Tarantino's 'Django' Drives Old-Fashioned Revenge Home on Blu-Ray

Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) stands in the way of Django (Jamie Foxx) reclaiming his enslaved wife.

One of the perks of being Quentin Tarantino is wielding the power to end the lives of countless onscreen characters in the most stylistic bloody ways imaginable. Feel free to say that's a sadistic manner of thinking, but for Tarantino, that alone defines him as a director he is today and answers the reasoning behind the Spaghetti Western bloodbath simply known as Django Unchained.

After his recent cult classics, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino has no issues amping up his blood-stained cinematic canvas set against a touchy subject such as American slavery and what's necessary to be free of the shackles of servitude. Enduring many years of hard service, Django (Jamie Foxx) finds himself freed by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and now with the means to seek revenge on a charismatic plantation owner keeping his wife all for himself.

Django is unquestionably Tarantino's most ambitious endeavor to date,  slapped with a 165 minute run time that goes beyond what's necessary to successfully unfold this tale of revenge. Foxx is fine as Django, though ironically plays second fiddle to an upstaging supporting cast in Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz. This trio own the screen with the littlest effort and even when all three are onscreen at the same time, tend to ante up the previous' performance.

A movie like Django Unchained deserved the special home media treatment and Target wholly delivers with its G2 steelbook. The steelbook's matte finish is a slight letdown, reminiscent of the bare bone Best Buy steelbooks from mid-2012, but the simplistic front artwork and poster-inspired back artwork compensate for the finish's shortcomings.

Distributor The Weinstein Company releases Django Unchained with a solid video track that focuses an brilliant visual experience that one can expect from a Tarantino film. The audio, though acceptable, only cranks out at 5.1 DTSHD, exploiting the bloody shootouts and some subdued (well the scenes where people aren't getting blown to pieces) action sequences.

There's not much in terms of bonus features as The Weinstein Company limits the extras to a couple featurettes totally up to a lackluster half hour. The Target exclusive, however, does include a bonus disc examining the stars of Django at 2012 Comic-Con, but beyond one additional bonus feature, the limited choices don't do this set justice.

Django Unchained won't appeal to the weak at heart, but if you're the slightest fan of Quentin Tarantino and his tales of revenge in the most violent ways possible, then this steelbook exclusive is certainly worth the money to pick up.

MOVIE: A- (9/10)

VIDEO: A (10/10)

AUDIO:  A (10/10)

EXTRAS: C (5/10)

GRADE: B (8/10)