The Hateful Eight

In Quentin Tarantino’s 2015 movie, eight travelers with joyfully massive personalities sit out a blizzard together at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach rest stop in post-Civil War Wyoming. The group includes two bounty hunters (Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell), a prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a sheriff (Walton Goggins), an English hangman (Tim Roth), a cowboy (Michael Madsen), an ex-Confederate general (Laura Dern's father, Bruce Dern) and Bob the Mexican (Demián Bichir). The performances are strong all around – it’s all a dialogue driven, theatrical enjoyment – but it’s Goggins, as the racist goon Chirs Mannix, who is the highlight.

The basic story is John Ruth (Russell) is transporting Daisy Domergue (Leigh), a criminal with a $10,000 bounty with her, to the beams in the town of Red Rock. He has a hunch over one or more of the strange characters at the cabin of either being in cahoots with Daisy and wanting to free her or wanting to steal her and claim the reward themselves. Louis Lalire said in his review, “What follows is classic Tarantino: slow-burning, tense dialogue in a claustrophobic setting, intermittently diffused by humor—until it isn’t and explodes in a hail of bullets.”

“The Hateful Eight” is called “The Eighth Film From Quentin Tarantino,” and it looks to work under the thought its audience already knows the director’s elements. What makes the first half of the film so suspenseful is the inevitability of the second, where blood – lots of blood – will be seen. Lalire said, “It plays out as a murder mystery for a violent act we’ve yet to witness. The audience gets its kicks from trying to guess which of the suspicious stagecoach passengers will instigate Tarantino’s patented style of bloodshed—and how, and when.”

Sadly, the “when” proves paralyzing to the film’s final act. Once the violent eventually shows itself, it unleashes all the high tension long before the film’s end. Tarantino plays out too soon yet thinks the audience will remain entertained. Lalire mentioned, “We’re left with a gory but dawdling final act further hindered by an expository, unnecessarily violent flashback that spends far too much time revealing what we already suspect. Tarantino always seems to mistake body counts for provocative payoffs.”

You think if he’ll ever really trick the audience and stop showing bloodshed altogether. Eight films in Tarantino remains unwilling to disrupt his own style in that manner. He once again displays his expertise for creating strong suspense and combining it with humor, but the only way “The Hateful Eight” could have really amazed is if no one ended up shooting a bullet.

This is another movie that I ended up seeing on Netflix, but it was split up into a four-part miniseries. I don’t know if that was any different from the theatrical version, but I still enjoyed the movie. If anyone is a Tarantino fan, they should see this movie. You will like how everything plays out and it is definitely worth seeing. If it makes you uncomfortable, I won’t be surprised. Still, check it out because you will love it.

Now we have concluded “Western Month.” I hope all of you enjoyed it and stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.

Django Unchained

For those who grew up around the times of those independent Westerns of the 70s, or at least have seen them on video, you understand the type of movie experience writer/director Quentin Tarantino is referencing with the 2012’s “Django Unchained.” As with everything Tarantino does, there’s a type of film history/commentary, as if someone is sitting next to you saying, “Remember this movie? Remember this moment in this movie? Wouldn’t it have been cool if this could’ve happened? And then that happened because of this? And then those led to this other thing?” Abbie Bernstein said in her review, “That’s a big part of Tarantino’s aesthetic, and if you remember the movies he’s referencing here – which look to be everything from Sergio Leone’s canon to some infamous exploitation flicks – you can speculate on the jumping-off points. However, you don’t need to know anything about earlier works in the genre to appreciate the part-parody, part quite-serious epic that Tarantino has wrought here.”

A title shares that it’s two years before the U.S. Civil War. A line of chained black men are being forced along by two white slave traders. A white German man, played by Christoph Waltz, driving a dentist’s wagon crosses their path, introducing himself as King Schultz and wanting to know if any of the slaves worked on a plantation where the Brittle brothers were managers. One of the slaves, Django, played by Jamie Foxx, steps forward. Shortly afterwards, the slave traders are killed, their prisoners are unchained and Django and King have agreed on a deal.

He finds out that King is a very sharp bounty hunter, who is desperate to identify his next mine (that is the Brittle brothers) and in the long run, also open to having a right-hand man. Django, now being free, wants to find his wife Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington, who was taken form him and sold to another plantation after they tried to escape together. King believes Django’s story, comparing it to the Siegfried and Brunhilde Germanic legend, and promises to help. The journey takes the men to Candyland, the plantation owned by the especially evil slave owner Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Bernstein noted, “In broad strokes, things work out about the way we’d expect, with righteous rage, blood fountaining up into the air at regular intervals and tons of terrific signature Tarantino dialogue. (Trust him to come up with a whole riff on a drawback to being a Klansman that nobody has mentioned before.)”

The filmmaker also brings in a lot of historically accurate shocks of slavery – there’s no “Gone with the Wind” reference here. These scenes are meant to be uncomfortable to watch, so much so that the psychological hurt of witnessing the evil motivates a main action in the latter half of the movie. They are very powerful. How well one credits “Django Unchained” largely depends on how well a person can take in the fast changes in tone, from smart talk to energetic action to serious violence and back, countless times. There are also a lot of racial slurs, one mainly, in the dialogue. Bernstein said, “Granted, a lot of the characters are overseers, but some of it registers as overkill.”

