MovieMeditation's Cinema Reviews

"coming soon"

The worst two words you always use! I want it now. This will probably decide whether I watch it in Theaters or wait until DVD.

Oh yeah, this one is totally gonna be your last review for sure. Looking forward to it.

You don't even know what I had to do to make it happen.

I still kind of promise too much here, since I'm still busy as hell, but I miss doing these reviews.

you post this here 3 weeks later to tell us you need MORE time!?!?! And you want me to do a Magnolia review asap...

Bring it on, MM. BTW, that's the film you should review next.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Watch out, HK, I might just do it.

I'll review the entire franchise and make the first one the longest ever written. I don't compromise.

Good, because I don't.

Being a man of renown tardiness: whenever and however, MM.

Especially since I just now read two reviews from october and november. . .

Sorry to hear Black Mass was so muddled, I have heard a few agreeing on that point, though at some point I will be checking it out

Your Sicario review was an excellent thrill ride all its own with its foreboding and unflinching description of the dark road that is this movie. I actually have it on loan from my library and will be seeing it, hopefully in the next couple of days.


Oh, and when i FINALLY do get to reading your reviews, I READ your reviews

Dammit, your review is taking longer time than it needs for James Brown to get to the bridge.

It's meta commentary. The length waiting for this review represents Hateful Eight being way too long, and how it felt like I spent a month or two waiting for something to happen, and then the thing that happened was a huge disappointment.

You are kind of getting it, ursa, well done. Only my review is gonna be epic though.

The Story
In the midst of a consistently cold and cynical winter in the open lands of Wyoming, during the years after the Civil War, we are informally introduced to an intriguing situation, which involves a blizzard, two bounty hunters and a bunch bodies packed and stacked and ready for delivery. The bounty hunter outside, who is also the man who takes ownership for those dead bodies, is looking for a free ride to the next and only stop, Minnie’s Haberdashery. But the bounty hunter in the wagon, who carries his own bounty chained to his own arm, apparently paid a pretty penny for privacy, making him the man who makes or breaks this fella’s wishes. He is not easily convinced, but he ultimately agrees to bring the lone traveler with him. On the way there, they run into yet another fella, who is also looking for a ride, and this little situation here is starting to get uncomfortably comfortable. They do bring him though and they do arrive at Minnie’s Haberdashery, but our small group of secretive strangers are suddenly presented to an even bigger group of secretive strangers waiting inside, who may not all be who they say they are. It looks like our eight impermanent inhabitants are going to spend quite some time with one another; all of them trapped, strapped and lethally loaded together in one single little room.

In the company of eight hazardous and enslaved individuals, director Quentin Tarantino trumpeters back onto the big screen in all of his glory, both in terms of ambition and aspect ratio, since the film is produced and presented in the broad Ultra Panavision 70 format, which momentarily makes a cinematic comeback after nearly fifty years of complete absence from the movie industry. Now with the director’s eighth feature film, holding the fitting title of 'The Hateful Eight', he takes the audience back to the polished celluloid times of proper clothing and colossal cinematic endeavors, consisting of a musical overture and an appropriate intermission after the halfway mark. Already by the ominous opening of musical terrorization, there isn’t the slightest of doubts that a peculiar yet delicate presence was in the air, when being able to sit in silence and slowly absorb the unpleasant and uncanny atmosphere that would go on to haunt us for the next three hours. When in a theater you more or less automatically sit quietly and comfortably in the cinema seats, yet I must admit that Ennio Morricone’s masterful composition made me sit completely still and almost frozen stuck to my own seat, gradually getting a sense of the Winter Wyoming wildlands. What we were presented to, was some sublime and super-wide images of snowy landscapes, which by the way, has never felt so full of color and clearness, despite the otherwise modest color palette.

