J-Bang Reviews Present: The Hateful Eight

The latest film to come out of the mind of Quentin Tarantino is "the Hateful Eight," starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. "The Hateful Eight" is a story about a bounty hunter taking his captured bounty to a town to be executed but on the way, they run into a blizzard in the middle of winter and must take shelter in a sketchy cabin, full of sketchy characters. Basically, the story is a game of "Guess Who" in a western setting, because once everyone gets situated, it turns out that everyone is not who they say they are.

The "Hateful Eight" is filmed in that same Quentin Tarantino style he is known for. The dialogue is sharp and the script is quite witty but the film mostly lives of the suspense it builds. The first act helps the audience get to know all of the characters and their backstories, while the second act introduces a conflict that disrupts the "harmony" of the cabin. The third act is obviously the reveal and result, but I put "harmony" in quotation marks because the tension can be cut with a knife when it comes to these characters. Even though they don't know each other, it is the lack of knowledge they have of each other that makes them aggressively defensive towards each other. Since everyone is not "buddy-buddy," it makes it easier to understand why everyone is so twitchy when it comes to their trigger finger.

Though "the Hateful Eight" is packed full of unexpected moments, that does not make it the perfect film. One of the few issues I have with the film is the first act. The first act runs a little longer than it needs to. The exposition feels like it is overstuffed with information that doesn't necessarily matter to the story itself. Yet, because it is a mystery and suspense film, I felt obligated to listen to all of the dialogue, word for word. And while I felt liberated to find out that some of the small details of everyone's story did matter as it corresponds to the bigger picture, some details where left unanswered and without resolution.

Anyways, "The Hateful Eight" is an intriguing piece of fiction that goes on to satisfy the cerebral thinking of its viewers rather than the blood-thirstiness of those who choose to watch it. (Although there is a lot of bloodshed, too) "The Hateful Eight" is as fun to watch as it is exhausting. This film gets a score of 4.2 out of 5.