The actors, including Don Johnson, Walton Goggins, Ato Essendoh, James Remar, Dennis Christopher, Michael Parks, and so many other famous actors, all appear to be enjoying themselves, with the exception of Foxx. Bernstein noted, “Granted, Django has plenty of reason to be intent and unhappy, but while he’s impressive and in fact acts like a ‘70s indie Western hero, he doesn’t seem as fully connected with his costars as he could be – excepting leading lady Washington, with whom convincing sparks are struck.”

Tarantino clearly sees what he had in Waltz back in “Inglorious Scoundrels” (I’m not saying the other word, this blog is swear free) (we all saw why, including the Academy) and has here written him in another role that displays his talents. Bernstein said, “This time, Waltz gets to use all that urbane charm, shrewd observation and modest manner concealing lethal skills in the service of a good-guy character, to such an extent that the movie deflates a little when he’s absent.”

DiCaprio is crafty, polite, self-assured and every piece the villain that a story of this kind asks for. DiCaprio plays Candie with the calm confidence of a man who is sure he’s got everything right. Samuel L. Jackson, almost unrecognizable with white hair and bushy eyebrows, is really good, disappearing into the character of Candie’s very loyal valet.

The musical score is eclectic, which makes sense that there are choices from Foxx and famous Western composer Ennio Morricone. Bernstein noted that “when the Jim Croce folk/pop ballad “I Got a Name” accompanies a traveling montage, it’s clear that not only is Tarantino referencing the ‘70s (the style of the film and the titles emphasize this), but he’s reveling in everything about the era, including its filmic anachronisms.”

“Django Unchained” goes off on so many tangents. A lot of them are entertaining, but a few are just strange (some of them is a sequence with Tarantino as an Australian). Unlike his other films, like “Pulp Fiction” or even “Inglorious Scoundrels,” “Django Unchained” doesn’t have a string of connected plot threads – by the end, there’s a feel that the movie could have been fixed a little and not lost any of the elements that make it work.

Bernstein ended her review by saying, “Still, if you are a Tarantino fan, a ‘70s Western fan, a fan of any or all of the actors involved or even just want a bloody, rousing, disturbing, crazy time at the movies, DJANGO UNCHAINED is here to provide it all.”

This is a highly engaging Tarantino Western. I recently saw this a few months back and I really enjoyed it. If you love Tarantino, then this is one that shouldn’t be overlooked. I would have reviewed this back when I did “Tarantino Month,” but I saved it for now, and hopefully people are happy now. I really enjoyed this and thought it was great, so check it out.

Look out next week to see the other Tarantino Western that I will review in the finale of “Western Month.”

Kill Bill Vol 2

To paraphrase the film’s starting recap by the main character, The Bride – a type of recap of the first film: “Kill Bill, Vol 2., released in 2004, is really satisfying.

That is just putting it mildly. Like the first part of Quentin Tarantino’s tribute to kung-fu and other manipulative revenge/action films of the 1970s, “Kill Bill, Vol 2” has scenes of intense, almost vulgar violence.

As you might have guessed, this is not for the nauseous any more than the first one, which you should expect from a Tarantino film.

However, those who enjoyed the first “Kill Bill” will be surprised and entertained by the sequel, which nicely resolves all the loose ends that were left hanging. At least when it’s not hurting your feelings.

“Vol. 2” starts exactly where the first one left off: The Bride is still trying to get revenge on the criminals who are her former colleagues and left her for dead after obliterating her wedding.

First one on her list is Budd, played by Michael Madsen, who manages to overpower her before she can stab him with her samurai sword. He also steals her sword and says he’ll sell it to one-eyed Elle Driver, played by Daryl Hannah. Even if The Bride where to escape and give the two what they deserve, there’s still one more person on her list: her former teacher and lover Bill, played by David Carradine, who’s got some surprises waiting for her.

The sequel – which as filmed at the same time as the first film – is really more character-driven. A lot of back story is given (we even know the main character’s real name.) Desert News said in their review, “All of which helps tie the whole package together, making it more cohesive, if not more coherent. And as assured as Tarantino's work is here, it's hard to deny that this may be the highlight of his filmmaking career so far.”

Desert News continued, “He also gets career-best performances from much of his cast.” Thurman makes a surprisingly considerable action heroine, while the 67-year-old Carradine does a good job keeping up with her. Credit for that is given to action choreographer Yuen-Wo Ping, who avoids his usual attaching strings for more realistic fight scenes.

People might say that the two parts of “Kill Bill” are disjointed because all the action is in the first movie and all the dialogue is in the second part. However, I still like both of them and say that everyone should check them out. They even released one long version of “Kill Bill,” combining the two volumes into one long movie. I only saw the two parts and not the long version, which I don’t think I will need to watch it since it’s just a longer version combining the two volumes. Still, don’t listen to the people and watch the two volumes, giving both of them a chance. Sure, you’ll like the first volume, but the second one I think you’ll like just as much. I know I did, and I think all Tarantino fans will like both volumes too.

