It seemed like two different films to me

Rating: 5/10 (16 January 2016)

I'm a big Tarantino fan and have more or less enjoyed all of his movies. After seeing the The Hateful 8 in cinema though, I left quite disappointed, angered even. The film runs at almost three hours long, which for me means that it must be really, really good to keep me interested. Then again, this is Tarantino, who I love most for his ability to write strangely funny, unorthodox dialogue, dynamic storyline and utilizes innovative cinematography, so if anyone deserves a fair chance for making movies this long it's him. What I saw were pretty much two films in one.
1. The first half(film) I loved. It had all the elements of a great Western, with wonderful panoramic shots, diverse characters, Tarantino trademark dialogue, the plot complicating and suspense increasing at a rather slow pace, which some may find boring, but which I really enjoyed as I found it to be perfectly suitable with the setting of the film (aren't we all already tired of all the fast-paced senseless ridiculous action movies?). I thought to myself, this is going to be another great one. But there was also the second film.
2. Now I can't go into any details because I wouldn't want to spoil the film and reveal plot details, but it was downhill from here on for me. with Tarantino kicking in with his excessive exaggerated violence, which I found quite pointless, adding nothing to the plot. Now I know it's Tarantino, he likes to use over-the-top violence, but in his other films it was at least somewhat understandable, maybe still exaggerated but within the context of the film. Here I failed to see the purpose of it. It seemed like he just ran out of ideas so he overextended the movie with pointless, gory, disgusting violence, which was completely irrelevant to the previously established setting, and not funny at all. He uses over-the-top violence for comedic effect in other movies, but in my opinion it failed here, if that was his purpose. It was just bad and distasteful.
Yes, maybe his point was to criticize today's American society, obsessed with guns, violence and money. Rightly he does so, but I believe the method he used is all wrong. There was no need for that kind of nonsensical brutality to convey a message in a Western. When people go see a Western they still want to simply enjoy the movie, not watching brutal, absurd massacre, thinking of becoming a vegetarian. This was Tarantino's first movie, where I was actually glad and happy it was over. For me his worst film.
To end on a good note, the cast was very good, I would especially applaud Kurt Russel's performance, probably his finest so far.