Tarantino's Best of the 2010s

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2016)

Django Unchained showed us that Quentin Tarantino is a chameleon of genres. He can go from a crime thriller to a crime thriller with multiple characters told unchronologically to a Blacksploitation film to a Kung Fu Revenge film to a Grindhouse flick to an awesome World War 2 Action film to a Southerner. Now we have a Tarantino Western with some of the most despicable people in the Tarantino universe. The Hateful Eight is an amalgamation of all of Tarantino's best work that creates one of the most epic westerns of all time. Not only an entertaining film but a great study into racial tension that seems all too true nowadays. Tarantino brings us the masterpiece that no one was expecting to be a masterpiece.
The Hateful Eight stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walter Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, and Bruce Dern who are bounty hunters and crooks that are stuck in Minnie's Haberdashery for 2 days as a blizzard is happening. I don't want to give away anything from the plot but that's all you need to know about the movie. A lot of people are comparing this to Clue when really it's basically Reservoir Dogs in the Old West. Seeing as Reservoir Dogs is one of Quentin's best it definitely made the movie more interesting as I sat there watching the 70mm film. It's story is by far way more suspenseful than Reservoir Dogs and is quite possibly his best film he's done. For me, it's a close second with Inglorious Basterds being #1 for me. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and amazing. I quote more lines from this than any other Tarantino film. I love how Tarantino goes back to a more simplistic film. The movie is set 90% of the time at the Haberdashery and it lets the characters actions become more intense. It's storytelling at its best.
Tarantino is a master director and has a style that thousands (such as myself) try to recreate. The Hateful Eight is filled with great dialogue that never made for a dull moment in the film. That's a huge compliment seeing as how this film was 3 hours and 7 minutes at my screening. The reason I say at my screening is that The Hateful Eight has something extremely special for the 70mm Roadshow. As an homage to movies of the 1960s it includes a 3 minute overture and a 15 minute intermission. I can only dream right now as to what a regular screening of the film compares to this roadshow version. But this is the version that's the way to go. A film such as this is so epic that it made me feel a fury of emotions. It made me laugh, it made me disgusted (in a good way), it made me think. Not many films have made me feel those emotions this year and luckily Tarantino is able to pull it off wonderfully.
As per usual the entire cast of The Hateful Eight is perfect. Samuel L. Jackson is the standout of this film. He plays a Union Major turned Bounty Hunter that is easily his best Tarantino role since Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. Other Tarantino alumni return such as Walter Goggins, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Zoe Bell that are fantastic but the true standout besides Sam Jackson is Jennifer Jason Leigh. She's been really impressing me this year with this being as good as her role in Anomalisa. This cast makes the film and keeps impressing me every time. Goggins is really the standout of this film and has great chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson's character.
Now, I can't finish my review without talking about Ennio Morricone's amazing score for this film. It is one of his best scores and it feels amazing to see an Ennio Morricone scored western. He even uses an unused song for John Carpenter's The Thing that fits in fantastically with the rest of the movie. It's almost as good as The Ecstasy of Gold. Go check out the soundtrack for The Hateful Eight. Definitely worth the hear.
The Hateful Eight is One of the Greatest Westerns of All Time. Tarantino can transbound genres with his style. The Hateful Eight is the most fun I've had in a theater since Star Wars The Force Awakens. See this as soon as possible. This and Carol are seriously the Top 2 movies you need to see this year. It's amazing directing, tight cast and unbelievable script make it worth the price of admission.