Tarantino's career in one movie

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2016)

"The Hateful Eight" is, as the title already suggests, the 8th film by Academy Award winner Quentin Tarantino as writer and director. As usual with him, the cast consists mostly of actors with whom he has worked a lot in the past already. One great example would be Michael Madsen. Same goes for the crew as well. And also in terms of the action, it is a lot we have seen in previous Tarantino films too. It is pretty violent, also very graphic, but that should come as no surprise. People will moan and whine about how graphic it is at times (for example Bichir's last scene or Leigh's), some may even call it misogynistic with all Leigh's character has to endure and how she is depicted, but if you take a closer look, not really anybody in this film has a positive character. They are all scumbags and they basically all get what they deserve. And finally, in terms of the quality, it is a perfect film to mirror Tarantino's works so far. Sometimes it's great, almost always it's good, rarely it's bad.
My favorite performance probably comes from Samuel L. Jackson. His scene with Dern is one of the best of the film, same goes for the ending and the early scenes in the carriage. His investigation scene into who poisoned the "coffy" was very memorable too. Walton Goggins finally shows on the big screen how great of an actor he is and Jennifer Jason Leigh shines as well, confirms her 1st Academy Award nomination as the only major female player in this movie. Madsen shines more through charisma than through great range, but that's the usual with him and not a surprise really. It's also all good, he created one of the more memorable characters from this movie. The biggest disappointment was maybe Tim Roth who is a lot better than what we see from him here, a poor man's version of Christopher Waltz' characters from his last 2 Tarantino films. And honestly Waltz in "Django" was already a pretty poor man's version of Waltz in "Basterds". Speaking about these films, I think overall "The Hateful Eight" is on par with "Django", but clearly weaker than "Basterds". Western may not be Tarantino's best genre.
This may also be the reason why he did not get an Oscar nomination for his script this time or for Best Direction/Picture. Still, it's very Tarantino. If you like him as a filmmaker, you will certainly have a good time watching this work here. It runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, an impressive duration, but this is also no news for Tarantino and it's very impressive how his films almost never drag. Thumbs up for that. Quite an achievement. Another recurring aspect is the lack of chronology. I had some issues with it while watching, but as a final verdict I have to admit, it is working here again too. The way he brought in the early events from the cabin was spot-on and helps in understanding the entire story before the spectacular ending. As a whole, I enjoyed the watch. "The Hateful Eight" is not one of the filmmaker's very best efforts, but it's still worth the watch from start to finish. I am also curious if it gets Ennio Morricone his first competitive Academy Award. He seems on course. Check out if you like Tarantino's other works. If not, then skip it. I personally recommend it.