Quentin Tarantino’s The Movie Critic could’ve been Avengers: Endgame for the Tarantiniverse
The now-defunct project sounds like it is better left to the imagination
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Photo: Denis Makarenko
The Movie Critic, Quentin Tarantino’s now-abandoned tenth and final film, is now relegated to the what-if portion of Tarantino’s career. Like Double V Vega and Kill Bill Vol. 3, it is now another unproduced idea for the filmmaker’s filing cabinet. However, the filing cabinet casket and the author aren’t the only things these movies have in common. Per The Hollywood Reporter, The Movie Critic was the kind of crossover event film we’re all sick of.
Last week, The Movie Critic came to an abrupt end after Tarantino “simply changed his mind” on the project. Billed as the auteur’s tenth and final film, Movie Critic slowly but surely became one of the most anticipated movies of 2025. Its cancellation came as a surprise to, well, everybody despite Tarantino doing this every so often. Still, the movie was expected to enter production later this year, but it doesn’t sound like he ever settled on an idea.
The Movie Critic was reportedly set to reteam Tarantino and Brad Pitt, who previously won an Academy Award for playing a stuntman who is as real as a donut, and surprisingly, he was going to reprise the role. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the project “morphed” to include Cliff Booth. But that’s not the only member of the Tarantinverse taking a portal from one movie to another. The director was “toying” with the idea of being a send-off to his cinematic universe, allowing characters from old movies to appear in this one. An idea was also to include a young Tarantino proxy via a 16-year-old usher at an adult movie theater. These cameos were set within “movie within a movie” situations or as the in-universe actors who play Tarantino’s characters. Still, we can’t help but imagine the opening-night applause when Honey Bunny and Pumpkin step through a portal into a screening of Rio Lobo only to get thrown out by young Tarantino. Now, that would be a tasty burger.
Unfortunately, that will never come to pass. Many rumors regarding the film, including speculation that Tom Cruise and former Tarantino stars John Travolta, Jamie Foxx, and Margot Robbie would appear, are now left to myth. We’ll never know if Olivia Wilde was really going to play Pauline Kael or if David Krumholtz was actually going to play Pauline Kael. We’ll never know who would have played Pauline Kael because the movie will never happen—unless Tarantino changes his mind again.
44 Comments
This makes total sense. Tarantino is the kind of guy who is narcissistic/confident enough to write some masturbatory bullshit but also self aware enough to realize that it is bullshit and scrap it for something a little less masturbatory. And I say that as a fan.
As someone who can’t stand him, this works for me.
You do have absolutely dreadful taste though so that’s probably a compliment for QT
Nailed it xD
Yeah he really strikes me as the sort who is high on his own supply, but the supply is pretty good. I find myself at the ends of most of his movies going “Damn, he kinda did it again.” Maybe he could tell that special “it” was going to be missing from this.
but also self aware enough to realize that it is bullshit and scrap it for something a little less masturbatory.
I mean, what does make it on screen is still pretty masturbatory and un-self-aware. But I suppose all of it is relative to the supreme bullshit ideas of his we never even hear about.
True, but most of the time he is more masturbatory in a self-indulgent way. Like Mike Flanagan monologues or the entirety of Magnolia (both of which I love). Assuming this article is true, what he initially wrote was full-on perineum tanning public indecency charges levels of masturbatory. A real ceiling painter. He would be right to scrap that, last movie or not.
Kudos for taking that metaphor and stroking it for all it was worth.
I take a lot of pleasure in it.
Completely fair analysis. He’s learned with age how to toe that line very delicately.
Thing is I found myself wanting to see the movie described above.God help me, I did.
Just make 11 movies you boring bastard.
if there ever was a director who would have a fun redbox era…
Does this movies that only come out in those kiosks? Like the modern equivalent of direct-to-video?
