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Watched this this morning.
I feel like there are times when directors are trying too hard to be themselves (see: Every Tim Burton movie from Corpse Bride on), and this was that moment for Tarantino. A lot of this movie was quiet, intense, and utterly brutal portrayal of the cruelty of slavery in the south, and it was really effective, but then these willfully campy Tarantino-isms would undercut that, or the movie would explode into some over-the-top Sam Peckinpah shoot-out, or some otherwise cartoony detour, and it worked against the film. It would have been great to see Tarantino pull a True Grit, and just do a straight-up, serious Western without having to throw in all these winky flourishes.
Jackie Brown proved that Tarantino is perfectly capable of making a restrained film without flash or gimmick and still own it, and this would have been a great opportunity for that. It's only disappointing because at it's best, it was so damned good. This could have been Tarantino's Oscar film, if he didn't have to throw in the cartoon shit.
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