QT far from what we know Identity meets the usual suspects and almost ends up as a Mansion mystery

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2015)

Tarantino has a wild reputation for being the director known for non-linear stories, asymmetric character development through verbiages, radical to moderate to liberal characters all in one frame kind of cinema that has kept us, at least me, entertained since reservoir dogs.
He can be easily distinguished from his way of imagining things, artwork, the old school ways of instilling you with sense of unease, which work damn good every time. His last western, Django Unchained, was a roller coaster ride of revenge saga of a slave with help of his suave, smooth talking partner, which Tarantino seems to be desperately missed while filming the Hateful Eight.
A group of different people are stuck in a blizzard and have to take shelter at a Passover called Minnie's haberdashery. They can't leave until the storm subdues. One of them isn't what he or she claims to be. And then begins the tale of deception, thrill, flashbacks, excessively verbose but crucial dialogues, few intense moments, with mansion mystery style flavor added (like revealing something taking place now, in the flashback, with narrative explaining what's going on) which kind of makes it a good watch – unless you are a Tarantino fan. I have never assumed Tarantino to be this obvious storyteller. Always I have watched his movies with my own theories and I was so glad he blew them out each time with his own set. I expected his films to surprise me, they rather blew me. Not this time. In short, this film is nothing like what you expect QT to throw at you. More like Ridley Scott or one of those directors whose movie got critical acclaim for god knows what reason. There are hardly any surprises, storyline is predictable, violence is nowhere to be seen albeit in few places. Ruthless, unrelenting atmosphere that he usually creates, doesn't really gets at peak. Every QT flick has a sequence that is remembered for ages to come: Ear ripping off on chair, post robbery carnage in Reservoir Dogs, Climax with Mexican standoff, self-realization of Jules in Pulp fiction The long take in Kill Bill, final battle (this entire series is remarkable) Astounding opening to Inglorious Bastards (probably one of the greatest opening scenes of all time), Bar standoff, when French girl actually meets her family's annihilator, Redemption of Django and his deeds as a free 'slave' in Django Unchained, confrontation post 'D is silent' scene and finale
I may have missed plenty of scenes here, but point being each one of his movies have some scenes which have immense repeat watch value. Hateful Eight itself is a cumbersome movie, with even more tedious character development and draggy first half that leaves little to no scope in the room for unpredictability or remarkability. The premise isn't something which we haven't seen before, and add on to that, Tim Roth's impersonation both in terms of appearance and speech, starkly reminded me of Christopher Waltz's suave mannerisms in Django Unchained, which kinda made me wonder the purpose of it. There are no catchy dialogues, no worthy one liners which I could keep note of, maybe there were, I missed to take note of them.
Second half does some justice to compensate the first half's boring prologues, but it fails to get a grip over the entire play, by the time it climaxes and to explain several questions and give out answers to them. *********SPOILERS START: Skip this section if you haven't seen the movie********* Why kill entire haberdashery's staff than to ask them to either go along with the play, or get the hell out in the stagecoach? Which one of the spiked the coffee? Joe says he did, but that is unclear given his seating from the coffee jug and the POV we get to see the hands and wide angle take at Domergogue's face? Snow after unprecedented blizzard will melt out in two days? How sure they could be? If her fifteen men are awaiting her arrival at red neck, and waiting for snow to clear out in two days (but hello? They plan to stay in Passover for two days, right?) why interrupt them in the middle of nowhere? Why not catch them by throats when they arrive in full force? Why cross swords with those who have got nothing to do with you? *********SPOILERS END: Carry on reading here onwards************
Summing it up, this movie is great only if it weren't from Tarantino's stable. You certainly feel like missing many typical elements of a Tarantino flick, especially after last two glorious movies he churned out. Only the most ardent fans of QT will not be disappointed, for haters, it's the easiest pick after deathproof and for appreciators of QT, like me, are certainly in for a disappointment.