[Review] The Hateful Eight

It's a film that almost didn't get made, due to an unfortunately leaked script. Even if it's a step down from Quentin Tarantino's previous two, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained, I think it's safe to say most of us are happy it did get made. Plus, with a title like The Hateful Eight, it couldn't be any more fitting for Tarantino's 8th film right?

Opening with wide snowy landscape shots and a menacing score from Ennio Morricone, we know we're in for a mischievous, violent, and bloody Western. Samuel L. Jackson plays Marquis "The Bounty Hunter"--he's sitting atop a pile of dead bodies when he's first introduced. In order to get in from the cold, he tracks down a stagecoach, which contains John "The Hangman" (Kurt Russell) and Daisy "The Prisoner"(Jennifer Jason Leigh)--a fugitive facing a murder trial.

Along the way, they pick up Chris "The Sheriff" (Walton Goggins). Once the blizzard riles up, the grizzly crew seeks shelter at a shack called Minnie's Haberdashery, where they encounter Bob "The Mexican" (Demian Bichir), Oswaldo "The Little Man" (Tim Roth), Joe "The Cow Puncher" (Michael Madsen), and General Sanford "The Confederate" (Bruce Dern). As you can guess, all hell eventually breaks this loose when these 8 wrongdoers are stranded in small quarters, and I'll leave it at that.

Nothing in The Hateful Eight strays from the Tarantino norm. The mostly talky scenes (that are stuffed with filthy dialogue) gradually escalate, almost in stage play fashion. You can practically visualize Tarantino himself acting out the scenes exactly the way he wants things said and done. Everything straddles borders of exploitation and offensiveness. And despite being overlong (as usual), there is so much style and panache displayed in all its filmmaking and storytelling aspects--that it remains sadistically entertaining. The Tarantino norm also means that there are many surprises and payoffs that break through all the slow-build and excess.

One of The Hateful Eight's big draws from the beginning has been its stacked cast, and the ensemble proves to be well-chosen as they deliver with all they've got. Obviously some of the characters are more key players than others, but there are enough quirks wrangled in for each one of them to differentiate from each other. We expect Kurt Russell and Bruce Dern to be solid here as gritty Western vets, and they certainly are. Walter Goggins often finds himself in familiar territory with his roles, which isn't a bad thing because he fits in perfectly here. Then there's Tim Roth, who seems to be filling the Christoph Waltz void. It's difficult to choose a standout of the bunch because they all offer a lot within their lanes, but Samuel L. and Jennifer Jason Leigh emerge as those ones.

It's an ugly film populated with nasty people, but somehow we're glad they're here... There just may be a little too much time with them.

7.5/10