[Review] The Hateful Eight (6.5/10)

The Hateful Eight, like most of Quentin Tarantino's writing, has great buildup with a great cast, but somehow fizzled down in the end.

To see Tarantino work with Kurt Russell again, and to have a new female muse in Jennifer Jason Leigh; on paper this should have been great but in reality, it had some issues.

I've always thought that Leigh's character is one of the eight, but I guess not because then there would be nine in all - unless we were not supposed to count Bruce Dern's character. But then a few more characters showed up in the third act which just threw everything out the window.

So one by one we were introduced to the "eight" and again (or nine or ten), the writing in each scene, and then to have most of the movie happen inside a cabin; required true vision and experienced execution.

The humorous bits added in to the drama and tension were again orchestrated with skill and acted as great contrast. You seldom saw them coming.

However, when we really got into the third act and when all hell broke loose like in all Tarantino movies; the story kind of dragged on and the pay off in the end wasn't that satisfying like his previous movies. There was just something missing.

Perhaps it is because Samuel L. Jackson wasn't great enough, perhaps Russell could have been more. But as far as performances went, Leigh, Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, and Walton Goggins stole the show from the rest. But this was the best performance by Jackson I have seen in a long time.

So after watching this movie, I now understand why it did not gain any traction at all during the awards season for that year.