I hope I can watch this again someday, and enjoy it in a different way. But as far as seeing it in the theater goes, it was a mildly enjoyable journey that turned in to an annoying slog, which ultimately culminated in disappointment.
What the fuck Tarantino? No mystery, no comedy, no trademark dialogue, NO STORY! This movie relies on presupposed knowledge too much. I go into movies that I want to see without reading anything about them or watching any trailers. So if the movie takes until the final act to reveal what the mystery even is, and then subverts it within 10 minutes in a ridiculously, unnecessarily violent way, it doesn't make for an enjoyable movie. It was two hours of a red herring (if you know what it's about already), and then a half hour of "Is this movie seriously going to end without tying together any of these useless, boring storylines?"
First act: Tarantino's use of different film stocks, and his decision to start the movie by showing his version of a corny Oldwest show got me very excited for what was to come. During the first act however, he went back to this a bunch of times, and each time it was a little less enjoyable when it only started out as mildly humorous in the first place. the character development, and relationship between Pitt and DiCaprio was fun to watch. Other character development was pretty flat, and the Bruce Lee scene was just dumb. Pretty early in the movie I started to dislike Pitt's character. this obviously would detract me from enjoying him as the pseudo-hero later.
Second act: The Sharon Tate storyline was really starting to get to me. It's been years since I read about the Manson murders, so when I heard her name, I was thinking "that sounds familiar, I think there was something called the Sharon Tate murders. Maybe Brad Pitt is supposed to end up killing her or something." The more they were following Sharon Tate in her daily activities, the more I was thinking that she better be an important part of this movie or else I wasted about 45 minutes watching something that doesn't even matter.
The scene where Brad Pitt goes to the hippie hideout is easily the best in the movie. Even though at that point I didn't realize this was supposed to be a Manson thing, it was still a very intense scene. Had I known that this was a twist on the Manson family, it would have been a little more entertaining. So maybe Tarantino could have done SOMETHING to tell us this instead of just assuming that everyone is gonna watch every trailer and think that every hippie congregation is supposed to be the Manson family. This was the first time I was taken out the movie by the over-the-top violence inflicted on a character while everyone around me was laughing at it. And if you're supposed to think it's funny even if you don't know that they're supposed to be a murderous cult, then I don't know what the fuck is wrong with people.
Final act: I'm sitting in my seat, and all I can think is "this better be one hell of a third act to bring all these boring, useless storylines together." DiCaprio gets drunk and yells at some hippies. Pretty funny. Pitt takes his dog for a walk, and starts tripping on acid. Kinda funny. then for the first time in two hours, these hippie characters (that you're wondering why are even in the movie to begin with) FINALLY say something that shows they have a murderous leader. Then I start getting excited, finally connecting the dots, and thinking oh man this is gonna be a cool take on the Manson murders. And within five minutes I am not only disappointed by the climax, I am incredibly disappointed in my overall experience with the movie.
The hippie characters only deserved what they got in our real universe where they did the actions that they're know for. But in the movie universe, they were not responsible for these actions, and so their punishment was out of the blue and unwarranted. And if you don't know the real life story of these characters, I would expect that you would be disgusted by what happens, and how everybody is laughing around you in the theater. it was jarring in a way that other Tarantino violent scenes are not. he has made some of the most intensely violent scenes, but they are done for drama, for realism, or to get you disgusted with a character. This violence was done for humor, and I felt very out of place in the theater being the only one who was questioning why people are laughing at a dog ripping a guys genitals off, and then a girls face off while they're both screaming in horror. or apparently everybody's favorite was when the girl's face got smashed over and over into a coffee table until there was nothing left of it. everyone laughed the hardest at that part.
Either I missed something absolutely huge that changed my perception of this movie, or Tarantino has made a huge shift in his writing style, and the audience has made a huge shift in what is funny. Two movies ago Tarantino had a guy getting ripped apart by dogs, and it is one of the hardest scenes for anyone I know to get through, now it's funny because they committed murder in a different reality? I don't get it, I don't get the movie, and fuck you Tarantino for giving us two hours of nothing so you can give us 5 minutes of violence. I enjoyed the first time you did that in Death Proof, when it was actually entertaining. It's a real shame to add this movie to his near flawless career.
2 / 2 directing & technical aspect
0 / 1 story
.5 / 1 act I
1 / 1 act II
.5 / 1 act III
1 / 1 acting
1 / 1 writing
1 / 1 originality
0 / 1 lasting ability to make you think
-.5 / 1 misc (wtf?)
