The most disappointing film of 2015...

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2015)

The Hateful Eight is Quentin Tarantino's latest odyssey into his depraved and (somehow) brilliant mind. Unfortunately, those looking for a repeat performance from Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds will walk away very disappointed. The Hateful Eight is merely a three hour epic dedicated to showing just how great Robert Richardson is as a cinematographer and how full of himself Tarantino can be. It features some of the weakest Tarantino we've seen since Jackie Brown. The film starts by introducing us (slowly) to each of the titular eight, played by Kurt Russel, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins (who steals the show) and Demian Bichir. Among the eight, we're peppered with new faces to Tarantino's world along with some very familiar ones. Along with the familiar faces, we're given a familiar story, one that is closer to Reservoir Dogs with a mix of And Then There Were None... To be completely honest here, The Hateful Eight is Tarantino's worst effort as a writer and a director but it is his best film visually. The film is more of a showcase for Robert Richardson's impeccable cinematography rather than a typical showcase of Tarantino's talents. While there are some truly brilliant (yet bloated) dialog pieces, especially one from Samuel L. Jackson that is AMAZING, the film is so lopsided and uneven that it makes it hard for the audience to fully enjoy what's there to be enjoyed. For the first two hours or so, we are subjected to one bloated monologue after another then for the last hour we're subjected to a blood and bullets fest that is awesome to see but comes too late in the film to care about. The run time is where Tarantino is the most self indulging. Most of these scenes could have easily been cut down to gain a better sense of pace, but Tarantino is so confident that his material is brilliant that he just let's us bask in it. While these performances are perfection, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is absolutely brilliant in this role and deserves any award that they throw her way, the film ultimately suffers from it's best attribute...Quentin Tarantino, himself. The problem here is that this film is nowhere near interesting enough to sustain a three hour run time. The scenes of banter between the nasty eight are scenes that could have used a serious editing session. At best, the film stands as an ode to classical cinema and it succeeds in doing that. Outside of that, The Hateful Eight is a painfully slow film that could have benefited from about 30 minutes of cuts and a director that isn't so self indulging in the way he makes a film. However, at the end of the day, we're left with what we are left with. The Hateful Eight is not only the most disappointing film of 2015, it is also the most bloated. As a Tarantino fan, I was disappointed but I will say this: The Hateful Eight is one of Tarantino's worst films...but even his worst film would be any other director's masterpiece so keep that in mind.