Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

6. It's Full Of Classic Hollywood References

The people sure to get the most out of this movie are film buffs, because it's absolutely jam-packed with references to the Hollywood of decades past.

The fact that Rick finds himself forced to head to Italy to star in spaghetti westerns as his state-side career declines is clearly tipping the hat to Clint Eastwood's early career working with Sergio Leone, and there are literally dozens of thematic, spoken and visual nods to iconic movies both massive and cult.

A gag about The Great Escape is sure to leave all but the youngest viewers grinning from ear-to-ear, to say nothing of an hilarious sequence featuring Bruce Lee (played to perfection by Mike Moh), an extremely against-the-line gag about a certain actress who died under mysterious circumstances in the 1980s, and even a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter egg nodding to Tarantino's own Inglourious Basterds.

There's so much to pick out here, and that's one of the greatest motivators for revisiting it in the future. On the other hand, younger or more casual viewers less au fait with the history of Hollywood might feel a little clueless.