Unforgiven (1992) - 4K UHD Review

Review:

*Originally written November 1st, 2018*

I don't know about you, but I found most of the classic Westerns I've seen painfully dull (Sorry), particularly ones from the '60s with the exception of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I just find them to be like watching paint dry, but for some reason, most of the ones from the '90s and '00s I find incredibly more interesting and increased in quality, with Unforgiven being the peak of Clint Eastwood's Western career.

I will argue that Unforgiven is a film I've had crammed down my throat after a year of film studies at sixth form, but for whatever reason, despite having watched it under the worst conditions possible (On a washed out projector with the teacher pausing it every minute to talk about it), I still find myself loving this.

 Plus with the 30 hours or so I've put into Red Dead Redemption 2 so far, I was in the mood and was happy to see this had a 4K release in the UK. And what a 4K release this is. Another knockout from Warner Bros, blistering with detail and increased colour, making the beautiful landscape shots of the Texas desert look better than they've ever been.

Clint Eastwood's anti-hero William Munny is one of the most fascinating of his career, an aged criminal with a shameful past who only picks up a bounty to have his dying farm he lives on with his two kids after the death of his wife. In many ways Munny feels like the aged character of all his previous Westerns put together, but makes him feel far more human and believable. Like Logan, I have a huge soft-spot for films about ageing gunfighters going back one last time and Eastwood nails this as a finale for his career in westerns.

While this is Eastwood's show, he joined by a cast who all do an excellent job. Gene Hackman is terrifying as the utterly psychotic and intimidating sheriff of the town Bill and Morgan Freeman does his usual reliable thing of being likeable. I honestly thought Saul Rubinek was the father of John Oliver too, I mean, look at him in this.

What I really love is just how restrained and real this feels compared to many other Westerns set in the same period. It runs at a slow pace, but takes it time to give the characters the development they deserve, giving the finale some incredible dramatic weight. There is some action spliced in the middle, which is well shot and feels authentic, but this is all about character and not action. I miss when Eastwood used to be able to direct as well as he did here, his later work is so lifeless and flat, even downright appalling based on his latest film, but it's nice to see him be able to direct something excellent here.


Unforgiven is a triumph, a character driven western that rounds off Clint Eastwood's long foray into the genre in the a way that's close to as perfect as possible. I wish more westerns were like this. Gorgeous 4K restoration too, Warner Bros are knocking it out the park with their releases. 

9/10 Dans 

Unforgiven is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
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The Ridiculous 6 (2015) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written December 12th, 2015*

"Cinematic Cancer"

I guess the real joke is on me for watching this. I thought under the handle of Netflix that they would manage to produce a film that was in line with Adam Sandler's films from the 90's. I should have known better, this was just utter, utter garbage.

Adam Sandler stars in this ensemble comedy with dozens of actors who are far and above this material. It follows Adam Sandler (Who is an Indian, yup, what the fuck) who finds out he has 5 other brothers (One of which is black, because lol, why the fuck not?) and they must all band together to raise some money to get their father out of a jam.

It's an atrocious Adam Sandler affair. I was one of the few people that enjoyed Pixels, but after this I am right back into the "Fuck You Adam Sandler" group.

The jokes are lame, unfunny and juvenile. One of the recurring jokes is a donkey that can shoot a strong stream of diarrhea from its asshole. Funny right? Jokes about shit? 

Don't get me wrong, I like juvenile humour, as long as its done right with charm, look at South Park as a case example. Here, it's just head shakingly embarrassing. Made worse by the fact it's 2 hours long. 2. Fucking. Hours. What the fuck were they thinking? This could and should have been no longer than 80 minutes, that would have at least made it a bit more tolerable, but at 2 hours, it is just an overkill of excruciating torture.


Netflix really did make a deal with the devil when they signed on to make a bunch of films with Sandler as The Ridiculous 6 is one of the worst films of the year. A true embarrassment to everyone involved.

1/10 Dans

The Ridiculous 6 is streaming now on Netflix worldwide
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Django Unchained (2012) - Film Review

Review:

 *Originally written September 25th, 2015*

"I like the way you die, boy"

Tarantino is a well known fan of westerns. His films are littered with homages and cues to well known westerns, a lot of his films even have western elements. With him taking on his first full-blown western, you'd expect another Tarantino masterpiece, while it isn't quiet that, it is still another excellent and worthy entry into his amazing filmography.

