Review of The Hateful Eight (2015) by Ronald A — 01 Jan 2017

Tarantino never goes below a certain bar in quality of his films; despite The Hateful Eight being one of his weaker movies, it still manages to be a great film. The most notable aspect is the fact that it was filmed in 65mm Ultra Panavision- a type of camera that hasn't seen light since the 60's, and it features an extremely wide frame.

This frame allows quite a bit to be captured; however, the downside is that there are two black bars that squish themselves into the frame. Unless you're watching this in a theater (which I didn't), it will come off as quite distracting.

This is especially true considering that 90% of the film takes place in a single cabin. It would have made a lot more sense for Tarantino to use Panavision in say Django or Inglourious Basterds. Aside from that, the story is excellent (which is always a default for Tarantino).

The only quarrel I have is that it runs a little too long at 2 hours and 45 minutes. Things don't really pick up until halfway in, but even so, the banter between characters is always fun to watch.

Sam L. Jackson and Walton Goggins shine in the lead, and they're a great duo- not to mention great actors. One of the things that makes The Hateful Eight so interesting is the style of mystery. It's set up as if it were a game of Clue, where certain people are conspiring to kill the rest, and you slowly have to figure out who they are.

Every subsequent Tarantino film is a true privilege to watch, and despite this being one of his weaker films, it's still a blast to watch.