Director Quentin Tarantino
Genre Crime | Drama | Mystery
Cast Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins
Rating R
Release Date December 30th, 2015
“In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.”
Quentin Tarantino is back with his 8th film, The Hateful Eight, and once again he means business. From Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction, the Kill Bill films and most recently Django Unchained, people tend to love him or hate him when he is at the helm. His success is undeniable as a director and he tends to push the envelope with his films for better or for worse. Tarantino prefers to stack his films with A-list actors and excessive violence so I say keep them coming. The Hateful Eight falls into the western genre similar to Django Unchained which seems to be an area of comfort for Tarantino as of late.
I was finally able to see The Hateful Eight for myself and I will say it was more or less what I expected. The film provides a never-ending supply of quality dialogue which never gets boring. The story unfolds in bits and pieces and provides a decent twist that will keep the audience guessing. The content is quite graphic and the language certainly pushes the envelope (if you are easily offended by the “N” word I would skip this one). One thing about Tarantino films is that they tend to be quite long, most of which coming close to the 3 hour mark. This film comes in at about 2 hours and 45 minutes and unfortunately it does feel long. I swear I had to pee for at least 2 hours and I refused to leave the theater (that was rough).
The acting in The Hateful Eight is top notch with a cast consisting of Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walter Goggins (Sons of Anarchy), and a surprise performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh, who excels at being obnoxious in her role. So much so that she earned a best actress in a supporting role nomination at the upcoming Academy Awards and I would say she has a chance to win. As far as subject matter is concerned, The Hateful Eight comes across as a less serious action comedy type film when compared to something like The Revenant.
Overall, The Hateful Eight is an entertaining film and stays true to the Quentin Tarantino formula. You could argue that he took a step back creativity wise and pulled from his Django Unchained bag of tricks, which I would say is good and bad but definitely more of the latter. The Hateful Eight will easily please returning fans but might struggle when trying to hook newcomers. Recommended.
