some places you can't leave without a fight

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2015)

Quentin Tarantino has made a career paying homage to cult movies, often casting little known or retired/forgotten actors. Having focused on revenge with "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained", he shifts his focus with "The Hateful Eight". The setting here is a haberdashery in the snowed-in mountains of Wyoming some time after the Civil War. A group of morally ambiguous people converge on the haberdashery, but all is not what it seems.
Tarantino continues his tradition of snappy, realistic dialogue, and over-the-top violence. To be certain, most of the characters in "The Hateful Eight" are smooth-talkers. Tarantino regular Samuel L. Jackson finally gets a lead role as a bounty hunter with extra insight into the haberdashery (and yes, Jackson does use the word that he pretty much always has to use in movies).
The story has to get seen in the context of the modern United States. Much of the story centers on the tension amongst the characters, in particular as it relates to race. Killings of unarmed black men continue to this day, and Tarantino even attended a rally against police brutality in New York. It's as though this octet represents the worst elements of the United States.
I liked the movie. Even if you don't know any of the references, you gotta love the characters played by Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and James Parks. All are scoundrels in one way or another, but they're determined to ride out this blizzard no matter what (and I do mean no matter what). I hope that it receives some Oscar nods.