Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" Stars DiCaprio, Pitt and Margot Robbie

"Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is written & directed by Quentin Tarantino.  I'll save you time & cut to the chase - the film is ho-hum & lackluster despite an excellent cast & creative re-writing of events surrounding the gruesome Hollywood murders of movie actress Sharon Tate.  Tate was married and pregnant with director Roman Polanski's child.  While 8 months pregnant, Polanski was abroad while Tate was in their Hollywood home.  She was not alone and her guests were also victims of this brutal & scandalous melee included in the zeitgeist of the late 1960s.  Tarantino draws out terrific performances from a cast that probably needs little direction including DiCaprio, Pitt, Margot Robbie, Daniela Pick (Tarantino's wife who plays DiCaprio's wife) and Bruce Durn in a small but unforgettable turn.  The look & sound both on the set and off the TV stage set where Rick Dalton (Leonard DiCaprio) is playing an aging, "useless" western actor shadowed by his unflappable stunt double and hired lackey, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).  Dalton's career is becoming washed up (thanks in part to his heavy boozing).  Booth is clinging to his stunt-man career at the heels of Booth.  Needless, Booth's self-defense skills & wherewithal serve both him & Dalton well.  Dalton lives next door to Sharon Tate & Roman Polanski.  Their neighborly paths are sure to cross.  The buildup to the high noon shootout massacre that occurred at the Tate home on August 8th, 1969 is tedious and dried up.  Quentin adds his fairytale rewriting of history around the Manson clan and Tate mansion murders.  Fans of Quentin's bloody fights will not be disappointed nor will fans of this epoch.  In fact, the fabricated ending is inordinately preferable as was his ingenious ending in "Inglorious Basterds."  However, the events in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" are shallow and unsatisfying in their build-up to the expected twist to historic twisted event.  The film begs to be revered but it's too helter-skelter to feel ignited.