Now I know Big Willie and Rocky Dennis get a lot of shit around here (and here and here and here,) but this is just too much. I was all sorts of pumped for Tarantino’s upcoming Blaxploitation “southern,” Django Unchained, but now I’m all sorts of bummed. Multiple sources (but I’ll cite Twitchfilm, because while you’re over there you can check out some of my REVIEWS) are reporting that the Fresh Prince himself is at the top of Curly Q’s list to play a former slave out for revenge.
Sometimes I feel like Tarantino is a victim of his own hype. Yes, he writes great dialog, but that doesn’t mean he can make a wordy conversation about falling into a ditch interesting. Yes, he has an eye for casting, but fuck a duck, that doesn’t make Eli Roth’s cringe-inducing performance in Inglourious Basterds any better. And while Travolta’s performance in Pulp Fiction was fine, Tarantino still has to answer for everything the man has done since. That’s right, Tarantino, Wild Hogs was your fault!
Because as good as he supposedly is with actors, Tarantino has a tendency to let them run wild and play things broad. Is he gonna coax a great performance out of Smith, like he did with Robert Forster in Jackie Brown? Or is he gonna give us another Lieutenant Ham-bone Raine? The material doesn’t exactly scream “subtle,” which is why I have my doubts. Only time will tell, I guess.
