Posts Tagged ‘Quentin Tarantino’

Library Addition: First Edition of Quentin Tarantino’s Cinema Speculation

Tuesday, December 6th, 2022

Another Amazon purchase, one that came in as a first edition and blessedly free of of damage!

Tarantino, Quentin. Cinema Speculation. HarperCollins, 2022. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Non-fiction book about the films Tarantino saw as a child in the 1970s, from Dirty Harry to Taxi Driver. Seems pretty interesting.

One interesting thing about the book physically is that the cover has that rough texture that’s been all the rage recently…except the black and white photo of Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah on the cover, which is smooth. I’d never seen a book with two different textures combined like that before.

Library Additions: Various Unsigned Firsts

Wednesday, January 5th, 2022

The only theme here is various unsigned hardback firsts.

  • Egan, Greg. Dichronauts. Night Shade Books, 2017. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought at Half Price Books for $8.99.
  • Fraser, George MacDonald. Flashman and the Tiger. Harper Collins, 1999. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Collection of three Flashman novellas. I’d always heard the Flashman books were great, but haven’t actually read any. Bought for $7.99.
  • Lansdale, Joe R. Coco Butternut. Subterranean Press, 2017. First edition hardback, trade edition, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Hap and Leonard novella. Somehow I ended up picking up two limited editions of this, so I never picked up a trade edition until now. Bought from Camelot Books for $17.50.
  • Moore, Alan. Jerusalem. Knockabout Books, 2016. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight edgewear and slight haze-rubbing. Massive, 1174-page novel whose premise is that Northhampton is the actual center of the world. Looks interesting, but Lord know when I’ll ever find time to read it. Actually, I should probably read Voice of the Fire first…
  • Reynolds, Alastair. Revenger. Gollancz, 2016. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket with slight crimping at head. Bought at a Houston-area Half Price Books for $12.49.
  • Shea, Michael. Mr. Cannyharme: A Novel of Lovecraftian Terror. Hippocampus Press, 2021. First edition hardback, one of only 500 hardback copies, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Previously unpublished Shea novel of Lovecraftian horror set in post-hippie San Francisco. Bought from the publisher at the usual discount. I will have copies of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog.

  • Tarantino, Quentin. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Harper, 2021. First hardback edition and first edition thus, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Originally published as a PBO, this hardback edition includes not only Tarantino’s novelization of his own film, but also a script for an episode of Bounty Law, reproductions of fake movie posters and TV Guide covers featuring Rick Dalton, and even the Mad Magazine parody “Lousy Law.” Bought from The Mysterious Bookshop at a dealer discount. (Right now Amazon appears to be offering this at half cover price (though the usual Amazon caveats apply, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get a first printing).
  • Weir, Andy. The Martian. Crown Publishers. 2014. First edition hardback (preceded by a self-published ebook), a Near Fine copy with small, light spots of staining to heel and slight bend at head, in a Near Fine dust jacket with a 1/2″ closed tear at bottom front, slight crease along top front edge, slight edgewear and wear at points. Celebrated novel of an astronaut stranded on Mars made into the Matt Damon movie of the same name. Bought at Half Price Books for $9.99.
  • Movie Review: Django Unchained

    Monday, January 21st, 2013

    Django Unchained
    Directed by Quentin Tarantino
    Written by Quentin Tarantino
    Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, David Steen, Laura Cayouette, Don Johnson, Ato Essandoh

    Django Unchained may not be Quentin Tarantino’s best film, but does seem to be the film that comes closest to fulfilling his vision for what he wanted it to be. He wanted to make a big-budget, hyper-violent, A-list, American spaghetti western antebellum slave revenge thriller. Django Unchained is such a perfect realization of that goal that I doubt anyone will ever attempt to do the exact same thing ever again.

    Also, it’s a film that admirably self-selects its audience. If you think you’ll like it, you’ll probably really, really like it. If you think you’ll hate it, you’ll probably really, really hate it. It’s not a film for the faint of heart, or those with a low threshold for movie brutality.

    If you’ve seen the trailer, then you know the basic setup: German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees slave Django (Jamie Foxx) to help him track down three brothers he can identify, then makes him his partner in the bounty hunting business. A bit later, they go to rescue Django’s wife (Kerry Washington) from the clutches of Mississippi plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DeCaprio). Stylish gunplay and general brutality ensues.

