The Hateful Eight

There are times when Quentin Tarantino ("Inglorious Basterds") goes too far and this is one. He is having delusions of grandeur by pretending this thing is "Event Movie-going," like in the 40s and 50s, when the women wore hats and gloves, ushers dressed up, the event opened with an overture before the film began, half of the movie played, then there was an intermission accompanied by the movie score before the last half of the movie. This 168-minute (!), R-rated bloodbath (gunshots and "N" words by the dozens, plus a lengthy scene with a doomed nude man staggering in the snow), has an Ennio Morricone-scored overture and a 12-minute intermission programmed right into the film.

It's divided into four chapters:

1. Last Stage to Red Rock - We meet some of the players, where are the rest?
2. Son of a Gun - The Colonel has a son?
3. Minnie's Haberdashery - ...and where is Minnie?
4. Domergue's Got a Secret - Was it Colonel Mustard in the solarium with the candlestick?

Written and directed by Mr. Q. himself, we watch embattled bounty hunters snowbound in a blizzard wreak havoc on one another. Set in post Civil War times, the gross-out script, talky dialogue and lame denouement are all so contrived and shoddy I won't even start. The young men in the screening audience didn't seem too worried about the picky little things I spotted, so this sloppy and repugnant movie will probably do fairly well. In fact they laughed when one person's head was blown off (it only took four pointblank gunshots. Oops! How will they collect the bounty if the corpse isn't identifiable?).

This cast is almost as loquacious as that of "Pulp Fiction" fame:

• Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Alex of Venice") is Daisy. This woman has been captured for the bounty on her head. She is beaten, kicked and has her teeth knocked out...and she has it coming!
• Kurt Russell ("Furious 7") John Ruth is holding her for the bounty. He always brings in his fugitives alive even thought they are wanted Dead or Alive. He likes to see them hang.
• Samuel L. Jackson ("The Avengers") We watch former (Yankee) Major Marquis Warren as he charms and intimidates his fellow prisoners, then goads an enemy into drawing first!
• Walton Goggins ("Justified") Sheriff Chris Mannix chills us with his blatant racism and his ambition.
• Tim Roth ("Selma") On the other hand, Oswaldo Mobray, The Little Man, shows his knack for truce. He is the peacemaker in this bunch, although he says he's the Red Rock hangman.
• Bruce Dern ("Nebraska") General Sandy Smithers is The Confederate, a man who commended himself well during the war, but is mourning the loss of his son.
• Demian Bichir ("The Heat") Bob The Mexican can't wait for his boss lady to get back from visiting her uncle "over the mountains."
• Channing Tatum ("Jupiter Ascending") Jody wants something and he wants it bad! He is not a patient man.

There are other characters, but things never get any better. I always want someone to root for and I couldn't find a single solitary person! This one really tried my patience.

Tarantino's question is: "Will they survive?"
Mine is: "Should they?"

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See for yourself:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3885543961

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