Tarantino's? Call it, Self-karaoke

Rating: 1/10 (25 January 2016)

Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' never reaches the same level of excitement or acuity of Quentin's earlier cinematic intelligence. Remember the startling 'Reservoir Dogs' and its 'eight' crooks played by Harvey, Tim, Chris, Steve, Lawrence, Michael, Eddie and Quentin himself? I'd say Quentin is getting worse and worse keeping making Tarantino's film. I mean, this new talkie has a glorious opening act though only up to an awful close-up, Samuel L. Jackson's face, as if he had come out fresh from a hairdresser parlor... well, from there on, the movie is just poorly directed. Despite it's been lovingly photographed on heroic 70mm film stock – to me, it's a total lack of empathy, lack capacity for hope, fear, love, hate. Shallow emotions, why bother? He once remarked: "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, no, I went to films" – that was Quentin at its best. Today's lesson for Tarantino: "if you do a pastiche don't do a pastiche of your own style".