Excellent Hollywood Western with lots of grit and surprises

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2015)

Loved the movie! It offers many of traditional Hollywood Western movies' best attributes, together with gritty realism and a great "who done it" plot!
One historical quibble: reference is made to a Confederate Civil War POW camp in West Virginia. WV became a state separate from Virginia in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, precisely because western Virginians largely disagreed with secession and war. WV residents generally were quite poor, and owned few slaves, so they largely sided with the Union and, throughout the war, the state was a bastion of Lincoln's Armies, and, as such, never hosted a rebel-run POW camp.
Otherwise, though, "The Hateful Eight" is a clever, thrilling and surprising ride. The characters, scenery and costumes are impressively accurate and surely conjure up a genuine "Wild West" feel. Led by Kurt Russell's toughest-of-the-tough bounty hunting gunslinger role, the cast is strong, convincing and entertaining.
Finally, the plot is excellent, as it constantly shifts to new nuances, moving toward a wholly unknowable conclusion, with lots of great twists, turns and surprises along the way!