Not the best Tarantino, but certainly good Tarantino

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2016)

Having literally seen this movie today, and to come out only an hour ago, I have the great chance to write a review with fresh thoughts on the movie. Given all the background info on this movie regarding the leaked script, QT's reluctance to actually make the movie after said leak, the format on which the movie would be shown - 70mm - I do have a lot of things to talk about a film by a filmmaker as individual and unique as Mr Tarantino himself.
When you talk about ANY Tarantino movie, there are always three things to discuss; the script, the music and the actors. The script in this film features all the Tarantino hallmarks, namely his ability to give all of the characters cool lines and individual traits to make them easily identifiable, and that's no difference here. There's a non-linear narrative that was cool, and got to use Channing Tatum's short but important role in the film as the leader of Daisy's gang, and in which his performance is strong. There's also a lot of violence that does serve a purpose but does feel slightly unsatisfactory due to the fact that all of the characters are hateful people, and there isn't a Django shooting Billy Crash in the nuts type set-up - there is a nut shooting scene, but its played out more for laughs than actually something more important. One thing that does hold the movie back, however, is that the story doesn't have the dynamic range that Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction or the Tarantino penned True Romance; in a way, he was ambitious to attempt a film as limited in scope and location and make it work like a play, but it doesn't work quite as well as he thought it would - just my opinion there, but it is still as good as anything he's previously written.
The actors are standout, and given the lack of overly big names outside of Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell and Channing Tatum, it is very good to say that this movie works amazingly well as an ensemble. Main standouts of the film are Jackson, Tatum, Russell, Damien Bichir as Bob the Mexican who was unexpectedly funny and a nice bit of casting, Walton Goggins who is - really - the only character with a story arc revolving his racist views completely by the end. Jennifer Jason Leigh, as the only woman on the main bill, is astonishingly good. Daisy Domergue is a feral, vicious, violent woman who despite going through injury after injury keeps on that path in a way that is spine-chillingly scary, but Leigh gives her moments of pity (not sympathy - NEVER sympathy) and humour, as well as cunning. Sadly though, due to the reasons regarding violence I previously discussed, her death felt very empty, kind of like Hans Landa's punishment, which was a disappointing way to end the movie.
Additionally, I need to close off by praising the soundtrack and the cinematography in buckets of it; the score of the movie is hauntingly good and perfectly captures the Western influences of the movie, as well as the claustrophobic sense of paranoia and distrust going on in the subtext of the story. The 70mm thing is wonderful too - how the camera just disappears into right into the thing in the foreground and perfectly captures the scope of the environment; this gives it not just a sense of epic design to it, but also makes it feel like a movie from the Ben-Hur period.
A couple of criticisms; the violence (which is to be expected) just felt hollow, but NOT unnecessary - one instance is particularly important - the story doesn't feel dynamic enough to make it truly great, but the big one is how dated this feels. And I know it's the intention ala Death Proof, where a movie is made in a certain fashion as homage to another tradition, but it was obscenely overdone. It just kept holding the movie back for me, but it didn't make me regret seeing it, as there were so many good points that it really made me glad I saw it.