Three stars. Rated R, for strong bloody violence, gore, profanity, graphic nudity and racist behavior
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.31.15
Quentin Tarantino’s best films
are highlighted by deliciously snarky dialog, scene-stealing — and sometimes
career-reviving — performances by delectable character actors, and twisty
scripts that build tension to the screaming point.
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| Every time somebody enters Minnie's Haberdashery, those already inside — in this case, John Ruth (Kurt Russell, left), Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a wincing Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) — have to yell for the door to be nailed shut, lest the blizzard blow it open again. |
The Hateful Eight gets two out
of three.
Tarantino’s tough-talkin’ homage
to classic Westerns — complete with an awesome new orchestral score from
87-year-old Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), his first
Western score in 40 years — simply doesn’t have enough story to justify its
butt-numbing 182-minute length. The set-up is rich with potential, and it
screams for the multiple back-story treatment that made Kill Bill so engaging
... but no; aside from two brief flashbacks, we and the cast are stuck in the
same claustrophobic cabin for three interminable hours.
Granted, the actors do their best
to hold our attention. Ultimately, though, the posturing and narrow-eyed ’tude can’t
make up for a script that doesn’t kick into gear until after the intermission
(roughly 100 minutes in).
Tarantino makes us wait much too
long for the good stuff, and by then things are rather anticlimactic.
And yes, I’m fully aware that the
“good stuff” is the enfant terrible filmmaker’s gleeful dollops of blood and
gore. But even here, it feels like Tarantino is only half-trying; having teased
us with a cabin laden with hammers, shovels, iron spikes and all sorts of other
implements of potential mayhem, he settles for gunfire. Which, tasteless as it
sounds, is quite disappointing.
As he did with Kill Bill, Tarantino divides this saga into chapters, starting with “Last Stage to Red
Rock.” The setting is post-Civil War Wyoming, with a six-horse stagecoach doing
its best to outrun an approaching blizzard. The driver is forced to halt after
coming upon former Union soldier-turned-bounty hunter Marquis Warren (Samuel L.
Jackson), perched in the middle of the road atop three of his sanctioned kills.
Warren’s horse has given out on
him; he’s hoping for a lift to Red Rock. But that’s a problem; the stage has
been chartered exclusively by fellow bounty hunter John “The Hangman” Ruth
(Kurt Russell), who is handcuffed to his prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer
Jason Leigh), and escorting her to a date with the hangman at Red Rock.
The wisely suspicious Ruth views
any strangers as either a) somebody trying to steal his bounty; or b) somebody
trying to rescue Daisy. But it turns out that Warren and Ruth know each other,
if only vaguely; the requested ride is granted, if grudgingly.
