MOVIE – Quentin Tarantino is one of our most renowned directors who has released a brand new movie. Just for the sake variety, we are getting a bounty hunter flick that takes place in the era of the previous film. As we had time to digest Tarantino’s last effort, Django, it was time for the artist to provide us with another spectacular production. Well, at least, he tries…

The movie’s release was not without controversy, as it was leaked onto torrent sites just a few days before the premier. It is a rare occurrence, but it did happen, and I am sure that J.J. Abrams who is hailed as a god now since September got real nervous when he found that a DVD quality version of such a movie would get out. Sadly it can happen.

Consistency

I would like to note that I am a huge fan of Tarantino, and would probably put all of his movies on a golden disc, but I got shaken up a bit with this latest film. To fully explain this swing to negativity, first I’ll have to start with the positives of the movie.

The first and biggest strength of the movie is that it reminded me of Tarantino’s „best years”. From narrative structure to inspiring and directing the actors to the editing, all of it seems to be from an era before the Inglorious Basterds era. So he is back to his roots that give an excellent „aroma” to the movie, which has to be cherished as it makes the movie likable. Furthermore, the characters are well-developer and introduced deeply to the viewer just as in the previous films; we get the background motivation for them. That makes the viewer easier to relate or hate a character, and such extensive explanations are needed where the story is a bit minor compared to the actual characters.

What is also great is the actor’s wild acting in this movie. Samuel L Jackson and Kurt Russel do a magnificent job. The slow and dragged out tempo scenes that are paced very rhythmical; were tense and raised the hair on my back. Both of them are great actors, and luckily the supporting characters are also well played, and such names help the two principal actors like Michael Madsen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bruce Dern, and Walton Goggins.

Are you okay? You sick?

As the above mentions, the acting is great, and the narrative structure plus the scenes are classic Tarantino. There are some issues with the movie that make it, a bit of a weird situation when it comes to the quality of the film. Here are the things that make the movie worse than the usual Tarantino movies.

According to our… story.. well let’s just say they stuff a bunch of interesting characters to a tiny cabin so that they can survive a snowstorm, but will they survive each other? People die, characters reveal secrets, there’s a girl in distress who has a bounty on her head, and a bunch of supporting characters does good acting. The scenes and action move at an excellent pace, controlled and without any twists. Now that is not a usual Tarantino flick.

The entire movie feels like a mathematical equation for the beginner’s movie director who can solve it without any problem or thinking. I was waiting for the story to pull some punches, or have some twists, but by the end of the third act, I was content with knowing that I pretty much knew how it will end. It is worth noting that the absolute evil mastermind only reveals himself in the last forty minutes, but looking at the cast list, you can pretty much guess who will be the „boss.”

Wasn’t the best of Tarantino’s…

Even though Django was a great movie, it does not mean that we pump out another movie with the same themes. It feels like that the entire movie was rushed, and forced at times, which results in an unacceptable film regarding quality at certain parts. Which explains why Hateful Eight did not get the usual PR spins and adverts that are usually accompanied by Quentin Tarantino movies such as Django or The Inglorious Basterds.

I also think that the material might have been leaked intentionally, as the quality is not of the usual Tarantino movies. It feels like a rookie director’s first big budget action movie that tries to copy Tarantino and makes his own „Chinese copy” of it. It seems rather hard to believe that Quentin directed this movie at all.

-Kese-