Even considering the fact that Tarantino isn’t exactly painting the town red in advance here, we can clearly sense what is to come. Besides, it doesn’t take very long until Tarantino's illustrious and vibrant “verbal game” shoots straight off the big screen, while walking tentatively through the usual Tarantino bullet points; like fast-paced racial slurs and violent virtuosic turnarounds. All these "pseudo-intellectual flybys" are consistently flung out by highly competent actors, who do their best to deliver the director's dense dialogue more perfect than just another shot from the hip. But despite all this in mind is it really a bullseye we are witnesses to? There is obviously no doubt who in fact wrote this violent and vulgar script – reality not revulsion intended – but the question is whether Tarantino is cocked, cocky and loaded enough to deliver or if he in fact is running short on bullets and full-blown badassery? If you ask the man himself, he has stated several times just how confident he is in the material, which has ultimately been rewritten up to several times in the hopes of reaching potential clear-cut perfection. But perhaps it is exactly this excessive quibbling, which ends up having the finished film fall to the ground in this dominance-driven Mexican stand-off between himself and his own script. For perhaps it is Tarantino's predominantly self-conscious ego, which ends up taking the reins, thereby overshadowing the more self-critical and self-limited person Tarantino used to show a shadow of, to some extent. The director has always made the films he wanted to make, but this time around it feels as if he wants to out-Tarantino himself more than ever – and it can be felt heavily in the script throughout.

The following is not a direct criticism, but the lack of proper pace and tension kind of leaves Tarantino’s dialogue in the open wilderness, forcing the flat curve of non-constant excitement and simple set design of the film to live and breathe utterly and only for the dialogue and characters alone. Normally this would not be a problem, since Tarantino’s tactful and fast-paced dialogue should be enough in itself to keep this V8 of hate going. Even as a self-proclaimed Tarantino fanatic, I must admit the dialogue and the action in ‘The Hateful Eight’ feels sort of stretched out and overly exhausting, in an attempt to adapt to a grand new format as well as surpass the director’s own perception of potential. Tarantino clearly wants to deliver a classic and epic western – complete with 70mm film and all that goes with it – but at the same time, he seems a little too self-assured about the project itself and his own enthusiasm. Tarantino's dialogue has never been what you would call natural or delivered in a realistic canter, but never has the director pranced so plenteous along the way, in order to serve every word and every sentence just right – on occasion, there is even lines being repeated up to several times, as if Tarantino thought the audience would love him and his script even more, the more times it was spoken. The screenplay for 'The Hateful Eight' often seems too artificially constructed and filled with long-winded self-indulgence and arrogance – even when compared to Tarantino's own standard. I’m not a big fan of the saying “self-indulgence”, but I’m going to use that because of how often he is synonym to the saying according to a lot of audiences and because I feel it is more relevant than ever with this movie. I feel like it finally burns through a little too much just how overly confident and overly proud he is with what he is creating here. In fact, the film often leans towards a direct parody of himself and his own unique style, but I’m not sure whether it is due to the pitch-black humor and vulgar approach to violence, or perhaps the fact that Quentin Tarantino disappears a tad too much into his own self with his latest film. At times you can almost imagine how Tarantino has been siting in the director’s chair while rubbing his own holster due to his self-perceived brilliance.

In connection to the previously mentioned balance between classic stylistic cinema and big arrogant arm movements, these often come into conflict with one another along the way, in which Tarantino’s cinematic callback unfortunately results in a slight personal setback for the director. If only Tarantino hadn’t seen it necessary to make one hell of an extensive extravaganza out of everything, in a way to satisfy his personal cravings for a cinematic celebration of forgotten times, this may have been an intense little masterpiece. Because the way I see it, it looks to be the director's prearranged ambitions, which seem to prevent the unfolding of his own talent. In this case, one might wonder if I’m referring to a classic case of “style over substance”, but when debating the work of a director whose particular style, to a certain degree, is in fact his substance, I’m not quite sure how that would work out. But on the other hand, ‘The Hateful Eight’ does seem to aim for a slightly different style altogether, which may lead one to wonder if trigger-happy Tarantino is better off with a point and shoot approach, since he can’t seem to hold his audience at gunpoint for too long without loosing his grip. You could say, that like a double-barreled rifle, the two different styles slowly start racing against each other in an atmosphere that feels deadly and almost completely dead at the same time, until the two eventually collide with a bang! As said earlier, the film seems to be missing a naturally progressive pace, though we are certainly not cheated for a barbaric bloodbath towards the third act of the film. This is where the two ends meet at last, in the midst of a boiling broth of blown-out brains, banal badassery as well as outdated ‘whodunit’ murder-mysteries, which appear to have passed their expiration date a long time ago, though admittedly with a darker and much more vicious director behind the reins.

