One of the Most Uneven Movies I've Ever Seen

Rating: 6/10 (13 July 2016)

Quentin Tarantino is finally becoming the very thing he tries most to resist: a cliché.
I've continued to defend Tarantino against critics of his films who claim he does nothing but peddle in senseless violence and that he's made a career out of borrowing other filmmakers' styles rather than develop one of his own. But after "Django Unchained" and now "The Hateful Eight," I'm finding my interest in defending him starting to wane.
After reading the divisive reactions to "The Hateful Eight," many of which confirmed my sinking suspicions that I would be in for yet another pointless bloodbath like "Django," I found myself pleasantly surprised by the film's first half. Tarantino's penchant for creating colorful characters and giving them juicy dialogue is in full force, and he's assembled again a cast of actors who, even if in some cases aren't really good actors, are able to convince you for the length of this film that they are because they sound so good saying the things they're given to say. And some of them ARE good actors, like Jennifer Jason Leigh who steals the show as a degenerate gang leader, and who knows exactly how to land every joke Tarantino throws out, which are numerous and which make the first half a riot. But the movie, after all the rambling dialogue and plot exposition, has to eventually come to a conclusion, and unfortunately, Tarantino has seemingly lost all ability to end a movie in any way other than killing off all of his characters as gruesomely and graphically as possible. The very violence that used to give his movies punch and get people talking has now become boring and routine and, worst of all, predicable. I watched the end of this film play out and thought, "he gives us this great set up and these great actors and this is the only thing he can think of to do with it all?"
Tarantino has taken a lot of heat for being misogynistic and racist. I don't think he's a misogynist -- nothing happens to Leigh's character that wouldn't just as easily happen to any of the men, and in his own way Tarantino gives us a rather feminist character in his refusal to concede anything to Leigh's gender; she's as nasty, if not even more so, a piece of work as any of the male characters. As far as racism goes, I don't think Tarantino's a racist either, but I'm not sure what he's trying to say about race relations. If "The Hateful Eight" is any indication, he's saying that blacks have been so mistreated by whites that they are now free to do whatever they want to the white man with the added bonus of it being hilarious because it's so deserving. In this complicated and sensitive time of revived racial conflict, this is a poorly-timed moment to address the topic in so juvenile and facile a manner.
"The Hateful Eight" is above anything else one of the most uneven movies I've seen in a long time. It can't settle on a tone or a point of view. It's too long, too excessive, and Tarantino clings too rigidly to tricks (like topsy-turvy chronology) that have made his previous movies interesting but now just seem so tired. One thing I can unequivocally say the film has going for it is its magnificent score, courtesy of Ennio Morricone, who won a well-deserved Oscar for it. The rest of the film's not a wash, but it did leave me feeling like it's time for Tarantino to crawl out of the sandbox and start playing with the big boys.
Grade: B-