The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight

Rating 6 out of 10

Quentin Tarantino movies are a special breed in themselves.  You can't say you don't know what you are getting with the guy.  Lots of dialog.  Often pointless dialog.  Long movies.  You get your monies worth as far as minute per dollar.  Lots of bad language and blood by the 55 gallon drum.  Over the top violence.  Heads exploding, severed limbs, ect.  I have enjoyed several of Quintin's movies.  Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Bastards and Django Unchained.  Was never a fan of Pulp Fiction like so many others were.

I was looking forward to The Hateful Eight.  Fantastic cast.  Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern to name a few.  It's a basic Western which I am also a fan of.  This is two separate movies.  Literally.  The movie is right at three hours long with an intermission in the middle to break it up.  The first half of the movie is alot of talking.  The hottie and I actually dozed off for a few minutes in the warm theater and food in our bellies.  The second half is much better.  The action and story picks up and is far more entertaining.

John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) is a bounty hunter on a stagecoach taking the evil Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to a Wyoming town trying unsuccessfully to out run a blizzard snow storm.  Along the way they pick up another bounty hunter (Jackson) and a man saying he is the new sheriff of the town he is taking Daisy to. Ruth is known as the Hangman because while other bounty hunters will bring them in dead (in the dead or alive) where he wants to bring them in alive to not cheat the justice system.  When weather forces an extended stop at an outpost called Minnie's Haberdashery there are already other seedy looking guys there also stranded by the storm. There the gang has conversations.  LOTS of conversations.  Tarantino likes his bad words.  This movie it's the N-word.  It gets thrown around more than a rap concert and clan rally combined.

We finally realize atleast one of the eight is planted there to free Daisy from the noose.  Once you get back from your bathroom break and refill the coke cup during the intermission (several around us were discussing leaving at the intermission) the action picks up a bunch. This is where the bullets fly and blood flows like rivers.  I was awake and entertained.  I give the first half of the movie a 4 and second half an 8.

If you are a Tarantino fan you will most likely enjoy this movie and know what you are getting into. Much was made about watching the movie in the 70MM screens as Tarantino wished.  Not sure why. 94% of the movie is inside one small outpost.  There are some cool stagecoach riding thru snowy mountains scenes that are pretty amazing.  The second half is almost entertaining enough to make you forget how boring the first half is.  Almost.