video
A violent look at slavery
Even as director Quentin Tarantino peppers the dialogue in "Django Unchained" (R, 165 minutes, Weinstein Co./Anchor Bay) with racial epithets, he doesn't shrink from the inhumane realities of 19th-century America: One of the film's first shots captures the scarred backs of several men as they're force-marched through Texas in chains. That's where the title character (Jamie Foxx) meets a bounty hunter named Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Django assures Schultz that he can identify the three men Schultz is looking for and agrees to help him if Schultz will help him find his wife, Broomhilda. Django comes to resemble Nat Turner by way of Clint Eastwood, an archetypal vigilante radically redefined across the ages. For viewers who share Tarantino's love of genre, "Django Unchained" is enormously satisfying. But colorful characters and performances can mask thinly schematic underpinnings for only so long. Eventually Tarantino resorts to bathing everything and everyone in gunfire, gore and geysers of blood. Contains strong graphic violence, profanity and some nudity.
Also out Tuesday:
Movies: "One Day on Earth," "A Monster in Paris," "A Whisper to a Roar," "The Colombian Connection," "At the Gate of the Ghost," "Save the Date," "The Great Divide," "Crazy Enough," "The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia," "Future Weather," "Makers: Women Who Make America," "Eclipse Series 38: Masaki Kobayashi Against the System," "Not Suitable for Children," "4Some," "DisneyNature: Wings of Life," "Dragon," "Iron Man: Rise of Technovore," "Pedal-Driven," "Delhi Safari," "WWII Diaries: Vol. 1 Sept. 1939-June 1942."
TV: "China Beach" (series), "The French Chef: Julia Child's Dinner Party Favorite," "Counting Cars" (Season 1), "Flash Gordon" (series), "Parade's End," "Women in Love," "Secrets of War: Espionage," "Secrets of War: Shadows of the Reich."
Blu-ray: "Repo Man."
Gadget
Hercules backpack lives up to its name
The new Hercules (K7102) backpack from ECBC ($139.99, available in berry, black, blue, green and linen; www.ec-bc.com) is all you need for a laptop (up to 17 inches), tablet and accessories. The backpack is well made with 1,000-denier Kodra, a heavy-duty nylon with a water-repellent coating. The main compartment can accommodate big, bulky headphones along with power supplies, cords, cables, sunglasses or whatever you want. There are several other compartments. Unfilled, the backpack measures 18.4 by 12.13 by 7.1 inches and weighs 2.7 pounds. Even filled to capacity, it fits under an airplane seat. There's an adjustable ergonomic shoulder strap and side pockets for water bottles.
McClatchy News Service
Phone
T-Mobile offers iPhone 5 trade-in deal
T-Mobile is offering a deal to users who trade in their iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S and sign up for the new Simple Choice Plan: an iPhone 5 for no money down and 24 payments of $20. The special offers customers a credit of $100-$120, depending on the condition of the device they trade in, which can be used as part of the monthly payment or to buy accessories. The T-Mobile iPhone 5 is the first major device released since the company dropped service contracts and rolled out its Simple Choice Plan, which includes unlimited talk and text and half a gigabyte of high-speed Internet data for $50 a month. Users can choose to pay an additional $10 a month for a total of 2.5 gigabytes of high-speed data or $20 for unlimited high-speed usage. Adding a second line costs $30 a month, and each line after that costs $10 a month. The special will be available until June 16.