    Like all Tarantino’s movies, there are postmodern nods and namechecks to previous films, including recycling the theme music from 1966’s Django for the opening titles. Unlike his previous films, Tarantino has done a better job sanding off the rough edges and toning down his showier stylistic flourishes. They’re still here, but seem like a more natural fit for the material, be it a slow motion montage as a procession rides past, or solarized flashbacks to Django’s slave past. Likewise, the digressions seem more organic to the film (a scene of proto-Klansmen bitching about the poor quality of eyeholes in their hoods is funny enough that you’re willing to overlook its shaggy nature).

    The script is clever and fairly taut for its 165 minute running time, and it doesn’t have the dead spots of (for example) Inglorious Basterds. There are two or three plot twists, some more improbable than others. Django’s wife is named Broomhilda and speaks German (because her original owner was German), which not only makes Waltz perfect for the role Tarantino obviously wrote for him, but actually provides three or four handy plot points in a nice, tidy package. They have a clever plan to rescue Broomhilda. It comes really, really close to succeeding.

    Acting ranges from the solid, to really good, to downright excellent. Bruce Dern and Don Johnson are just fine in supporting roles. Jammie Foxx is fine in what amounts to a Shaft Kicks Dixie’s Ass role, though suffers in comparison to Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name. Waltz is very effective in his hand-crafted role of a learned, articulate man who hates slavery and kills people for money, though it’s less of a revelation than his Oscar-winning turn as Hans Landa. Samuel L. Jackson finally gets to play a villain worthy of his simmering rage.

    But for me the best performance is the movie is DiCaprio’s Candie, a plantation owner whose southern hospitality doesn’t prevent him letting a runaway slave get ripped apart by dogs, and his fury at finding himself being played is something to behold. The trailer suggested he might be playing it to broad and jokey, but his actual performance is very nuanced. DiCaprio has steadily improved as an actor, and of what I’ve seen him in, this is easily his best work.

    Of course, some of the usual suspects have gotten their knickers in a twist over an American spaghetti western depicting the evils of slavery. What do they want, to soft peddle the crimes of slavery instead? And those criticizing the film for being brutal and violent: Have you not seen a Tarantino film before? It’s like someone complaining that the Seventh Season of South Park is full of potentially offensive humor. Really? You don’t say?

    As previously noted, those with a low threshold for bloodshed and brutality should stay far, far away. As Dwight noted after we left the theater, “I hope they gave the squib guy a bonus.” But if you like Tarantino, here he’s pretty much at the top of his game.

    And if I had known that the action figures would be discontinued, I would have picked some up.

    The Man With the Iron Fists

    Friday, August 24th, 2012

    Well, how did I miss this?

    Swords, guns, hot Asian women, ridiculous quantities of blood, a steampunk (golem? robot?) antagonist, and completely over-the-top Kung Fu violence? Produced by Quentin Tarantino?

    Yeah, I’m there.

    I could do without the hip-hop soundtrack, but it’s become something of a tradition in the post-grindhouse blaxplotation kung-fu crossover, and what did you expect for the first movie directed by RZA?

    Opens November 2.

    The Trailer for Django Unchained is Out

    Friday, June 8th, 2012

    And it looks every bit as much fun as it sounded:

    Happy Birthday Tony Banks and Quentin Tarantino!

    Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

    Two names that are not otherwise paired together.

    Tony Banks, the keyboardist for Genesis (and, with Mike Rutherford, the only member through all the band’s lineups) is 62 today. In celebration, here’s a live version of “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”:

    Director Tarantino turns 49 today, which gives me a chance to talk about his film Django Unchained, an antebellum slave revenge fantasy that looks like looks like a cross between Mandingo and, well, Kill Bill. No trailer yet, but since it’s Tarantino, we know won’t be screwed up by any of that annoying political correctness. Also, damn, look at that cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kurt Russell, Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, James Remar (Dexter’s dad), Don Johnson (in the “Designated John Travolta Career Resurrection Role”), Sacha Baron Cohen, and Leonardo DiCaprio as the bad guy.

    I fully expect it to rock.