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Mike Honcho

Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood - Discuss(spoilers ahead)

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And by all means, please tell us if haven't seen it, never intend to see it, or any Tarantino movies.  

Wondering what/if you took any meaning from the story?   Is it a metaphor and if so for what?

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Haven't seen it. Heard it was good so I prolly will. 

Leo's character is a combo of old school actors. Supposedly, it's a kind of 🖕from QT to present day Hollywood. 

 

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On 7/29/2019 at 7:47 PM, Filthy Fernadez said:

Not sure it's worthy of a theater visit but sure, I plan on watching it.

I've mentioned before, I'm a huge cinephile.  Most of the time, I would probably say, yeah this movie doesn't have a lot of action, doesn't have this massive the 'you need to hear it full theater sound' or you are missing out---so just catch it when it comes to Netflix....but in this case I would tell you to reconsider, because the world building Tarantino did to recreate 1969 Hollywood is just stunning.   That alone was worth the price of admission---the set designer should be clearing a space on his mantel right now---cause it's going to get a lot of awards just for that. 

Story is basically QTs love letter to the era and his early memories of LA, real different feel than anything hes done before.   Also feel like Leo's character is a metaphor for QT, once the brash hot new thing, he's aging, getting old in the tooth while the industry is changing around him(CGI, shared universe movies, streaming, shooting HD instead of film.....)   

As far as the story, well its pretty threadbare.   Very, very episodic like movie, this event starts, it happens, it ends...move to next thing that may or may not be really related.   Cut to other person and what they are doing.   And it's long at 2:45.   Leo and  Brad give great performances though, Leo might get some love come award season too, I'm thinking.  He really delivers on the aging star role.    So if you can be sold on the visuals and the acting, see it in a theater, if that's not enough, it's definitely worth a view at home.   

My first .02 cents on the picture.

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On 7/30/2019 at 1:41 PM, Mike Honcho said:

I've mentioned before, I'm a huge cinephile.  Most of the time, I would probably say, yeah this movie doesn't have a lot of action, doesn't have this massive the 'you need to hear it full theater sound' or you are missing out---so just catch it when it comes to Netflix....but in this case I would tell you to reconsider, because the world building Tarantino did to recreate 1969 Hollywood is just stunning.   That alone was worth the price of admission---the set designer should be clearing a space on his mantel right now---cause it's going to get a lot of awards just for that. 

Story is basically QTs love letter to the era and his early memories of LA, real different feel than anything hes done before.   Also feel like Leo's character is a metaphor for QT, once the brash hot new thing, he's aging, getting old in the tooth while the industry is changing around him(CGI, shared universe movies, streaming, shooting HD instead of film.....)   

As far as the story, well its pretty threadbare.   Very, very episodic like movie, this event starts, it happens, it ends...move to next thing that may or may not be really related.   Cut to other person and what they are doing.   And it's long at 2:45.   Leo and  Brad give great performances though, Leo might get some love come award season too, I'm thinking.  He really delivers on the aging star role.    So if you can be sold on the visuals and the acting, see it in a theater, if that's not enough, it's definitely worth a view at home.   

My first .02 cents on the picture.

Sounds like Filthy is going to the movies. Thanks for the info.

:cheers:

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Good job Honcho. Sold! Now I have to find time and a babysitter. 

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My daughter didn't like it. She said it was boring. Of course, she's not from the West coast and is a millennial. She may not get the fact that he was trying to recreate an era. She says she loves his other works but not this film. 

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Wouldn't open this thread until I saw it.   Honchos review is pretty spot on.  I am a sucker for Tarantino, and I think I need to see it again before coming to final judgement, but I wasn't blown away.  The Hateful 8 and Django really elevated what I expect from the guy, and this one was more in the Pulp Fiction vein.  All the attention was to period and to nailing Hollywood.  It was certainly a film for Holly fans and insiders.

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I think the Tarantino related expectations I had kind of threw me off. Besides the scene at Spahn Ranch, there weren’t any of those super tense edge of your seat scenes, and even that one felt tame compared to 10 other scenes he has put in his films. Pace felt a bit slow overall, but again that was expectations based. 

I saw some Lib Media criticism of the Sharon Tate portrayal as being a bit regressive or ditzy, but I disagreed strongly. I felt QT made her thoughtful and caring, moreso than sexualizing her. 

I felt a version of the ending coming, but he made it more fun and cooler than whatever I was visualizing. 

All in all, it’s better to me 2 days later than it was when I was seeing it the first time. But again I think that’s because I expected more plot and was waiting for it to kick in. Now that I know otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns into the QT film I enjoy watching most when I see it on tv. 

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He really stayed away from the Manson angle.  Only showed the guy once (we assume).  Tension could have come there but even the limited times they were shown, they were more comedic than anything else.  

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Spoilers below:

My wife and I were both disappointed.  

The set design and cinematography were great but the story dragged and we didn’t like the ending   

While I understand the artistic liberties involved in presenting an alternate ending to a real life event, it left me feeling pissed off because that’s not what really happened.  

They go to great lengths to set up the story of the Manson family and evenly accurately spell out the place where Tate and friends had dinner the night they were killed.  They veer way off course from there.  

For example, Squeaky Fromme was part of the Manson family, but was not involved in the Tate murder.  

Anyway , the pit bull attack was a funny and action packed sequence but the slamming of Squeaky’s skull and the torching of the other chick was way over the top, even by Tarantino standards.   

