The Hateful 8 Review

   

     Critics say that the best directors are those who can get great performances from their actors and Quentin Tarantino certainly does so in his eighth feature film The Hateful 8. This film is surrounded with fantastic performances that help to carry this murder-mystery like story.
     Hateful 8 tells the story of John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his voyage to take Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock, Wyoming in order to be hung. Unfortunately, inclement weather forces them to bunk up at at a nearby haberdashery. This haberdashery is not what it seems though. Full of deceit and conspiring, Ruth must do whatever he can from keeping Domergue from escaping.
     Quentin Tarantino manages to scrape out masterful performances on all cylinders with this film. Particular standouts include Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Walter Goggins, and Michael Madsen. Tarrantino does an exquisite job of layering these characters and these performances really display that.

     Furthermore the story is very intriguing as well. This takes after many Tarantino's films in its manner to tell stories in an unorthodox order of events. It very much feels like a western Reservoir Dogs due to the use utilization of the majority of the story taking place in one setting and how the order of events are presented to the audience.
     There are only a few complaints with the him. The dialogue is a bit underwhelming at times. Tarantino does an effective job with the dialogue but it does not have that witty taste to it like most of his previous films. It is a bit dry at times. Some scenes tend to drag on as well. Tarantino scenes quite often are long and drawn out to increase the tension of the story. However in Hateful 8 there were some scenes that could of easily been cut down to decrease this run time of 2 hours and 47 minutes. Tarantino could have easily made this a great film but due to these complaints it's just pretty good.
     Overall this is a film that needs to be seen in theaters (preferably 70mm if you have the opportunity) due to its intriguing storyline and wonderful performances. If it weren't for the long runtime and dry dialogue at times this might be a legit Oscar contender.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10