Enjoyable, except for one glaring plot hole

Rating: 7/10 (28 May 2020)

I genuinely enjoyed this Tarantino movie, as I have for all that I've seen of his. As usual, the cast was great. Samuel L Jackson and Kurt Russell were exceptional, and you have the solid performances from Tarantino mainstays such as Walton Goggins, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. Let me give a quick shout out to Jennifer Jason Leigh as well for her performance of the despicable fugitive, Daisy Domergue. This movie has all the trademarks of Tarantino film as well: overly wordy, drawn out, slow build up, plot twists and provocative use of the "n" word. It checks all the boxes. But, this one has one big problem.
I loved the first 2 hours of the film, as I'm kind of a sucker for a well done 'who dunnit'. I enjoyed the characters, the dialogue, and the build up. The problem is the last 40 minutes or so, starting with the moment the coffee is poisoned. After O.B. and John Ruth died from the poisoning, there were just 2 guys left from that group, Major Maruquis Warren and Chris Mannix. There was still all of the original party there that were there to free Domergue, plus the guy in the crawl space. Now, when Major Warren lined up the other three along the wall to figure out what happened, why didn't the guy in the crawl space just shoot Major Warren right then, instead of letting him arm Mannix, and then ultimately kill 'Bob'? Think about it. It would have been now 4 against 1, and Mannix was unarmed. The other 3 had weapons stashed around the haberdashery, so they definitely had the advantage.
Even without this obvious plot hole, the last 40 minutes just don't measure up to the first 2 hours. I get the feeling that Tarantino never fully developed the right way to finish the story. Now, I also understand that killing Major Warren right away would basically end the movie, but I can argue that the movie was already 2 hours in, and maybe the right ending would be having the bad guys win. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if that was the way it went, but alas, it didn't.
One other issue I have with this movie is that it seems like everybody somehow knows each other. John 'the Hangman' Ruth recognizes Major Warren in the middle of nowhere. Then shortly later, he recognizes Chris Mannix. Then Mannix recognizes Warren. Keep in mind, this is all happening on a Wyoming trail, during a blizzard in a country and time that was much bigger than it is today. Then, at the haberdashery, Mannix recognizes General Smithers. Shortly later, Major Warren recognizes the General as well. It just came across as way too much of a coincidence that people from faraway somehow all know each other. It might make for some interesting dialogue, but it's a flaw with this film.
All in all, I did enjoy it. I just think there was a much better conclusion available than the one we got.