I've said it before and I'll say it again . . . Tarantino is an immature hack, or at least EXTREMELY overrated. When he can tell a story without using 55 gallon drums of stage blood to get his point across, then I'll be impressed.
OK, I get it. "It's only a movie," and that Tarantino's whole point is using violence partly as an element of absurdist fantasy. And I loved Boondock Saints as much as the next guy, and it's in the same genre as Tarantino's films. But the violence and profanity there helped make the point.
But I also agree with Pags; I've been to a few movies lately where I've frankly been a little bothered at the callousness of the audience. I'd bet that the majority of people sitting in a theater laughing about someone getting beaten to death with a baseball bat would be quivering in a puddle of their own urine if someone came after THEM with a baseball bat.
I'm not saying that as an Internet Tough Guy or claiming I'd be any different; I just believe modern society is getting inured to some pretty horrific stuff, and I'm not convinced that it doesn't have an effect on how we think, the people we vote into office, the laws we pass, and how we interact with the rest of the world. Not even to get into the moral implications. Keeping in mind that those of us here are going to be most likely to be the ones sent by said people and politicians to go do the real thing.
Feel free to take shots at how I sound like an old fart, but that's just my $0.02.