Django Unchained (2012)

When I checked this one out, the librarian said to me that with 100 gallons less blood this would have won the Oscar for best movie. I was skeptical to say the least as I normally find Tarantino's films entertaining but a bit heavy handed. I certainly did expect there to be too much blood. But, to my pleasant surprise, this was a really good film. Too much blood, true, but maybe only 50 gallons too much.
There's a fair bit of humor offered in this film, much of it the slightly blue humor that we've come to expect from Quentin Tarantino, but I don't think that it was off-base. This film's storytelling style is really reminiscent of the Kill Bill films, but with fewer and shorter scenes of extended violence.
To be completely honest, the gore didn't bother me a bit, and while I concur with the librarian that there was too much of it to be an Oscar winner, I don't think there was too much of it to tell the story. There was only one thing that bothered me, and that is when Laura gets shot by Django - one shot from his Colt 45 and she flies back, which would not be too improbable if she didn't fly off at about a 60 degree angle to the vector that the bullet was taking. I'm guessing few people noticed this.
Jamie Foxx was great. I had never noticed how big his hands are before, but I fixated on that a little bit, as I watched him totally own the role of Django. On par with Foxx's performance, and of no surprise was Leonardo DiCaprio as Mr. Candy. He nailed that character, the rich slaver who has far too much money and time on his hands. Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz do excellently in the supporting roles. My only critique really is a costuming one - Jackson with that white donut hair-do didn't look right, but otherwise both characters were spot on.

Django Unchained on IMDb

Miami Vice (2006) Unrated Director's Cut

I'm not sure what I expected out of this movie. I knew it was set in modern day Miami, not the 1980s Miami of the television series. What about that show was it's signature? I mean not counting all of the 80s stuff. Take out the clothes and the music and you're left with a cop who lives on a boat with his alligator and his partner who is slightly more responsible and in a relationship. You have a bunch of hard as nails detectives and undercover cops who back up Crockett and Tubbs even if they don't always agree with them or even know the reason why.
You update Crockett and go from hipster to mustaches guy? What the hell was up with Colin Farrell's hair? He has this 70s porn star facial hair thing going on and longish hair that is usually blown back of slicked back and looks like a mullet. Tubbs as portrayed by Jamie Foxx was cool though.
Farrell's hair is really my only complaint about this film. Well, that and it wasn't Miami Vice. It was a better than average action film set in Miami about a couple of undercover cops who start out to bust a narcotics ring and end up taking down an International drug lord's lieutenant who is also a killer.
Gong Li as Isabella and Naomi Harris as Trudy Joplin were great as the two female love interests. They were as tough as their male counterparts, though they didn't get to shoot anybody.
I'm not sure why this was the Director's Cut. Typically when a director does a cut, they are putting back scenes that the censors and/or producers have taken out. The film was rated R, and I didn't see anything in this film that would have changed that, in fact it was noticeable how out of their way they went to not show any nudity. Maybe the director took out some of that? The movie did feel long, though and I'm guessing that the scenes of Sunny and Isabella in Cuba were added in. They add quite a bit to Crockett's character though, so I don't really mind.
This was not a bad film at all, but would it have killed them to put in at least a couple of seconds of the Axel F theme?