Once Upon A Time. . . In Hollywood (2019) -

If you turn up to this film not knowing about the factual storyline that runs alongside Leo and Brad's, then you lose the poignancy of it's ending, BUT if you turn up with a knowledge of the events of the 9th of August 1969, then you'd probably feel a bit put out by the ending, that isn't based in fact at all.

I read about the events as I watched the film unfold, so I don't know what to think? I certainly don't believe that the final act was worth the trawl that went before it, especially because of the changes that were made.

I don't know if Mr Tarantino was trying to pay homage to the 9th August event in his own way, but it didn't feel appropriate when I found out what really went down.

It's also hard to know who some of the characters were, especially all the way over here on the other side of the pond, as nobody is clearly named throughout and once again, you'd have to read up on things to know that those famous people were even featured.

It was almost as if he was putting two fingers up to the industry that I thought he loved by disrespecting Hollywood history. And there's a scene with Jackie Chan that shows the actor up, but I thought that Quentin loved his films? And as I've said, the ending doesn't seem to be what Hollywood and the characters/real people deserve, which is obviously my biggest issue with the film.

After seeing 'Django Unchained' (2012) for the first time recently, I was quite excited to see something else from Quentin. I tend to find his work a bit hit and miss. I love 'From Dusk Til Dawn' (1996) and 'Kill Bill' (2003) and I can at least see the strength and purpose of 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) and 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992), although they're not really my thing, but I turned 'True Romance' (1993) off after 20 minutes. Also, skimming over the reviews before I even started this one did not bode well, none of them seemed to be praising the film at all.

Although I went in to it with an open mind, I soon realised that it was not going to be anywhere near as good as 'Django' or 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009) and the film seemed to transpire exactly as the reviews had all said.

It's a bit like a B movie about B movies, but with more modern values. Values like violence and bad language that you couldn't get away with when the film was set.

Although I had to wait a long time for the violence to happen and maybe that's what Mr T was trying to achieve? He knew that it's what the audience expects from him and decided to put in lots of opportunities, moments that were ripe for a fight to really start or for something gory to go down, to keep you expectant, or maybe he just didn't think at all, because I was waiting for something to happen and it never really did until about 20 minutes from the end. I actually don't like violence as such, but it's a Tarantino, so surely it's implied? And generally it's what keeps his films moving, so I was bored by the waiting.

The way it's filmed was very similar to 'Django', with a treatment that was more traditional and less CGI and Digital, but it really didn't have the story to back it up. It's slow and dull and didn't provide any of the excitement that being on a film set brings, but focused instead on some rather boring antenna fixing and aimless driving around. It also contains some of the campest cowboys I've ever seen.

The change with the narration towards the end was also odd because it was inconsistent with the rest of the film and felt as if it was a montage to wrap things up so that the film could be under 3 hours, but he wanted to keep in the long drawn out dramatic shots of the view and so on. It just didn't feel like the rest of the film.

I didn't see the point of this one except perhaps what's brought together in the very final moments, by which time my confusion as to the directional choices and adapted story was fully realised.

It became more Coen brothers than Tarantino in a lot of ways. I felt like it was more 'Hail Caesar' (2016) or 'Burn After Reading' (2008) in its style than what we have come to expect from Tarantino.

I would like to see a film that shows a true representation of what happened, but even that isn't a story that I'm in a rush to see. I probably won't watch this film again though.

409.88/1000.