Famous director Quentin Tarantino is releasing a new movie on Christmas day; it’s called ‘Django Unchained’ and it narrates the story of a slave-turned-bounty hunter (Django) that, with the help of his mentor, sets out for the rescue of his wife from a cruel plantation owner.

The new ‘Kill Bill’ director’s movie counts with the participation of the ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ actor Jamie Foxx as Django, ‘Inglorious Basterds’ actor Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Shultz (Django’s mentor) and the ‘Titanic’ star Leonardo Di Caprio as Calvin Candi who is the Mississippi plantation owner that has kidnapped Django’s wife.

The new Tarantino movie is based on another movie from the sixties called ‘Django’ made by the Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci, in which the Italian actor Franco Nero played Django. Corbucci’s movie is considered one of the most influential Spaghetti Westerns; it was originally banned in several countries because of the various violent scenes the movie has.

Quentin Tarantino is really excited about doing a western, but he wants his western to be different, he declared:  ”I feel like I’ve seen every story in a western, ad nauseum,” and added that “Westerns bend over backward to not deal with slavery.”

Jamie Foxx said that in order to interpret Django he had to pull from his experience of growing up in Texas, he confessed that “being called ‘nigger’ as a young kid growing up by grown people, it was something that I had to deal with coming from the south. By having that done to me, I was able to grasp what was being done in the script.”

‘Django Unchained’ was promoted by Quentin Tarantino in the San Diego Comic Con; he presented an 8 minute showcase special reel of footage from the film. The ‘Pulp Fiction’ director explained that ‘Django Unchained’ is a movie about a slave but is not a movie about slavery.

The movie takes place in the South two years before the Civil War and it basically focus on the story of a slave (Django) who is released and mentored by a bounty hunter (Dr. King Shultz) to become his partner. So the slave and his mentor start to seek the South’s most wanted criminals, but Django’s real goal is to find and rescue Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), which is the wife he lost to a slave trade long time ago.

‘Django Unchained’ is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone. It will be released in the United States by The Weinstein Company on December 25 and internationally by Sony Pictures.

Image Courtesy of  Django Unchained

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Over the course of a film career spanning more than thirty years, Adam Sandler has developed into quite the comic obscurant. On the one hand, Sandler has signed his name to half a dozen sophisticated, relatively subtle, indie comedies, such as “Spanglish”, “Punch Drunk Love” and “Funny People,” even delving into the realm of politically charged drama with 2007′s “Reign Over Me.” On the other hand, though, Sandler must also be held responsible for some of the most asinine, sophomoric, underdeveloped schlock-fests that have ever entered the suspiciously sticky DVD players of pimply, teenage, glue sniffers. Having established the development of these two aesthetic extremes in Sandler’s extensive catalogue, it is only fair to point out that 90% of his movies sit comfortably in a middle-of-the-range space between “artful” and “vomitous.”

And yet, no-one would dare accuse Happy Madison Production’s newest offering, “That’s My Boy,” (directed by Sean Anders) of cinematic fence-sitting.

The plot of the movie, without giving away the twist– and it is a doozy– is this: mathematically gifted, 12 year old delinquent, Donny Berger is involved in a sexual liaison with his 22 year old teacher, Mary McGarricle, the products of which are a son, Han Solo, and a brief period of gainful notoriety. Skip ahead twenty years or so, and Donny (Adam Sandler) is estranged from the renamed, and very successful, Todd (Andy Samberg) and living in obscurity with an enormous debt owed to the IRA. To ease his financial troubles, Donny brokers a deal with a talk-show host to organize a reunion between himself, his son and his imprisoned ex-lover (Susan “what was she thinking?” Sarandon.) Seeing a notice in the paper advertising Todd’s impending wedding to WASPish socialite Jaime (tragically underused Leighton Meester), Berger decides to reconnect with his son in the hopes of tricking him into the show. The rest of the movie is 114 minutes of sperm jokes, violent diarrhea, and rampant racism, sexism and a host of other “-ism”s that might, if listed in full, have prolonged Ferris Bueller’s seminal shower by a good 20 minutes.

But, leaving aside the smaller problems of the movie– not that Sandler’s inability to follow-through with a single potent punchline in a film that markets itself as a goofball comedy is by any means a small problem — “That’s My Boy” has one, major flaw that doomed the movie even in its most fledgling stages of development. And that is this: statutory rape is not hilarious.

The thing is, irreverence and the tackling of taboos through humour can be well done. In recent times, Hollywood has produced a number of extremely funny and often beautifully made, dark comedies that tackle sensitive, socio-historical issues head on. Standout examples of semi-recent subversive laugh-a-minute films include, Morris’ “Four Lions”, a riotous indie film about Muslim-English suicide bombers, Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” a movie that dared to poke fun at the Third Reich, and, most topically, Reitman’s “Juno,” which revolves around the subject of teen pregnancy.

