Not a good film
Of course there is a certain quality that does elevate Tarentino above most films, but that doesn’t shield him from valid criticism.
This film seems to be nothing more than an ego stroke for Tarentino to pay homage to his love of Hollywood. With a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, you’d expect there to be some kind of intriguing plot development within the first 2 and a half hours but there isn’t. Almost everything that the plot has delivered is irrelevant due to the outcome of the film. Which leads me to my next problem, the characters are forced to carry the entire film with unnecessary details that don’t build or pay off in any significant way. The pacing was overall terrible, and you never got the sense that there were multiple things happening at once, which is what creates suspense. Instead we get a linear 2+ hours of a struggling actor (which I get is the case after 20 seconds of the movie) and then the core of the film in the last 45 minutes.
If it weren’t for Brad and Leo carrying this film, it was have been painful. This was just hugely disappointing as a Tarentino fan. Reservoir Dogs is the perfect start to a film career, and I’ll be damned if I’ll ever say that “Once Upon A Time
in Hollywood is the perfect end to a career.”