The Hateful Eight - directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Kurt Russell, Samuel L Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Demian Bichir, James Parks, Zoe Bell, Lee Horsley, Channing Tatum
Running Time: 167 minutes
Rated: R18 - Graphic Violence, Nudity (male) and profanity
Controversy isn't a stranger to the Academy Awards and sure enough this year has plenty with the lack of non-white nominees causing quite a stir.
Add to that the not quite as prominent issue of there being no nomination for Quentin Tarantino for "The Hateful Eight".
Eight movies have been selected for Best Picture contention with Tarantino missing out in this category and original screenplay.
In a year where "Straight Out Of Compton" scored a nomination for the latter this strikes many as odd.
I liked Compton without actually loving it and frankly to me whatever that movie's strengths are the script isn't one of them.
Of course that says nothing about the worth of Tarantino's screenplay but it was in my mind as sat down tonight to watch "The Hateful Eight".
I have been a staunch Tarantino fan since 1992 and the first time that I saw "Reservoir Dogs".
My admiration built with each new directing effort and even those projects which he merely had a writing hand.
There was a time in the nineties where his work outside of directing was everywhere - "Natural Born Killers", "From Dusk Til Dawn" and script tweaks on the likes of "Crimson Tide".
Something was starting to bother me by the time we got to the second "Kill Bill" movie though.
(Yes, I know that many including Tarantino himself consider the two movies one split in two)
It seemed that as a writer he only had one trick up his sleeve.
He relied heavily on pop culture references, sprawling monologues and an unnatural dialogue style and delivery that while pleasant in its uniqueness often took me out of the movie.
Refer to David Carradine's long monologue while making sandwiches in "Kill Bill: Volume II".
Good stuff but very self consciously a Tarantino piece of writing.
My love of "Inglourious Basterds" is to a great deal down to his ditching of this sort of thing.
It felt like a writer who had matured to the point where he was confident enough to let characters say more with less.
And then "Django Unchained" arrived and the bloat returned.
With "The Hateful Eight" it is well and truly back with a vengeance.
This movie runs at just under three hours and while long running times don't bother me as a rule the fact that this is ostensibly a drama confined to a single room gave me pause.
As the movie starts we are shown a long, slow pull back off a Christ on a cross set lopsidedly into the snowy plains of Wyoming as a stage coach draws ever nearer- all set to Ennio Morricone's score.
In the next thirty minutes we are introduced to four of the eight main characters, we've had three 'chapter' title cards and have not yet arrived at the cabin in which the bulk of the movie will take place.
In 70mm screenings there is an intermission at the half way point.
In the digital screening that I attended it is still apparent because the first action of the movie has just happened, the screen goes black for several seconds then Tarantino the narrator guides us through a quick recap even announcing that the audience has been away for fifteen minutes.
Now this is a movie of two halves so the intermission works pretty well.
There is considerably more of note going on in the second half of the movie and the intention clearly is to set up each and every character and their place in the story before delivering the second half fireworks.
It should be noted that the fireworks in this case are some very gruesome gore effects by way of pistol and shotgun.
That intermission had two effects on me.
It served to highlight that the movie was only half way done and also created a very clear line in the sand at the point where the film changed.
The pace ramped up and the violence exploded.
Everything that had been done in the first half was paying off.
For me though the film had already started to outstay its welcome and I felt relief more than excitement.
Even as it was picking up there is still time for another Tarantino trick- the quick flash back in time to reveal some plot details that are now important before we continue.
This section introduces some new players and at least one is of note.
The performances are to the last amazing with the clear standouts Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins and Samuel L Jackson.
Leigh could get a well deserved Oscar for her role as the wild but never less than fascinating Daisy.
She has been underrated for too long and I couldn't be happier that this film is starting to put this right this wrong.
The script - as is usual - allows for great performances but when the plot falters to the point of being boring they are just that- great performances looking for a movie worthy of them.
At times the film felt like a rehash of "The Thing" and in fact some of Morricone's music is stuff not utilised in John Carpenter's classic 1982 movie (starring Kurt Russell of course).
The much lauded score also turns out to be a letdown.
There isn't a lot of it and I found it merely adequate. John Williams score for "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" is far worthier of Oscar recognition.
I liked this movie but I suspect that had it run tighter at around 2 hours I may have loved it.
There is an excellent little western bubbling under the surface of this one.
Had Tarantino the writer reigned himself in and risen to the skill of Tarantino the director this could well be a modern classic of the "Rio Bravo" variety.
Tarantino's own debut movie "Reservoir Dogs" has much that "The Hateful Eight" could have learned from.
There is the sense that the script is too in love with the characters and while it definitely won me back in the final 45 minutes this still ranks as my second least favourite film from the director.
"Death Proof" is his least effective movie and the reasons that it is are the same that puts "The Hateful Eight" just ahead of it in second to last.
