5. Django Unchained (2012)
Quentin Tarantino might be hailed as one of cinema’s finest writer/directors, but not all of his movies deserve the reverence they’re afforded.
One such film is 2012’s Django Unchained, a Western revenge story about a former slave turned bounty hunter rescuing his wife from slavery at the hands of a sadistic plantation owner.
Maybe it’s the way in which the film attempts to wring elements of comedy from a time in history that simply isn’t funny, or maybe it’s that the pacing is decidedly off – either way, Django Unchained tends to rank highly even among Tarantino’s celebrated filmography, and it’s not entirely deserved.
When compared with the driven, multi-faceted narrative of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, or with other classic Westerns like Once Upon a Time in the West, Django Unchained simply doesn’t stack up in quite the same way. While it’s undoubtedly an enjoyable movie, it really isn’t deserving of all the hype.