCaprio. Everyone compliments him on playing such an evil character but for me the best thing is that he is finally playing a character that has a more humorous side. I think Leo is an excellent actor but for a while now I have hoped that he would do a comedy. Calvin Candie is not an outright funny character but he has a more outrageous side. Leo plays him in a flamboyant way which I thought was brilliant. 
There needs to be a bit of tightening of the story but this is still an excellent film from one of the best writer/directors working today.