Luckily lesser Tarantino is still good and this is a worthy and entertaining film - it just falls short of the level that most expect from him.
RATING: 74 / 100
CONCLUSION: An excellently shot and superbly directed movie that suffers from script bloat that it only partly recovers from in the explosively violent final thirty minutes.
Running Time: 167 minutes
Rated: R18 - Graphic Violence, Nudity (male) and profanity
Controversy isn't a stranger to the Academy Awards and sure enough this year has plenty with the lack of non-white nominees causing quite a stir.
Add to that the not quite as prominent issue of there being no nomination for Quentin Tarantino for "The Hateful Eight".
Eight movies have been selected for Best Picture contention with Tarantino missing out in this category and original screenplay.
In a year where "Straight Out Of Compton" scored a nomination for the latter this strikes many as odd.
I liked Compton without actually loving it and frankly to me whatever that movie's strengths are the script isn't one of them.
Of course that says nothing about the worth of Tarantino's screenplay but it was in my mind as sat down tonight to watch "The Hateful Eight".
I have been a staunch Tarantino fan since 1992 and the first time that I saw "Reservoir Dogs".
My admiration built with each new directing effort and even those projects which he merely had a writing hand.
There was a time in the nineties where his work outside of directing was everywhere - "Natural Born Killers", "From Dusk Til Dawn" and script tweaks on the likes of "Crimson Tide".
Something was starting to bother me by the time we got to the second "Kill Bill" movie though.
(Yes, I know that many including Tarantino himself consider the two movies one split in two)
It seemed that as a writer he only had one trick up his sleeve.
He relied heavily on pop culture references, sprawling monologues and an unnatural dialogue style and delivery that while pleasant in its uniqueness often took me out of the movie.
Refer to David Carradine's long monologue while making sandwiches in "Kill Bill: Volume II".
Good stuff but very self consciously a Tarantino piece of writing.
My love of "Inglourious Basterds" is to a great deal down to his ditching of this sort of thing.
It felt like a writer who had matured to the point where he was confident enough to let characters say more with less.
And then "Django Unchained" arrived and the bloat returned.
With "The Hateful Eight" it is well and truly back with a vengeance.
This movie runs at just under three hours and while long running times don't bother me as a rule the fact that this is ostensibly a drama confined to a single room gave me pause.
In the next thirty minutes we are introduced to four of the eight main characters, we've had three 'chapter' title cards and have not yet arrived at the cabin in which the bulk of the movie will take place.
In 70mm screenings there is an intermission at the half way point.
In the digital screening that I attended it is still apparent because the first action of the movie has just happened, the screen goes black for several seconds then Tarantino the narrator guides us through a quick recap even announcing that the audience has been away for fifteen minutes.
Now this is a movie of two halves so the intermission works pretty well.
There is considerably more of note going on in the second half of the movie and the intention clearly is to set up each and every character and their place in the story before delivering the second half fireworks.
It should be noted that the fireworks in this case are some very gruesome gore effects by way of pistol and shotgun.
That intermission had two effects on me.
It served to highlight that the movie was only half way done and also created a very clear line in the sand at the point where the film changed.
 |
| Jennifer Jason Leigh |
Everything that had been done in the first half was paying off.
For me though the film had already started to outstay its welcome and I felt relief more than excitement.
Even as it was picking up there is still time for another Tarantino trick- the quick flash back in time to reveal some plot details that are now important before we continue.
This section introduces some new players and at least one is of note.
The performances are to the last amazing with the clear standouts Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins and Samuel L Jackson.
Leigh could get a well deserved Oscar for her role as the wild but never less than fascinating Daisy.
She has been underrated for too long and I couldn't be happier that this film is starting to put this right this wrong.
The script - as is usual - allows for great performances but when the plot falters to the point of being boring they are just that- great performances looking for a movie worthy of them.
At times the film felt like a rehash of "The Thing" and in fact some of Morricone's music is stuff not utilised in John Carpenter's classic 1982 movie (starring Kurt Russell of course).
The much lauded score also turns out to be a letdown.
There isn't a lot of it and I found it merely adequate. John Williams score for "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" is far worthier of Oscar recognition.
 |
| The cast is excellent. Demien Bichir and Walton Goggins pictured |
There is an excellent little western bubbling under the surface of this one.
Had Tarantino the writer reigned himself in and risen to the skill of Tarantino the director this could well be a modern classic of the "Rio Bravo" variety.
Tarantino's own debut movie "Reservoir Dogs" has much that "The Hateful Eight" could have learned from.
There is the sense that the script is too in love with the characters and while it definitely won me back in the final 45 minutes this still ranks as my second least favourite film from the director.
"Death Proof" is his least effective movie and the reasons that it is are the same that puts "The Hateful Eight" just ahead of it in second to last.
Luckily lesser Tarantino is still good and this is a worthy and entertaining film - it just falls short of the level that most expect from him.
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