Pitt and Pacino were pretty good in their roles  but the best part of this movie is being able to look at Margot Robbie.  She’s focking stunning   

This is a PPV rental folks.  Don’t waste your time and money for the big screen.  

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Unpopular opinion here but I am really not a fan of QT’s work. I think he peaked with Reservoir Dogs and everything since has been meh. He also makes movies that are all 10 years long for no good reason. 

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8 minutes ago, MDC said:

Unpopular opinion here but I am really not a fan of QT’s work. I think he peaked with Reservoir Dogs and everything since has been meh. He also makes movies that are all 10 years long for no good reason. 

I’ve given most of his movies a shot since I really liked his earlier stuff, but on the whole, I really only like Dogs, Pulp, True Romance and parts of Dusk til Dawn   

 

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It's possible that non QT fans will like this more than fans. 

Also every review in this thread is accurate including peenie's daughter.

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My review

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Now that this is established.  the setups really were great.  It was the 70's all over again...and if you dig thata(which I do) then yeah it's decent.

DiCaprio is a great actor.  I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't get nominated for this one....

Cameos were fine but the story in itself dragged on WAY WAY too long.  2 hours 40 minutes could have been cut to 1:45 with no impact to the story

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I live in Los Angeles.  I drive by some of the places in the film every week like El Coyote or the Bruin Theatre.  It always felt like a patchwork cluster of cultures slammed together.  And it felt that way in the film.  I don't think he "recaptures" anything.  It still feels the same as always. But for those who LIVE the area every day, maybe they have some romanticized idea of the place.

I laughed when I drove by the El Coyote 3 days ago because right next to it was a huge billboard for the film.  Nice.

One thing I got out of it as a local was the cars zooming down the Hollywood Hills.  Brad Pitt's beater swung around those curves like a maniac and had to take a wide turn at the end into potentially oncoming traffic.  That scared me because I always take it slow around that.  (Almost got hit by a maniac 2 weeks ago up there.) Then later in the film, the other guy took the same route later in a fancy car and sped thru there but his car handled that turn so well he stayed in the correct lane.  I was like damn.

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Saw it today with the boy...I'm a fan of most of QTs stuff favorites probably being pulp , dogs, and brown. agree with others Leo was great in this, to me much better than DU. Pitt was good liked the Bruce Lee scene. Margot Robbie was too and is a smoke show. The little girl was really good too I thought in the couple scenes she was in. I think I realized what I don't like though... Movies or shows like this where historical events are given alternate story lines. IB was like this too for me and shows like the man in the high Castle I think that's what it's called. Also didn't like the very end where that one chick that Leo ended up torching was yelling and freaking out and stuff that seemed stupid to me. Read Burt Reynolds was supposed to play the old man but he passed right before filming was to start woulda liked to have seen that.

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Very fun movie. Laughed a number of times and as has been stated, absolutely beautiful movie as expected.

 

Unlike a number of his other movies like bastards, Django, hateful 8 I don't think I need to see this more than once

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19 minutes ago, kutulu said:

Saw it today with the boy...I'm a fan of most of QTs stuff favorites probably being pulp , dogs, and brown. agree with others Leo was great in this, to me much better than DU. Pitt was good liked the Bruce Lee scene. Margot Robbie was too and is a smoke show. The little girl was really good too I thought in the couple scenes she was in. I think I realized what I don't like though... Movies or shows like this where historical events are given alternate story lines. IB was like this too for me and shows like the man in the high Castle I think that's what it's called. Also didn't like the very end where that one chick that Leo ended up torching was yelling and freaking out and stuff that seemed stupid to me. Read Burt Reynolds was supposed to play the old man but he passed right before filming was to start woulda liked to have seen that.

You took your 5 yr old son to this movie?  

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4 minutes ago, vuduchile said:

You took your 5 yr old son to this movie?  

You must be confusing me with someone else, my son is 22... He moved out a couple months ago but is still close by.

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On 8/4/2019 at 8:04 PM, vuduchile said:

Spoilers below:

My wife and I were both disappointed.  

The set design and cinematography were great but the story dragged and we didn’t like the ending   

While I understand the artistic liberties involved in presenting an alternate ending to a real life event, it left me feeling pissed off because that’s not what really happened.  

They go to great lengths to set up the story of the Manson family and evenly accurately spell out the place where Tate and friends had dinner the night they were killed.  They veer way off course from there.  

For example, Squeaky Fromme was part of the Manson family, but was not involved in the Tate murder.  

Anyway , the pit bull attack was a funny and action packed sequence but the slamming of Squeaky’s skull and the torching of the other chick was way over the top, even by Tarantino standards.   

Pitt and Pacino were pretty good in their roles  but the best part of this movie is being able to look at Margot Robbie.  She’s focking stunning   

This is a PPV rental folks.  Don’t waste your time and money for the big screen.  

That wasn't Squeaky at the end.  Squeaky was played by Dakota Fanning and had long straight red hair.  The chick at the end had red curly fritzy hair. 

I also haven't laughed that hard in a movie theater in a long time.  Once he hit the gal in the face with the can of dog food it was game on! 

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10 hours ago, kutulu said:

You must be confusing me with someone else, my son is 22... He moved out a couple months ago but is still close by.

You’re right.  It’s the other k dude that has the little guy.  

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