Tarantino is at it yet again.

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2016)

As Kurt Russell's bounty hunter meets Samuel L. Jackson's ex-military man on the snowy road to Red Rock, he warns him to slowly move forward, "molasses-like". Which is the perfect description for Quentin Tarantino's eighth motion picture. This is arguably the filmmaker's most languid flick, and at 167 minutes (the 70mm extended version lasting 187 minutes and including an intermission) the theatrical cut of this leisurely-paced western, which largely takes place in one room and a stagecoach, is a slow burning treat to be sure. Those with a high tolerance threshold for Tarantino's trademark pretentiousness are likely to enjoy on a much deeper level, as he pushes his (once again eminently quotable) dialogue to controversy-sparking extremes in purposely protracted conversations. That these prolonged scenes never bore are testament not only to QT's innate ability for razor sharp and uniquely-delivered dialogue, but also to his unsurpassed skill for producing memorable characters both on paper and, through his keen eye for casting, on the screen. The pick of the bunch is a four-way tie: Russell's John "the Hangman" Ruth is both tender and tough, Jackson's Major Warren is endearing and vicious, Walton Goggin's Sheriff Mannix is excitable and wormy, and Jennifer Jason Leigh (nominated for an Oscar) is rough as guts and just a little deranged as captured crim Daisy Domergue. As a once-proposed sequel to Django Unchained there's a similarity in tone and atmosphere to QT's previous movie, which is a small shame considering the usually drastic changes in setting and genre we have come to expect movie-to-movie. It's hard to complain about that too much though, especially when we're treated to Robert Richardson's sumptuous cinematography of a blizzard-encountering post-Civil War Wyoming and Ennio Morricone's Golden Globe-winning score that harks back to his classic spaghetti western scores of the 1960s. Sitting in the bottom half of his ridiculously impressive and consistent body of work, The Hateful Eight isn't the film that will garner Tarantino new fans, yet for everyone else this just another reason why the ultra-talented filmmaker is one of the finest of his generation.