The Hateful 8

The opening credits note that this is the 8th film by Quentin Tarantino, who has been plying his trade for many years now, since the breakout Reservoir Dogs in 1992.  That's nearly 25 years.

This pedigree is important to keep in mind because this 8th film is best viewed as a culmination of the 7 before it.  It has a familiar cast of actors, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and so forth.  It is an ensemble piece with a lot of direct interaction between the main characters in a Lifeboat type, stage atmosphere.

Kurt Russell play John Ruth, the Bounty Hunter.  He is taking Doris (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in for the bounty, when he comes across Marques (Jackson) another bounty hunter.   He trusts no one.   Because a blizzard is on, they bed down at Minnie's Haberdashery, when the remainder of the Hateful 8 are.  No one trusts anyone else.  Hilarity ensues.

At its best, the tense stage scenes in the Haberdashery are like the basement from Inglorious Basterds ( you can tell that a part here was cast with Christoph Waltz in mind but he must have said "been there, done that")  or the warehouse in Reservoir Dogs.  The characters take a while to develop, but we are working with a lot of time (3 hours goes by pretty fast).  If you see it in 70 mm, there is an intermission.  That should be a bucket list item.

Ultimately, it's a story about nothing.  Seinfeld meets Tarantino.  Don't think too much about it afterwards.  Enjoy the gore!  Don't say you didn't hear the Harbinger.

* * * * of 5

If you're looking for a bloody good story, this is for you.  Caution for the [sanitized]  rating:

MPAA Rating 

R for Violent Sexual Content, Some Graphic Nudity, Language, Strong Bloody Violence.

Also - per Me:  Non-bloody violence, N-words, Rape, Torture, Groin Hits, Splattering, Pooling, Exploding and so on

Fortunately, there's no ear cutting or scalping.