“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is Quentin Tarantino’s ninth movie that he has both written and directed. In every movie he has ever made, he has tried to make a movie that is different than any other film produced and he did succeed in making something very different with this production. What I admired the most was the perfectly created period from the year 1969, where every car, and every scene honored the world in that landmark year, 50 years ago. Somewhere in California there are a series of warehouses where thousands of cars are housed and maintained for movies like this one and that alone is very impressive. What I disliked the most was the constant chain smoking that arguably was prevalent in 1969 but to this frequency I thought it was way over done. I also hated the last scene of extreme violence was way over the top and completely unnecessary, regardless of how deserving the victims of the violence were.

Tarantino has succeeded once again in creating a movie unlike any other, however this one is different bad, rather than different good like all of his previous eight movies. I saw no evidence of a real story story here, just a series of disconnected and fragmented scenes involving an actor, Rick Dalton who is on the down side of his career, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his stunt double Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt. There are other minor scenes involving the late actress Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie that never seem to have any real purpose or connection to the other part of the story involving Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth.  I was surprised how many of these disconnected scenes were not only not interesting, but very boring. I must have looked at my watch 20 times during this way too long 161 minute movie, obviously a bad sign.

The the critics on Rotten Tomatoes are giving this movie an 88% rating and this makes no sense to me because my rating is only 50% mainly for the sets, cars and the many memories of 50 years ago. I do not recommend Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Its too long, there is no real story and there is way too much chain smoking and an insanely unnecessary violent scene at the end. This movie is only for die hard fans of Quentin Tarantino or the year 1969.