In this strangely productive phase of Quentin Tarantino’s career — remember those six years he took off between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill: Vol. 1?  — one has to take the great with the not-so-great. The man has never been accused of trying too little, and so for every neo-masterpiece like Inglorious Basterds there’s an overdone mess like Kill Bill: Vol. 2.

With this in mind, one needs to be sanguine about what awaits us in his Christmas release, Django Unchained. Certainly there’s something to be eager for in a film that looks to be part spaghetti western homage and part blaxploitation revenge flick (though the gleaming Robert Richardson cinematography doesn’t look quite grimy enough for a proper homage), and also features Samuel L. Jackson with a frightening set of eyebrows and the prospect of Leonardo di Caprio having more fun on screen than Christoph Waltz.

Either way, the new trailer is set to James Brown, so it works.