Okay, I'm going to be as succinct as possible here. Here's another film nobody wants "spoiled" and it's a major 2015 title that I need to deal with individually before I reconstruct the previous year next week.
In my neck of the woods, I did not get a chance to see the "roadshow" film print of THE HATEFUL EIGHT. I had to make do with the regular digital version, but at least the theatre framed it properly and gave me the semblance of the curved screen, and the film looked mighty fine even on the shopping mall screen.
And we all know that this is Quentin Tarantino's highly-anticipated eighth feature film (if you only count KILL BILL once, of course)--that Kurt Russell is taking Jennifer Jason Leigh into town to hang but that he and his captive get holed up by a blizzard with a fine assortment of curiosity types... and that it's Tarantino's first movie to feature original soundtrack music by none other than...
...wait a minute. Kurt Russell. Ennio Morricone. Isolated snowbound setting. We all know what this REALLY is, right? MacReady knows that he's human, and he knows that if everyone else was one of those things they'd all just attack him right away, so at least some of THEM are still human. Now, am I being sarcastic or am I serving up a true compliment here? You've been with me long enough, you know the answer.
But of course you get far more than a explosively gruesome take on THE THING (which you most certainly get, make no mistake). In addition to the original Morricone music, you still get Tarantino's trademark musical swerves (from the charts and from other movies you're likely to pick up on--and while they're NOT limited to Morricone's previous scores, you'll feel the presence of Pazuzu at one point, say no more). And of course you get Samuel L. Jackson in post-bellum Wyoming... but since Tarantino was duly chastened and humbled by the criticism he received for the realistically racist dialogue in DJANGO UNCHAINED, he's put aside all such race-baiting from his characters... oh, SURE he has... he just DARES you to knock the chip off his shoulder with the most pungent race-baiting monologue you've heard since Dennis Hopper let Christopher Walken have it in TRUE ROMANCE.
But of course, it's too early to tell you more about the characters, because this is the time that the first-time audiences are still headed for the theatres, and they're afraid that somebody's going to give away who "did it." It's not that simple, but never mind. You're not going to turn down a cast consisting of the above as well as Walt Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen AND Bruce Dern. Oh, was that Channing Tatum's name in the credits? How does he fit in? And how is the awesome Kiwi stuntwoman Zoe Bell going to play a part? We've got our Hateful Eight in the cabin already, right?
Look--don't take this as an in-depth review. Tarantino's films are always ABOUT the movies, and while this one doesn't pack the additional historical punch of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS or DJANGO UNCHAINED, it's still about some of my favorite movies and it's true that the combination of suspense, queasy humor and gut-busting violence makes nearly three hours fly by most entertainingly.
Oh. And David Hess. There. I said it.
See it.
The Hateful Eight
Moderator: Chris Slack
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Re: The Hateful Eight
Best movie for me of 2015. 70mm roadshow was great, a packed house, huge screen and neat programs.
"Regrettable... I was hoping for a colleague, but at least we have
another experimental subject..." -Mesa of Lost Women
another experimental subject..." -Mesa of Lost Women