Excellent movie that is well worth your time

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2016)

I saw the 70mm Roadshow in Irvine. All in all it was a fantastic experience. The movie was excellent and the 3 hours playtime went by without us feeling bored once.
The cinematography is really impressive. To the point that the images, soundtrack and noise make you shiver in cold with the protagonists. The story is intensive, brutal at times but always captivating. Some scenes are very slow, but they work nonetheless flawlessly in the very tense atmosphere that this movie creates.
This movie deviates in several ways from the "typical" Tarantino movie. It has an excellent soundtrack, but it is mostly instrumental and does not have catchy tunes. The sound rather intimidates the audience and adds exquisitely to the dark atmosphere of the whole movie.
But the most important difference to previous movies is, that this movie is not funny. It is a hard, brutal and very intense thriller, that excels at exactly being this. The few funny scenes or dialogs (and to a certain extent even and oddly enough some very violent scenes by releasing some tension) make this tour de force thriller more enjoyable, but they are definitely not the main hook driving the movie.
And I assume this is also the problem with many bad reviews this movie has gotten. If you expect a witty, funny and sometimes over-the-top violent spectacle (like e.g. Django) this movie is definitely going to disappoint you. If you are prepared for a hard, brutal, and very dense thriller, this is the movie for you. And boy, does it deliver! Go see it in a movie theater. The fantastic cinematography and soundtrack will work best only on a big screen. We enjoyed it tremendously!