Django Unchained (2012)

Plot: In 1858 Texas, a former slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed by bounty hunter Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) and becomes his partner. Both then travel to Tennessee rescue Django's wife from ruthless plantation owned Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his head servant Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson).

Plus: Some excellent Scenes and dialogue, Humor, Good acting, Memorable characters
Minus: Brutality, Too long (165 minutes), Boring last 20 minutes, Simplistic Plot

Django is typical 21st Century Tarantino. Lots of blood, violence, and humor, along with a revenge plot and homage to a 70s B-movie genre - in this case, the "Spaghetti Western" and "Blackplotation". Not as good as "Inglorious Basterds" but better than "Kill Bill Volume 2". Historically absurd and filled with unrealistic cartoon violence, this won't stop ignorant film critics from pontificating on the movie's view of slavery and American history. The best thing about the movie are the 3 memorable characters, Candie, Shultz, and Stephen all played superbly by the actors involved. Sadly, having the created these characters and an interesting situation, Tarintino can't do anything with them except have a pointless, endless, blood bath.

Also noted is the excessive brutality including: 2 whippings and 2 brandings,  a graphic fight-to-the-death, men getting torn to death by animals, and a castration scene. All of which puts a damper on some of Tarantino's delightful anachronistic humor including: having the hero wear sunglasses in 1858 Georgia, having Candie drink a Polynesian (Complete with Coconut and straw), KKK members complaining of badly made masks, and Dr. Shultz's waving Big-tooth.

Summary: A typically violent, excessive, self-indulgent Tarantino film, this one is a little too long and has a boring last act. But with some good elements. Rating ***

Skyfall (2012)

Very interesting Bond movie notable for some good stunts (the opening one is a humdinger), visual brilliance and an excellent sub-plot involving Julie Dench. The only flaws were the sometimes Batman-esque over-the-top, reality free, violence (honestly, the villains shoot at least 1,000 bullets at Bond and miss 999 times) and some perfunctory Bond girl romance.

 The producers seem to have welded together an almost comic-book fantasy with a realistic spy story containing dark, adult elements. They keep re-inventing the franchise (50 years old) and doing a surprisingly good job of it.

 P.S. For some reason the film uses very little of the standard Bond theme (except at the end). This hurts the film overall but is quite stirring when its finally used at the end.