At this point you may wonder, why exactly I choose to criticize Tarantino’s otherwise typical temptation to violence and offensive humor, which has always been a constant companion on the director’s path to success. Although, this time around there are a few elements, which stand out more when compared to his earlier films. Tarantino has always been very visual about his violence and he rarely leaves the limps and lengthy torturing in the shadows for too long. But what makes these violent and torturous scenarios more tolerable, is the fact that blood and brutal blasphemy often hides behind a loose and more accessible tone, which also unfolds in a slightly unrealistic environment. Additionally, the rude scenarios are both performed and pronounced by characters, who may not be sweet and pleasant personalities, but still holds a certain likeable charm – take for example the characters of Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction or Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds – both are bastards and both are fiction, which is also the case with the characters of ‘The Hateful Eight’, although we learn to hate each and every one of them by the end of it and there isn’t really proper justice being served to lighten the load either. On the whole, 'The Hateful Eight' is more or less completely cut free from any form of charm and charming chats, since the characters in the movie are all incredibly hateful and murderous people. The title of the film is most certainly a suitable description and both a revelation and a warning in itself – but with that said, I don’t believe the upfront honesty of the title to be a holy hiding place for the film in connection to constructive criticism. The film may be hateful on purpose, but that doesn’t excuse the possible poor execution of it and my personal right to criticize it. One may say it is in the title, but the title also suggests eight people when there really is nine…

With good or bad intentions, 'The Hateful Eight' is definitely Quentin Tarantino's most unpleasant and twisted film to date; whether you think it works or not is another discussion. The lack of genuine jokes among the dark and disturbing happenings kind of make the obvious attempts at humor feel like an eyesore rather than a twinkle of the eye. The obvious racism and malicious humor clearly appears darker and more flamboyant without the subtle yet buoyant approach we are used to, while the lack of a main character to root for or a well-liked personality to be keen on leaves the audience with a sense of superficial entertainment with no end to it. We feel nothing for the characters, we are never sure who to keep up with and we are utterly unsure how we are supposed to respond when various characters fall victim to a loaded gun. There is definitely no doubt that this has been a main target for Tarantino to track down with this film; to make a movie where no one is good-hearted and no one can be trusted, which is certainly also confirmed with a very specific scene, where the potential “audience favorite” suddenly utters a very disgusting and almost misplaced monologue that quickly leaves audiences at a (intentional) distance. It is clear what Tarantino wants to achieve here, but I'm not sure that it works as well as he wanted it to… or as well as I wanted it to, however you want to look at it. It may be my own personal opinion, but hopefully the criticism appears be identifiable, though not necessarily individually approved, of course.

The choice to make everyone in the room a bunch of evil archenemies may not be a problem within itself, but when you examine just how dark and disgusting this film actually is and how forced and fabricated the humor sometimes feels, it can be a little bit tough to make a turnaround and completely surrender to what is essentially an ever-enduring exercise in grim and grotesque expressionism – in particular the big bad bloodbath towards the end lacks some growing excitement and weighted empathy. The end result we actually receive mostly resembles a failed and bizarre attempt at exaggerated humor and cheap slapstick, in which Tarantino trembles along in the midst of blood and guts, while using overlong slow-motion and overexposed bodily explosions. A lot of blood is certainly a soft spot for the director, but the uneven and unclear approach comes off as confusing and kind of creepy, to some degree, while the dark and depressing nature of it all truly puts the viewer’s movie-watching ethics and mentality to the test.

The rest of the plot up to the ending point also lacks a proper thrill as well as a constantly evolving pace; even despite the fact that the plot seems to set the stage for something bigger than what you leave with. A total of eight, in fact nine, terrible and total strangers caught inside a cabin, carrying a crap-load of secrets and concealed connections to each other is something that definitely most certainly shouldn’t be boring in the slightest. In fear of offending the fans, 'The Hateful Eight' does show some signs of dragging and dreariness – mostly because of its runtime and tiresome run-on jokes. Furthermore, the all too familiar “chapter device” isn’t really working this time around and combined with the transient musical tones, it constantly feels like we are waiting for something that never really happens. The classic chapters most of all seem unimportant to the overall story, in the sense that they seem irrelevant to the central plot, not really dividing the scenes nor providing the schemes with anything more than simplistic captions. Tarantino even feels the need to explain one of his headlines himself at one point, which further cements the useless nature of these chapters and their “place” in the plot.

