[WGH]

Quentin Tarantino's new film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" has just started production and just from the cast he has assembled it looks to be a good one to keep an eye out for.
The cast will include Timothy Olyphant, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Burt Reynolds, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell and Michael Madsen in a Pulp Fiction style film that follows a group of characters in LA during the summer of 1969 leading up to the moment when Charles Manson's followers murdered Sharon Tate.

[Mike B.]

Sounds interesting. I hope Burt hangs around long enough to do the part. I saw him recently and he is quite frail.

[wushuliu]

I consider QT an over-hyped hack but this sounds like it's in his wheelhouse/Pulp fiction roots. I'll go see it for Timothy Olyphant.

[Nordkapp]

Tarantino is a genius. Thanks for the heads up. The cast is once again outstanding. 

[wushuliu]

Tarantino is a genius. Thanks for the heads up. The cast is once again outstanding. 

You mean the filmmakers he copies are geniuses.

[S Clark]

One trick pony is more what I think than genius.  I'm a big fan of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but that's about it.  Some of the rest were ok, some not even good.  Inglorious was  decent, Django simply dumb.  A gillion years ago in Terrell, Tx. I had a very poor chemistry student with a bad attitude named Eric Bishop.  He portrays much the same angry young man now that the name is Jamie Foxx- just a lot richer. 

[WGH]

You mean the filmmakers he copies are geniuses.

Don't fool yourself, everybody copies. It's how well you do it and Tarantino does it very well.

I just spent half a day researching church door ideas for St. John's Methodist Church's new entry doors. Am I copying or using the designs I found for inspiration? It really doesn't matter as long as the finished product turns out well, which they always do.

[rpf]

I consider QT an over-hyped hack...

Yes.  Or as Mr. Clark put it "a one trick pony".

He makes the same film over and over: a minimally plotted blood and violence soaked revenge fantasy. He doesn't even need to change the dialogue much as half of it consists of the same three or four bits of profanity repeated ad nauseam.

I couldn't get through "Reservoir Dogs". I thought "Pulp Fiction was a flashy piece of jejune crap (though a second viewing after all of it's acclaim garnered a bit more appreciation for some of it's stylistic elements and plot construction). I saw most of one of the "Kill Bill" movies years later thinking he must have grown given the continued praise. Nope. Worse in fact.
 
Years after that I saw "Django" not knowing it was his film and thinking a fair review blurb or two and such a good cast must be somewhat entertaining. I kept futilely hoping that until the end (slow night). The worst one of all.

His films are totally pointless dreck with cheap stereotypes galore. Masturbatory material for budding sadists. I will never voluntarily view one of his films again.

Rant over (it's one that's been percolating for a good while).      

[Tyson]

Yes.  Or as Mr. Clark put it "a one trick pony".

He makes the same film over and over: a minimally plotted blood and violence soaked revenge fantasy. He doesn't even need to change the dialogue much as half of it consists of the same three or four bits of profanity repeated ad nauseam.

I couldn't get through "Reservoir Dogs". I thought "Pulp Fiction was a flashy piece of jejune crap (though a second viewing after all of it's acclaim garnered a bit more appreciation for some of it's stylistic elements and plot construction). I saw most of one of the "Kill Bill" movies years later thinking he must have grown given the continued praise. Nope. Worse in fact.
 
Years after that I saw "Django" not knowing it was his film and thinking a fair review blurb or two and such a good cast must be somewhat entertaining. I kept futilely hoping that until the end (slow night). The worst one of all.

His films are totally pointless dreck with cheap stereotypes galore. Masturbatory material for budding sadists. I will never voluntarily view one of his films again.

Rant over (it's one that's been percolating for a good while).      

Kill Bill is one of my favorite films.  Of course I appreciate it a lot more after watching the Lone Wolf and Cub movies and Lady Snowblood movies.  I love that Tarantino has huge amount of homage in his films, but not homages to the french new wave or anything like that, but rather to 70's Japanese exploitation films. 

[wushuliu]

Don't fool yourself, everybody copies.

How can I fool myself if I know the work he copies? I get it. A lot of people think he's awesome. And I'd be the first to credit him for introducing some of his influences to the mainstream. Hong Kong cinema in particular. Maybe it's because he's also from Jersey around the same time period. I grew up watching a lot of the same movies. So when I watch his stuff I just want to pop in those other movies instead.

I do think Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are great, especially Pulp Fiction. Maybe having Roger Avary for those two helped him focus. I just see indulgences and misfires after that.