Yet, there remains a vast difference between any one of the movies above and ‘That’s My Boy”– quite apart from the fact that those films are hilarious, and the only funny thing about the Sandler movie is that anyone with functioning eyes and ears paid to see it– because, where the other movies have the good sense to not make fun of the central kernel of struggle within the movie, the characters of “That’s My Boy” barge into the dark world of sexual abuse and bumble about in there without the weakest flashlight of self-awareness. To put it another way, “Four Lions” makes jokes about acts of faith, but not faith, “Inglorious Basterds” mocks Hitler but not the holocaust, “Juno” plays with the physical state of pregnancy in high-school, but not the emotional toll of growing up fast. By contrast, “That’s My Boy” does not discriminate between pressure points within the incredibly traumatic subject of statutory rape and its consequences, and makes the entire underage teacher-student relationship — the inciting incident that creates the tension for the whole film– into a big, colossally unfunny, joke.

Somewhere, very, very deep down inside the soul of this uncharismatic well of one-liner ejaculate, there is something that needs to be said. Indeed, Sandler manages to pull off a few, incredibly sparse, genuinely touching incidences between himself and Samberg in which there is a momentary glimpse into the unique perspective of a tragically young dad trying valiantly to bring up a son while going through his own, rocky, coming of age journey. Those flashpoints of honesty between parent and child, in conjunction with a series of scene stealing performances by the utterly charming Vanilla Ice– who should have “[flown] like a harpoon daily and nightly” away from this movie–, may almost have redeemed the rest of the film. Unfortunately, they are, more often than not, quickly smothered by shots of obese prostitutes firing pool-balls from their hoo-has at mentally challenged yokels.

Previously, I had assumed that Sandler continued to produce this kind of movie, the kind of movie firmly entrenched within the “vomitous” camp of his stylistic spectrum, because he has no respect for his audience beyond the money they persist in offloading into his already overflowing pockets. Now, post-”That’s My Boy,” I know this to be the case, and, perversely, this knowledge makes me feel both better about this specific movie and about Sandler’s movie making career as a whole. Ah, yes indeed, free market capitalism is alive and well.

Grade: 1/5

Image Courtesy of  That’s My Boy

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‘Attitude’ is a loaded concept. Often, it is sold as something young people need, but older people abhor it. Juliette Lewis is among the few who have been able to use this attitude (a rebellious one here) to advantage. She has garnered much critical acclaim as an actress, and has developed a successful career as a singer in a rock band. After a number of years touring, she is back to acting, this year starring in two films: ‘Foreverland’ and ‘Hick.’

‘Precocious’ is another term that fits Ms. Lewis. At fourteen, she became an emancipated minor, and began acting in television. She appeared in the Dan Akroyd/Kim Basinger comedy, ‘My Stepmother is an Alien’ (1988), and continued gaining respect in film. It was in ‘Cape Fear’ (1991) that received wider and higher recognition: she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Many of her roles have been sympathetic characters, such as that of a vulnerable woman with mental disability in ‘The Other Sister’ (1999). Other roles are more antipathetic. Ms. Lewis has played a few intimidating or ‘hard-edged’ characters in such films as ‘Kalifornia’ (1993), ‘Natural Born Killers’ (1994), and a rocker (singing two PJ Harvey songs) in ‘Strange Days’ (1995). She is not a physically-imposing woman, but she carries such presence that her characters can seduce and scare with a subtle switch.

Her stage presence as a singer is also captivating. There is no timidity, and there is no doubt she is comfortable before a live audience. Her music is strong and energetic; her voice is expressive and can hush with a whisper or belt out the howls. She writes music of wild abandon and rebellion.

Ms. Lewis sang with her band, Juliette and the Licks, between 2004 and 2009; she has since gone solo, with a different backing band. Her latest album, ‘Terra Incognita,’ was released 2009. She has sung songs for other bands, such as The Prodigy, and has had her singing featured in films.

Last year, she appeared in four films and on a television show. Next year, there will be two more films, and she will star in the TV series, ‘The Firm,’ written by John Grisham. She has an impressive list of directors as well: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino represent some of the many different directions of her films.

She is funny, frightening, controlled and crazy; she is always compelling. Juliette Lewis dominates acting, and she owns the music-stage, but she leaves the impression that she has always been herself. It is an intriguing blend of attitude, accomplishment and artistry many envy. And there is plenty more to come.

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The multitalent Jamie Foxx is set to star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Tarantino’s newest work which will reportedly reveal the story of a freed slave’s tribulations.

According to US reports, the Oscar-winning actor for his 2005 performance of musician Ray Charles role in Ray, will embody the lead role of an emancipated slave Django who returns to free his wife.

The actor was selected for the role over multiple stars including Idris Elba, Terrence Howard and Chris Tucker. Kerry Washington, who also starred beside Foxx in Ray is in works to play the wife of Foxx’s character. Foxx’s character learns to be a contract killer and ultimately returns to his past plantation to free his wife.

Leonardo DiCaprio is casted as the plantantion’s atrocious owner by the name of Calvin Candie. Additionally, Samuel L. Jackson is set to play a menacing slave named Stephen who fully submits to DiCaprio’s wild character while Christopher Waltz will play a German Bounty hunter who becomes a teacher for Django.

While the film’s title was inspired by Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 western Django, Django Unchained is referred to by Tarantino as “southern”.

In addition to the many actors in connection to the film, Will Smith was the first to be linked to play the role of Django yet it looks as though he turned down the role. This likely could have been in response to the abundant use of the n-word throughout the film’s script.

Nonetheless, with a talented cast set to embody the characters within Tarantino’s intriguing work, Django Unchained is sure to be a film meriting grand appeal and countless viewers.

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