3. Django Unchained (2012)
Harvey Weinstein is notorious for being ruthless with directors in the editing suite, so it is deeply confusing that some elements of Django made it into the final quarter of the film. But what really lets the whole enterprise down is the way everything is tied up in the end. The problem with Django is that, for a film named after the protagonist, very little attention is actually paid to Django during the second act. Instead the focus is almost entirely on Leo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltzs battle of wits. It meanders out into a series of entertaining vignettes like the Ku Klux Klan member taking offense when a fellow belittles his wifes sewing skills. But then even these moments took a nosedive into bizarre parody where Tarantino stepped on screen to play a brain damaged Australian (or something). The Ending That Ruined The Film By the time Tarantino brings the story back around to Djangos supposedly main aim from the start: rescuing his wife, it is difficult to care. The amazing shoot out in the mansion of DiCaprio feels like a natural place to end the action, but instead the ending has to be about Djangos wife, and feels completely tacked on like an after-though. This draws the finale out into a rather monotonous sequence of revenge scenes that never quite live up to the action which preceded it.