And at last, I apologize if you somehow see this review as nothing but a rant, because there are definitely elements to enjoy and admire with this film; I just wanted to sum up my frustrations more than my favoritisms, since I love the director and feel a bit disappointed with what he delivered in ‘The Hateful Eight’. Out of the great parts of the film, I think it oozes with technical skill and wonderful acting, the former being very rich and detailed, while the latter is almost an exercise in pure acting class, showing us how great these people are at what they do. Despite the negatives I do think it is a well-crafted film, which is pretty much the case with all of Tarantino’s films – whether you like what he has put into it, you can’t deny how much he has put into it. But of course, in the end it is the plot, the characters and the tone that drives a film forward – and with ‘The Hateful Eight’, Quentin Tarantino arguably wanders off a bit too much and gets lost in his own style along the way. I tip my hat for the cinematically heartfelt and honest filmmaking this man continues to do, but this film turned out to be the one that took it too far for my own personal taste. All of my viewpoints are subjectively enhanced, but ultimately objectively envisioned. I hope you can understand if not agree with my statements, but nevertheless, I hope you had fun reading this review as a piece of lashing literature to lure out your mind and make it read something a bit different. Whatever the case might be, I hate you all and may you die a slow death. The end.


The Acting
If there is one thing Tarantino always triumphs at, it is when he picks the people to portray his characters and then goes on to direct them and make them deliver some of their finest achievements in their entire acting career. If perhaps you find it problematic to point out something constructive about the destructive gallery of grim characters, then all you have to do is look directly at the actors and actresses who portray them. It is more or less some magnificent and masterful performances we get to glance at here, and it is especially badasses like Kurt Russell, and Samuel L. Jackson as the black sheep, who really stands out from the pack. Good ol’ Sam Jackson isn’t too far from his typical acting identity, but he is definitely armed and dangerously brilliant in ‘The Hateful Eight’ and steals every inch of that super widescreen through most of the film. Russell’s character is the dominant and determined type, who also hides a softer shadow to his macho persona. His character is a man of his words and since his nickname is “The Hangman” he sees the need to bring in his “next bill” directly, that is Jennifer Jason Leigh's character. I’m not as crazy about this crazy woman as some people seem to be, but she does a great job with what she is given.

Walton Goggins is an actor I admire very much, but in spite of the fact that he acts out his character as he is supposed to, I'm not sure I like who he is supposed to be. You can’t change the cards you have been dealt, but Goggins plays his hand really well, that cannot be denied. He comes across as this cowardly crooked “kiss ass”, who stands with those who have the upper hand in the Haberdashery – and if this isn’t a possibility, he'll avoid hell by playing cool and chatting himself into safety. Tim Roth is frankly brilliant as Englishman, Oswaldo Mobray, but he is clearly a copy of the character Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz, in ‘Django Unchained’. Despite this, he is still an entertaining character who is played close to perfection. Michael Madsen brings himself in, barely alive, and cashes a nice little reward, but in terms bringing something worth paying for is another discussion. Unfortunately, his character is so flat and dull as anything can be and his acting goes hand in hand with this saying as well. Madsen does have a nice screen presence, but his character ran out of bullets way too early in the movie, figuratively and literally. The same can be said about Bruce Dern’s character, a slow and senile old man, whose place in the plot is pathetic and dumb and I wish the legendary actor had more to do than being a stupid plot device. Tarantino seems to have written Dern into this movie simply so he could connect the number of characters to the number of movies in his filmography… and well, ‘The Hateful Seven’ sounds a little too familiar in a way, doesn’t it?

Added to the numbered characters is also the Oscar nominated actor, Demián Bichir, who I very much looked forward to watching, but unfortunately he has been strapped down to a static and stereotyped Mexican, supplying the audience with some cheap laughs and weak facial expressions. But hey, as a cleanly cut lawn or a finely trimmed bush, he gets the job done, but I wish he would have crossed the border into blown-out boldness a little bit more. But again, he is also given very little to work with here. Channing Tatum is also featured in the film and well… I think we will just end it right here. Maybe there are many out there, who wonder, whether or not the director himself will make another abysmal appearance in his own western, with 'The Hateful Eight'. I can only say the following: if you think his role in ‘Django Unchained’ was embarrassing and extremely unwarranted, then just wait until you see how he shamelessly product-places his own humongous ego once again, only to remind us who is in fact the main character in this film – he, himself and him.