The modern equivalent of Redbox direct-to-video is Peacock’s horror section. I am a genuine horror aficionado, and I have not heard of 2/3 of the absolute schlock they have on there. It’s honestly the single most impressive pile of shit movies I’ve seen since those giant-ass Blockbuster stores that had to have every movie they could find on videotape.
Was this written by AI or are you just that bad at writing?Also, it’s ‘relegated’, not ‘regulated’
We need a well-relegated militia to defend against this kind of writing.
We can program a bot to generate this sort of snark.
That sounds like a job for Bender!
Beep boop sometimes bot make typo
“The Movie Critic was reportedly set to reteam Tarantino and Brad Pitt, who previously won an Academy Award for playing a stuntman who is as real as a donut, and surprisingly, he was going to reprise the role.”I’ve read the above sentence like 10 times and have no clue what it means.I actually had no idea Pitt won the supporting actor Oscar for OUATIH, but what is “real as a donut”??
I also had a “WTF” reaction to that “real as a donut”, but it turns out that’s a quote from Pitt’s character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
It’s the line Tex says to Cliff when they break into his house and Cliff, tripping balls, realizes they are real. Tex replies, “I’m as real as a donut, motherfucker.”
Ah ok, I saw the movie once, and don’t remember this line.
It’s cool, I probably wouldn’t have remembered either except I kept getting reels of that scene all last week.
I remembered the quote from the final scene of Once Upon a Time (and honestly, doesn’t that just sound like a Tarantino line?) —but I did have to read it a couple of times to figure out the point of the sentence.
Regulators, mount up!!
Tarantino is a guy I want to just disappear between movies. Everytime he opens his mouth I get mad at myself for enjoying his movies.
Who is this “we” you are referring to, buddy?
I don’t get why creatives announce retirement, you never know if you will change your mind. Just stop making films until an idea comes to you? And if another idea doesn’t come to you that’s fine too. I have to think that the ones who make a big announcement do this just like the fans begging for a comeback or to not do it.
Ehh, I think it comes down to “I hope I die before I get old” sounding a lot better at 18 or even 30 than at retirement age.
Yes, exactly, you have to go away to come back.
Of course you are right, but I would guess that sometimes it’s to market the film and sometimes it’s just a honest response to a question. Still, they should play it close to the vest and just quietly retire if that is what they want to do.
For accountability? Maybe he wants to walk away while he is still making good movies, and by putting it out in the public, it adds more pressure to stick to his word.
I just Googled it and according to an article from 2016 he had already said he was gonna retire 4 times at that point. I am forty who has followed him since I watched Pulp Fiction (yes I watched that movie at a wildly inappropriate age) and for me he is embarrassing himself with the retirement announcements which probably has reached 7 times at this point. Maybe a more casual fan who doesn’t know that thinks it’s no big deal but it affects my enjoyment of his films. Basically I get why Fiona Apple quit cocaine after doing cocaine with Tarantino.
I don’t get what you mean. As far as I know he’s always said he’s retiring after 10 films.
Well he’s already at ten so he can stop. And yes, Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 are two separate films.
🤷♂️ He considers them one. I dunno why anyone else would care.
I think this is how Marvel ultimately decides which movies they’re going to make—just announce a bunch of wild-ass ideas and see which ones get talked about the most and make those movies.
With Sam Jackson playing half of the roles, I assume…
that’s what we need is a SMJ film like the Murphy as the Klumps…
Olivia Wilde as Pauline Kael, but dubbed with Jessie Buckley’s voice. Man, that Kael sequence in I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (2020) was a cinematic gift.
I for one was never excited for this, especially reteaming with Pitt, who shouldn’t have gotten an Oscar… I’m still waiting for him to revive another career ala Travolta, Grier, Keaton, etc… or new blood like Waltz…
“The Avengers Endgame of the Tarantino-verse” — you literally could not have come up with another grouping of words that would make me less want to see such a thing. I can’t even imagine the level of self-indulgent wankery that would entail…