6.5 / 10
MY THOUGHTS ON SEASON 2:
-WARNING: Spoilers Below-
Another brilliant season for Line of Duty. This show is an absolute masterpiece and so far they have yet to fail. Keeley Hawkes performed incredibly as D.I. Lindsey Denton alongside an already stellar cast.
Season 2 follows an escort gone wrong, leaving the entire convoy dead besides D.I. Lindsey Denton & a severely burned witness. As the season goes on cracks in Lindsey Denton's story about what happened slowly begin to appear. Leaving AC-12 suspicious of her. Slowly we start to see small truths in her stories, showing us that there's more to what happened than what we believe.
The two main points in this season was escorting the witness & the child exploitation. I'll write my opinion on both below.
Firstly, the witness escort. This plot line was absolute class. Slowly seeing how Lindsey Denton lied and seeing the pieces put together at the end was brilliant. I had so many ideas of what was happening but each of them was wrong. Knowing that the witness was actually Tommy was an absolute mind baffling moment. I almost screamed at the screen when I saw his horrible face again.
Some other big points during this plot line was the death of Georgia & the involvement of Dot. I'll do a quick write about them. Seeing Georgia die like that was possibly one of the worst scenes I've seen. I really liked her & seeing the fear in her eyes as she was thrown out of the window was devastating. She was such a good addition to the show and unfortunately she was short lived.
Knowing Dot was the mastermind behind it all was an incredible twist! I hated him in season one but wow, I hate that I love him now! I can't wait to see what they do in season 3 with him, I have a feeling it'll be his last season though & they'll make him the main target, I'm not too sure though.
Finally there was the child exploitation plotline. This made me sick to the stomach. Having the police & higher up members of the police force having relations with underage people disgusted me. One scene that got to me was when Tommy attacked Carly Kirk after Mike Dryden drove away. A lot of the child related scenes made me feel awful. Knowing that members of the police force (people who swore to protect us) were taking advantage of a young girl was disgusting.
Overall this was a phenomenal season and I loved every episode and every moment of it. I can not wait to watch season 3. Jed Mercurio has an absolutely incredible mind. Can't wait to see what else he writes up.
MY THOUGHTS ON SEASON 3:
-WARNING: Spoilers Below-
NOW THIS IS HOW YOU DO A SEASON! OH MY GOD! This is possibly the best Season I have EVER watched out of ANY TV Show. I am beyond impressed, I'm almost speechless with how impressive this was. Yet again a stellar performance from the entire cast. Lets go into detail about why I loved it so much.
The Cast: Every member of the cast gave an absolute perfect performance this season. I cant fault anyone. I was extremely impressed by Martin Compston as D.S. Steve Arnott, Vicky McClure as D.C. Kate Fleming and Craig Parkinson as Matthew Cotton. Also, having one of my favourite actors (Will Mellor) join the cast was a great treat for me!
The Plot: This season had one of the best plot lines the show has offered yet. Bringing elements from the previous season and adding new stories to them was a great shout. Giving us a returning face with Lindsey Denton was also a good surprise.
The main points in the season that stood out to me was the murder of Rod Kennedy, the murder of Lindsey Denton & finally the murder of Matthew Cotton.
Starting the season off I really liked Rod Kennedy as a character especially with one of my favourite actors playing him (Will Mellor) but with Line of Duty, all good things come to an end! I had a feeling Hari Banes was being framed for the murder but I had literally zero idea it was Cotton. I remember being disgusted with how he was murdered and how his previous team was happily throwing him under the bus and blaming the murders on him. I'm so, so glad that Jackie finally decided to tell the truth.
The murder of Lindsey Denton hit much harder than I expected as well. She became a character that I actually started to care for and I wanted a somewhat happy ending for her. Cotton seriously messed up with murdering her though and that was thankfully the beginning of his downfall. Having him try his hardest to pin everything onto Arnott for the entire season was irritating but even though it took the murder of a character I actually liked I'm glad it was what ruined him.
Finally there was the finale and the murder of Cotton. Firstly, this finale was BIG, it was the best finale I have ever watched. The entire finale I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for the next big thing. I'm still getting over what I watched and how intense it was. I said in my season 2 review that I had a feeling this would be Cottons final season and unfortunately I was right. I've gone from hating him to hating that I love him. He'll genuinely be missed but my god what a brilliantly vile character.
This season was the best season I have ever watched. I don't think any show will be able to compare with the masterpiece Line of Duty is. Wow.