[Rob Babcock]

I thought Reservoir Dogs was genius and Hateful 8 was masterful as well.  I'm neither a big fan nor a hater, but I do think he's an immensely brilliant technician and an incredibly knowledgeable film historian.  I never saw Pulp Fiction but I thought Kill Bill was largely excellent. If the reviews are decent I'll likely catch his new one.

[dynaflo]

True Romance is a film favorite of mine.

[jriggy]

Interesting how deviceive Tarantino is.

He is a scene maker to me—some very very good, some not so much. His dialogue-ego gets in the way and losses film direction but then again that is what is very good in some cases. His period films feel like skits sometimes or parodies. The one that is fully emersive in that aspect is Jackie Brown.
It’s od to me how he manages to make films with seaminly complex story lines and emotionally complex characters, yet leaves nothing to be discussed after. It’s all so blatant and on-the-table, lacking in nuance somehow... I do enjoy the watching experience but am left cold often.

I like (as far as what I’d tune into again):
Reservoir Dogs, Pulp fiction, Jackie Brown, some scenes in Inglorious Bastards (which was my fave of his for a while. The best scene tension he ever made), and I had enough fun with Django to put it here (good thing he stretched out the comedy aspect there). But I’m wrestling to put Death Proof up here for a few reasons.

[jriggy]

Anyone see Inherent Vice? Scene moods are like a cross between David Lynch and Tarantino. I bet QT is jealous of this one. I loved it.

[Bendingwave]

Some of his movies are good some not so good but to call him a genius is reaching a bit.

Call me by my proper pro noun which is BAD ASS MUTHA FUCKA. 

[mcgsxr]

I have seen most of his movies, and some of the sources of his "inspiration" too.

I really enjoyed R Dogs and Pulp Fiction.  I also liked Four Rooms and Natural Born Killers.

True Romance is the high water mark for me.  Hopper, Walken, Slater, Gandolfini, Pitt, Kilmer, Jackson, Oldman.

The scene in the trailer with Walken and Hopper might be my favourite movie scene ever.  Walken and Hopper in amazing form.

Kill Bill, Django, Hateful 8, Inglorious, and others did not do that much for me but were successes in their own right.

[wushuliu]

Anyone see Inherent Vice? Scene moods are like a cross between David Lynch and Tarantino. I bet QT is jealous of this one. I loved it.

Not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson either. He and QT occupy similar spaces for me.

But I do think he may be a genius - maybe more of a savant. And unlike QT, he is getting better and better with every movie. Inherent Vice was interesting. I'll have to read the book and re-watch it. QT will never make anything like The Master, though. That is a masterpiece for the ages.

Anyhoos, I think QT is a good, sometimes great filmmaker. He just never matured (IMO of course).

[Tyson]

I think every great film maker has a certain style that's instantly recognizable - you'd never mistake a PTA movie for a Tarantino movie or a Wes Anderson movie for anyone else, or Hitchcock or Kurosawa or fill in the blank.

The divide re: Tarantino is not around his mastery of the form, but rather his sensibilities.  He's direct, he's unsubtle, a bit crass.  He's got a hint of poor white trash about his work.  For 'normal' people he's too fantastical and over the top.  For lovers of 'serious' cinema, he can be a bit of an embarrassment.  I mean, who really wants to admit that they loved, what is essentially a trashy movie executed at the level of high art. 

That's why I think he's such a divisive director. 

[wushuliu]

I think every great film maker has a certain style that's instantly recognizable - you'd never mistake a PTA movie for a Tarantino movie or a Wes Anderson movie for anyone else, or Hitchcock or Kurosawa or fill in the blank.

The divide re: Tarantino is not around his mastery of the form, but rather his sensibilities.  He's direct, he's unsubtle, a bit crass.  He's got a hint of poor white trash about his work.  For 'normal' people he's too fantastical and over the top.  For lovers of 'serious' cinema, he can be a bit of an embarrassment.  I mean, who really wants to admit that they loved, what is essentially a trashy movie executed at the level of high art. 

That's why I think he's such a divisive director.

? 'Serious' cinema lovers are his biggest fans. He's considered a genius in France, a darling of Cannes.

Maybe you're talking about Kevin Smith?

[brother love]

QT will never make anything like The Master, though. That is a masterpiece for the ages.

Anyhoos, I think QT is a good, sometimes great filmmaker. He just never matured (IMO of course).

Interesting. I hated The Master but loved There Will be Blood. Both Boogie Nights & Magnolia were over-rated IMO. But Anderson's movies are thought-provoking for sure.

Tarantino's best is & always will be Pulp Fiction IMO. Kill Bill & Reservoir Dogs follow. He was born in my hometown Knoxville, TN, so I have to give him love for that alone.