Guys, "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" Was Not That Great of a Movie

In an attempt to see a ton of movies that I missed while in theaters that I wanted to see, I watched "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" last night.

I do want to say, while I enjoy Quentin Tarantino for the most part, this was one movie that I wasn't rushing out the door to see. In fact, I didn't really even try to see it in the theaters. Then there was all the stuff from Bruce Lee's family, I don't think they like the way he was portrayed, and I'm a big time Bruce Lee guy, so that soured me even more. But, I saw it was on Starz the other night, and since we are all on quarantine, I figured I would record it and watch, and I did.

So, first things first, I think it is a fine movie. It isn't the usual bloody, racial epitaph flying violent movies I have come to associate with Tarantino. It is more of a love story to old time Hollywood. I also think, for the most part, the performances were solid. I loved Leonardo DiCaprio in this role. He was truly incredible, as he always is. His portrayal of an aging Western movie star was spot on. I also liked the look of the movie. It was like a neat flashback. But, outside of that, I wasn't super impressed with the movie overall.

As I said above, it is a love story to old Hollywood, and sorry mom, I know how much you like those stories, it just isn't my thing. I don't watch old westerns. I didn't watch good guys and bad guys cop shows. I am not all that in to stories from the late 60's early 70's. I am not, I don't know of it is a smart thing, or just my taste, but I'm not into movies form back then. They just aren't my thing. I mean, I love "The Godfather" parts one and two. And as you all know I love the original "Bad News Bears". But, take movies like "Easy Rider" or "Apocalypse Now" or "Annie Hall", movies people consider classics, I'm not into them. They are too long, and for me, boring. That is a personal opinion though., I'm taking nothing away from them, and their importance, hell, I get why "Citizen Kane" is so influential but I don't like that movie one bit. They're classics for a different generation I suppose. I feel like that is who Tarantino was aiming to please with "OUATIH". He wanted the boomer crowd, he wanted cinephiles like himself. That was the crowd he was going after. And that is fine, it just isn't for me.

The movie also felt very discombobulated. There was a ton of things going on, and I felt that the ending was unfulfilling. There were too many stories that didn't really connect for me. The whole first half focuses on DiCaprio and Pitt driving from lot to lot to do his crummy sitcom. The whole scene with Al Pacino at the beginning is out of nowhere, and doesn't come back until the movie is more than halfway over. Also, the Bruce Lee scene was, quite frankly, not that good. It was demeaning to Lee, and to see Pitt's character beat him up, Bruce Lee would have easily beat him in a fight. The stuff with Pitt as well, his backstory about killing his wife and getting away with it was barely even touched upon. We got one scene of them on a bat fighting, and he had some kind of weapon and we are meant to believe that is when it happened, but nothing is shown, or revealed. The Kurt Russell character felt tacked on as well. It would have been much better if he were just the narrator, for me. Also, that jump after the first hour, to 6 months later, was very jarring as I was watching. I didn't expect it, and there was a ton, too much I'd say, of information tacked on about Pitt, Pacino and DiCaprio's characters. I get it moved the story, but it could've been done better, or differently. We also saw very, very little of Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in this movie. I like Robbie, and I thought they could have delved much deeper into her story. She barely had any lines. It was more to just show her life when she moved to LA, and how she dealt with the people around her. She could have been much more fleshed out.

I will say, the one thing I enjoyed, or thought was well done, was the ending. This movie posits a world where Charlie Manson's cronies never made it to Tate's house on the fateful night where she lost her life. Instead they end up at DiCaprio's house, and he, his wife and Pitt take care of them. I thought this was an interesting take, but I also thought they could have gone so much deeper with that as the story. I would have much rather seen the world with Sharon Tate still alive. I wonder what her career would have been like if she had lived. I feel like Tarantino could have done wonders with that story. Or, I would've liked a movie that was just about DiCaprio and Pitt's characters. Take us from their beginning to their ends. That would have been so much more fun.

I think "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" was too overstuffed and a ton of things could've been cut had Tarantino focused on one aspect of the story. But hey, this is all coming from the guy who liked "Star Wars 9", so take my opinion as you will. I just wasn't as wowed with this movie as critics and others were. DiCaprio was amazing, but that was the only true highlight for me. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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