Django Unchained follows a slave Django (Jamie Foxx) who is freed by a bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who trains him to be a bounty hunter also and agrees to help him free his enslaved wife from Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

To get the minor quibbles out the way. Django Unchained has a few minor problems that emerge in the last 40 minutes. First off, it is so long, which isn't too much of a problem as it runs at such an relentless pace. The Biggest problem is a strange choice a lead character makes in the last act, which completely derailed the character and seemed like a poor excuse to get a gun fight to start, there were plenty of ways the film could have got to this set-piece, but doing it in a way that just butchered one of the best characters of the film just felt stupid. Lastly, Tarantino could really not just help himself, he had to cast himself in a completely terrible cameo, which just felt awkward and unnecessary. His character has a an AWFUL Australian accent, why does he do this? I love his films, but he needs to just stay solely behind the camera.

These minor things aside, Django Unchained is one of the most entertaining and overall enjoyable films I've ever seen. Every scene is just pure, balls out the bath fun. The bloody violence is unrestrained and just fantastic. No CGI here, just gallons of squibs worth of practical blood. Gorgeous. The action scenes themselves are well shot and smooth. The Candie Land shootout is one of the best set-pieces I've seen from an action film and might just be Tarantino's best straight-up action scene he's filmed, it's a mash up between this, The Crazy 88 scene from Kill Bill and the theater scene from Inglorious Basterds.

The performances are all great. Obviously Christoph Waltz won an Oscar for his charming role as bounty hunter who takes in Django. Jamie Foxx is kinda forgettable as Django, he's just kinda there, he doesn't give a bad performance, it's just when everyone else in the film is so great, you're gonna get forgotten. DiCaprio is excellent as the villain, playing it gleefully sadistic and clearly just having a blast being a slave owner. The stand-out and most enjoyable member of the cast though, easily has to be Samuel L Jackson as the self loathing head slave of DiCaprio's Candie, he plays it so fantastically over the top and hammy, it's hilarious. I've never seen him like this before.

Filled with a lot of the Tarantino trademarks. You know, long, engrossing monologues about something mundane or not important, but it's just so well written you hang on every word. Including an amazing scene where a primitive KKK argue about the quality of the sacks on their heads. There's the bombastic and erratic camera shoots, so many fast zoom ins here, which all look great and are effective. And of course, it wouldn't be Tarantino without an amazing soundtrack, filled with classic, modern hip-hop and rap.

Django Unchained might falter slightly towards the end, but you can't deny that every moment of this western is just a joy to watch. I want to give this a 10 so bad, but that poor character choice at the end really won't let me.

9/10 Dans

Django Unchained is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Hell or High Water (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written June 3rd, 2017*

Hell or High Water blew me away with its release last year and it still has that effect on me rewatching it nearly a year later on Blu-ray. A modern masterpiece of a neo-western. A gorgeous, emotional and smart thriller that's as entertaining as it is meaningful.

This is a hard-boiled, no-nonsense 100 minute bank heist thriller about two brothers robbing banks to raise money to save their farm while they have an ageing cop on their trail who is on the verge of retirement. It's a simple "Cops and Robbers" story that works far better than it had any right to.

Chris Pine

It's beautifully shot, invoking other contempary westens like the Coen Brothers No Country for Old Men with some shades of humour that reminded me of the criminally underrated TV show Justified.

There's tons of gorgeous landscape shots of Texas and its surrounding barren areas. The colour palet is vibrant with strong yellows and oranges. I loved the use of country music too, although I would have liked to have seen at least one Johnny Cash song used, but hey, that's just me being an asshole.

Chris Pine and Ben Foster give the performance of their careers as the two brothers working their way through Texas banks. Foster does his usual "crazy" thing, but it counterbalanced by Pine's subdued and more subtle performance. The two bring genuine heart and emotion to the story, which is amazing considering it's only 100 minutes long. Jeff Bridges is also excellent as the cop on their tale and on the verge of retirement. I remember it being a little rough to understand his accent at the cinema, so I'm glad I got to rewatch it with subtitles. It really helped.

Ben Foster

David McKenzie's direction is masterful. Perfectly mixing Heat style set-pieces with small-scale family drama. There really is an incredible balance to Hell or High Water's pacing. The action is violent, sometimes grotesque, but never fun and everything has consequences. It's also all very small in scale, which is some I always appreciate and hits a lot of western tropes that mix perfectly into a modern day crime story. This could have taken place in the 1800's and aside from some obvious aesthetics, the story would have played out the same.

Hell or High Water is a modern masterpiece. Strong in character, tone, action and just a damn good time. 100 minutes of no-nonsense, straight to the point brilliance. I cannot recommend Hell or High Water enough.

10/10 Dans

Hell or High Water is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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