Rent The Hateful Eight (2015)

In keeping with (the director's) history - The Hateful Eight review by CP Customer

Right at the start of the film, you are told this is Quentin Tarantino's 8th film. Which it is, if you strip out the partial films, the producer films etc. lets have a look:

Reservoir Dogs - brilliant cult hit, violence, unpleasant characters, sparkling crisp funny dialogue

Pulp fiction - the crossover film, violence, unpleasant characters, sparkling crisp funny dialogue

Jackie Brown - where he tries something different, less swearing and violence, more plot, a good film but disappointed some fans

Kill Bill 1 & II - the cartoon films - violence, unpleasant characters, sparkling crisp funny dialogue

inglourious basterds - Quentin does a war film, violence, unpleasant characters, crisp dialogue, questionable approach to history

Django Unchained - Quentin does slavery, more violence than ever before, unpleasant characters, some crisp dialogue

The Hateful Eight....

Can you see a pattern? Maybe it's me, but Tarantino has been doing his blood and gore with clever words schtick for 8 flims now, and I'm a bit bored. The violence ramps up, but the humour is decreasing. And there is a commonality of ending too, which means you've a fairly good idea of how the film will end before you start. The hateful eight continues the theme (this time, it's a western). Kurt Russell is worth watching, he's a vastly underrated actor and the best bit of the film. But I've reached the stage where I don't get excited about a Tarantino movie. I'd really like to see Tarantino go back to what he tried with Jackie Brown and do something slightly different. But this just a film where he rethreads his past glories into a new setting. Maybe if you are 18, and have never seen any of the first 7 films you'd be blown away (pardon the pun). But I can't see anything new here.

Make that nine. - The Hateful Eight review by Steve

Very long, poorly scripted, pointless revisionist western. I'm still angry. Maybe ok for lovers of gratuitous violence.

Stagey and tedious - The Hateful Eight review by Alphaville

Remember the long conversational scene at the start Inglorious Basterds? Tarantino has turned it into a 160min film. It feels longer. It begins slow, it continues slow, there’s a half-hour gory section, it fizzles out.

The endless chat about the Civil War and racism does little to advance character or plot. It’s self-indulgent, ponderous and tedious. Because it’s Tarantino, you may sit through it waiting for something to happen. You’ll wait a long time. This is a film made by someone in love with the sound of his own dialogue and little else. If he was a student scriptwriter he’d fail the course.

The opening snowscapes augur well but we’re soon inside a stagecoach, then a staging post, for the rest of the film. It’s like an Agatha Christie locked-room whodunit with stereotypical characters, none of whom we care about. Why film in Super Panavision 70 when it’s no more than a filmed play that nearly all takes place in confined spaces?

Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson etc, go through their usual paces. Ennio Morricone’s musical choices are ridiculous (White Stripes?!). Tarantino’s camera direction is banal. He needs someone to tell him.