The popular saying goes, "if you don't have anything positive to say, then don't say it," but sometimes it feels like Quentin Tarantino has never heard that saying. The celebrated auteur is infamously outspoken and isn't afraid to speak his mind. Tarantino has been known to release "worst of the year lists" and has never shied away from firing shots at his peers, even when it isn't warranted.
But, at the same time, the visionary auteur is just as quick to give credit where it's due, and sometimes even where it isn't due. Few film buffs are as opinionated as Tarantino, and he has questionable feelings towards some of the best and worst movies ever made.
Jason X Is A Great Horror Movie
The celebrated director is known to love schlocky films, and Death Proof is almost exclusively influenced by B-movies, but there's no excuse for this one. Jason X has a 4.4 on IMDb and a rotten 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's universally hated, has almost no redeeming qualities, and there's no possible way of defending it, but that's where Tarantino comes in.
The filmmaker thinks Jason X has the best death scenes of any horror movie. The 10th Friday the 13th movie does have some creative murders, with Tarantino's favorite being when a woman's head is dunked into liquid nitrogen, and then her head shatters when it's slammed against a counter.
Natural Born Killers Is A Bad Movie
Quentin Tarantino is an incredible filmmaker who only ever directs his screenplays and rarely sells his screenplays to studios for other filmmakers to direct. However, in the early 90s, he sold a couple of his scripts, the first of which was the incredible True Romance, and the second was the controversial Natural Born Killers.
The latter drew concerns from audiences and critics for its ultraviolence, but it has since become a cult classic, and Natural Born Killers still holds up today. However, Tarantino hates how his screenplay was adapted. The director claims that the final result of the film is drastically different from the screenplay he wrote.
Some Movie Theatres Deserved To Close
Movie theatres have gone through an extremely rough time over the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of them have struggled to stay open. Hundreds of movie theatres closed that may never stay open, and, interestingly, Tarantino thinks that's a good thing.
The acclaimed movie director reckons that some movie theatres deserved to close down, but he specifically points his finger at certain multiplexes. While he doesn't mention any specific names of theatre chains, Tarantino explains that "they’ve taken all the specialness out of movies anyway, some of these chains.”
Star Trek Is Better Than Star Wars
According to Cinema Blend, Tarantino believes Star Trek is far superior to Star Wars, and the reason why is simple. It doesn't come down to the innovative technology or the lore, but William Shatner. The director hilariously states that he prefers Star Trek because "William Shatner’s not in Star Wars."
It has been well documented how much Tarantino loves Star Trek, and he even wrote a script and wanted to direct a Star Trek movie of his own. Though Tarantino's Star Trek was stuck in development hell, it seems like it isn't going to happen now, especially as Star Trek 4 has just been announced. However, Tarantino surely harbors no ill-will and it certainly won't have sullied his love for the franchise, but it does mean fans won't get to see an ultraviolent depiction of the final frontier with Captain Kirk screaming profanities.
Bill Murray Movies Are Terrible
While promoting his novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and gave an in-depth, three-hour interview, which is available to watch on Spotify. And between explaining his future plans and giving audiences unheard nuggets of trivia about his previous movies, he also let slip some more unpopular opinions.
The most interesting of those hot takes is that he doesn't like Bill Murray-led movies. The director explains that Murray's movies are too politically correct and his characters are too likable. Funnily enough, it's the exact opposite reason as to why Tarantino loves Chevy Chase's movies.
True Detective Is Boring
True Detective might not be a movie, but it's one of the most cinematic TV series ever, and every episode of season 1 was directed by the visionary filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga. But regardless of how well the story was told and how visually stunning it was, especially that intense eight-minute-long tracking shot, Tarantino wasn't a fan.
According to Variety, the filmmaker couldn't get past the first episode and thought it was boring. He has nothing good to say about the show, and hilariously sums it up by explaining that it follows "all these handsome actors trying to not be handsome and walking around looking like the weight of the world is on their shoulders."
The Town Is Phony
Ben Affleck is one of the best directors working today, and one of his biggest achievements is 2010's The Town, an intense, compelling, and thrilling heist drama. And while Tarantino does admit to liking the film, according to The Boston Globe, he calls it "phony" simply due to how good-looking everyone is in the movie.
The director does have a point, as he notes that whether it's a bank robber, a prostitute, or even a bank teller, everyone in the film is just so beautiful, and it breaks the immersion. Tarantino compares the film to The Fighter, which was another Boston-based movie released in the same year and has much more realistic casting.
The Matrix Reloaded Is Bad
In an interview with Vulture, Quentin Tarantino revealed that when he was shooting Kill Bill he was worried about the competition and the threat that The Matrix Reloaded posed, as the two films were released in the same year.
However, Tarantino was ultimately relieved after seeing the sequel. And he amusingly notes that when he was walking out of the theatre in 2003, he wanted to sing "S-dot-Carter/Y’all must try harder/Competition is nada" from Jay-Z's "S. Carter." But Reloaded doesn't deserve the slamming it constantly gets, and it's a sequel that's only bad compared to its predecessor.
Scream Did A Bad Job At Being Satirical
Scream is one of the most unique horror movies ever made, as it expertly mocks horror genre cliches while still paying homage to them. And though it was critically praised and spawned a hugely successful franchise, Tarantino's feelings on the movie don't align with the consensus.
According to NME, Tarantino didn't like how Wes Craven directed Scream, calling the legendary horror director "the iron chain attached to the film's ankle that kept it earthbound and stopped it from going to the moon." But as the movie is a simple slasher-flick, many other horror franchises have followed through on outrageous ideas, and Scream doesn't need to be one of those.
There's Nothing Wrong With The Sheer Amount Of Bare Feet In His Movies
Tarantino's movies are always universally acclaimed, and there has only ever been one movie that hasn't been loved by audiences. However, his movies aren't without their problems, and one of the strangest trademarks belonging to the director is the use of bare feet.
The number of bare feet in all of his movies has always been called into question, but the director doesn't think it's an issue. Tarantino argues that "there’s a lot of feet in a lot of good directors’ movies. That’s just good direction," and he cites that other filmmakers like Sofia Coppola and Alfred Hitchcock have been accused of having a foot fetish too.