The Technical Aspect
Now, I think there have been plenty of talk about the length of the film, especially when the width is just as interesting. Filmed in Ultra Panavision 70 and with an aspect ratio of a wide 2.76:1, you are thrown headlong into Tarantino's headless and hysterical dialogue-exchanges, which in this case, are allowed to fill up the entire screen. The beautiful snow-covered scenery is captured in a remarkable manner and the colors are better and more natural than the contemporary digital standard. But of course, it doesn’t take long for the fresh air to be substituted and slowly strangled by a clammy and compact atmosphere, once the hateful eight begin to invade Minnie's Haberdashery.

The interior itself, as well as the carving of the closed-up cabin, in which our characters are caved up inside, is incredibly detailed, and presents itself as a great setting for some verbal slapping while being surrounded by a visual wonder. Quentin Tarantino and his regular cinematographer, Robert Richardson, really knows how to capture this confined and stuffy feeling of cold personalities within cold temperatures. As an audience member, you can clearly feel the chilly and freezing atmosphere, which isn’t too shocking of a thing, when you consider the fact that Tarantino deliberately refrigerated this entire thing, I mean this entire set, during production – everything from oozing outbreaths and falling flakes of snow is a part of the reason why you feel so encapsulated inside the cinema, as an extended prominent part of ‘The Hateful Eight’.


The Soundscape
Ennio Morricone flips the wild west on the wrong side and conquers the snow-covered outlands, fearsomely followed by his own trumpeting and terrorizing tones. Morricone manages to truly captivate audiences in their seats and get them in just the right kind of manic mood (with a swing) – especially at the age of 87 and on the edge of his career, it is nothing less than impressive to see such a damn diabolically awesome soundtrack, which just screams of coolness and musical class. Most of us had probably expected a nostalgic echo of similar-sounding guitar strings or some distinctive whistling of sorts – as we know and love it from his prime time with Sergio Leone – but instead Morricone leaves the audience inside of a musical mangle, which almost solely and exclusively suffocates the entire room because of atmospheric heaviness. It is definitely some threatening tones we are dealing with here and they really capture the spirit as well as the demon of a classic Tarantino film.


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SHORT SUMMARY // With 'The Hateful Eight' Tarantino tests our endurance during this three-hour tale of hostile characters with hateful intentions, where people to root for is missing in action and concluding conquerors is nowhere to be seen. It is a dark and discourteous tale that unfortunately suffers a little too much from an excessive runtime and an excessive number of characters, which causes the film to run dry a good while before the bloodbath can manage to make it saturated again.

There are many memorable moments in the film, but almost as many mishaps, and Tarantino seems stuck in the same chamber rather than firing a new one. It is especially the dull and drawn-out character introductions, which comes across as desperately redundant – especially since Tarantino doesn’t understand that an interesting character introduction doesn’t necessarily make the character interesting. Also, mixed into this wild bunch comes a lot of recurring sentences, scenes and scenarios, which aren’t exactly bringing us any closer to a concluding chapter – a concluding chapter, which already feels far away during the unnecessary chapter sections, which often shoots out of thin air without actually offering the plot a proper breath of fresh air to begin with. Tarantino unchained himself from chaptering during Django, but returned to it once again with ‘The Hateful Eight’, unfortunately without proper reason to do so.

The film actually holds some political, cultural as well as religious undertones, but these sadly remain underplayed in favor of overplayed visual and verbal violence, as well as self-assigned pride and pleasure in one’s own personal project. I admire the presentation, I admire the persistency, but it seems like there is more pain than gain to be had in the end of it all. What is violence without weight and words without power? Some will say it is merely a fun and foolish time at the cinemas, others will say it is Quentin Tarantino at his usual self, but I will say I see a director whose ego turned him lightheaded and somehow cynically coldhearted as well, though I’m not sure if it is just the material making the path for him or if he is naturally walking it himself.

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Rep first, actual reading later.

But I can tell this is gonna be an awesome read.

Over 4500 words... God. Props to you Meds!!!

I'm actually proud of how this turned out. I think it became much better than I anticipated and I think it's one of my best yet.

That said, maybe I'm just lost in myself and this is actually only mediocre. But hey, that would be kind of meta after all, so I guess it would only fit my point of view on the movie in question. Who knows.

I promise Med, I will get round to reading it very soon

Too short!

That rating makes me extra interested in reading. Too tired now, back to you tomorrow.