Utterly captivating but ultimately a bit hollow

Rating: 7/10 (13 February 2016)

As always, Tarantino commands the viewer's attention effortlessly. Once again, there are brilliant characters, snappy dialogue, and violence almost elevated to an art form. It's buckets of fun.
The "hateful eight" aren't good guys. There are two bounty hunters (Jackson, Russell), a criminal on her way to be hung (Jason Leigh), a new sheriff (Goggins), an elderly general who used to be a confederate (Dern), a hangman (Roth) and a 'cowboy' (Madsen). They're trapped in a cabin during a blizzard. And so the premise is, Kurt Russell's bounty hunter says: "One of those men's not who he says he is".
It's a tantalizing mystery, a hook, and I would never spoil anything for anyone. Except to say I sort of expected...more. The entire film is captivating but the first half is perfection; the second half gets a bit messy. It's like an Agatha Christie book - a needlessly convoluted murder plot is revealed... when in fact the whole thing SURELY could've been done a little easier? It gets messy, and even though the last few scenes are a lot of blood-n-guts-y fun, I walked away feel a tiny bit short-changed. Tarantino's earlier two films, Django and Inglourious, always leave me feeling exhausted, elated, inspired, excited. This one left me a bit ... meh.
Still, any Tarantino is better than none at all, and a 7/10 is hardly a bad review. It's hard trying to outdo yourself when you've set the bar too high. I still say this is a must-watch!