The Hateful Eight

[4.0 stars] [IMDb Link]

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Quentin Tarantino's latest movie. Made sure Mrs. Salad was out of the house, since she's made her opinion clear on Tarantino after watching Reservoir Dogs a couple of decades ago. Not her cup of tea.

But it really is a pretty nifty movie. A stagecoach contains bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his prisoner Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), bound for Red Rock, where Daisy is due to hang. It (however) needs to take shelter from a Wyoming blizzard at the remote "Minnie's Haberdashery". The stage is waylaid by another bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), who has a collection of three criminal corpsicles, also on his way to Red Rock to collect bounties. Finally, they pick up Chris Mannix (Boyd Crowder himself, Walton Goggins), who is Red Rock's new sheriff, or at least claims to be.

Making it to Minnie's, they find an even more diverse bunch awaiting them: Mexican Bob (Demián Bichir); hangman Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth); cowboy Joe Gage (Michael Madsen); ex-Confederate General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern). Strangely missing is Minnie; Mexican Bob claims to have been left in charge while Minnie has gone to the "other side of the mountain."

Needless to say, not all these people are actually telling the truth about their backstories or motives. And (since it's a Tarantino movie) the main thing is: who, if any, of these people will be alive at the end of the flick?

Notes:

  • Kurt Russell does a very good R-rated John Wayne impression for his character. This was intentional. (I think I remember him doing the same in the wonderful Big Trouble in Little China.)

  • If you're counting, you'll count nine living characters at the Haberdashery at its peak population. So who's the non-hateful one? IMDB trivia says it's the coach driver O. B. (Beware spoilers at the link.)

  • Ennio Morricone did the music. Woo!

  • Quentin Tarantino should do a light, fluffy, romantic comedy. Just to show he could do it.


Last Modified 2024-01-26 10:20 AM EDT