Alright, thank you for joining in on “Quentin Tarantino Month.” I had been thinking for a while to review some of his famous movies, and now I have. Hopefully all of you liked it and hopefully you have checked out the movies I have reviewed this month because they are all good movies that I think everyone will enjoy. Check in next month to see what I will review next for all of you.

Kill Bill Vol 1

“Kill Bill, Vol. 1,” released in 2003, is one of the most violent movies ever made.

When you watch the movie, you will see heads fly, limbs hacked off, women beaten viciously and shot in the head, and blood gushing everywhere.

In the end, whether audiences will enjoy “Kill Bill” will depend on how they feel about writer/director Quentin Tarantino. Either you love him or you hate him, and this film doesn’t look like it will change anyone’s mind either way.

Desert News said in their review, “Yet, for those who can stomach "Bill's" peculiar brand of ultraviolence, this revenge yarn is an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride that will satisfy even the most carnage-crazed action fan. (It should be noted that at least one scene was changed from color to black and white to keep the film from getting a rating more harsh than R.)”

Uma Thurman stars as a character just called The Bride. After spending four years in a coma, this former murderer awakes and takes revenge on those who had a hand in nearly killer her, as well as her unborn child and the man she was to marry, played by the late David Carridine.

She has a long list of enemies, including Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), a housewife who’s now “retired” from her job, and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who has now become the head of the Tokyo underworld.

Desert News noted, “You hate to use the word "subtle" to describe a filmmaker as bombastic as Tarantino, but there is actually some subtlety here, such as a Zenlike pause in the action that may be the most poetic thing he's ever done.” There’s also a great animated segment done in the Japanese anime style, which tells the origin of O-Ren, and which would look like an odd detour. However, it works in the context of what is actually a live-action cartoon.

This film is definitely not for everyone. Desert News noted, “Even the those with strong stomachs may feel a bit queasy after seeing some of the more blood-splattered sequences.”

This was also the best performance Thurman had at the time after years. Her intensity here makes you believe a woman this thin could actually cause all this chaos with the sword, a knife and other weapons. Same goes for Liu, who really looks like she is having fun being a villain again. We also have kung-fu movie veteran Sonny Chiba who owns every scene he’s in (unfortunately, he is not in enough).

The film also has one of the best soundtracks of all time. Desert News noted, “The RZA's score has the lurid tone of music from early chop-socky films at times, alternating with music that may bring to mind "blaxploitation" flicks.” There’s also the famous 5, 6, 7, 8 doing the song that annoyed people when it played during the Vonage commercials.

I saw this film on NetFlix and I had a great time watching this. I heard a lot about the film, but at the time the film was released, I wasn’t old enough to watch R rated movies and my parents made sure that I waited until the right age to watch movies regardless of what it was rated.

However, what can be said about Part 2? Is it better than Part 1 or not? Or could you say that the two parts are polar opposites? There is only one way to find out. Wait until next week for the finale of “Quentin Tarantino” Month to know what I thought about it.

Pulp Fiction

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn't care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking.” His 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction” is a comedy about blood, guts, violence, strange mating, drugs, fixed fights, dead body disposal, leather lovers, and a wristwatch that makes a dark journey down through the generations.

Ebert said, “Seeing this movie last May at the Cannes Film Festival, I knew it was either one of the year's best films, or one of the worst.”

Ebert continued, “Tarantino is too gifted a filmmaker to make a boring movie, but he could possibly make a bad one: Like Edward D. Wood Jr., proclaimed the Worst Director of All Time, he's in love with every shot - intoxicated with the very act of making a movie. It's that very lack of caution and introspection that makes "Pulp Fiction" crackle like an ozone generator: Here's a director who's been let loose inside the toy store, and wants to play all night.”

Ebert went on, “The screenplay, by Tarantino and Roger Avary, is so well-written in a scruffy, fanzine way that you want to rub noses in it - the noses of those zombie writers who take "screenwriting" classes that teach them the formulas for "hit films." Like "Citizen Kane," "Pulp Fiction" is constructed in such a nonlinear way that you could see it a dozen times and not be able to remember what comes next. It doubles back on itself, telling several interlocking stories about characters who inhabit a world of crime and intrigue, triple-crosses and loud desperation. The title is perfect. Like those old pulp mags named "Thrilling Wonder Stories" and "Official Detective," the movie creates a world where there are no normal people and no ordinary days - where breathless prose clatters down fire escapes and leaps into the dumpster of doom.”

The movie not only brings back an old genre but also a few careers.

John Travolta plays Vincent Vega, a middle-class gangster who does assignments for a mob boss. We first see him with his partner Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Ebert mentioned, “they're on their way to a violent showdown with some wayward Yuppie drug dealers, and are discussing such mysteries as why in Paris they have a French word for Quarter Pounders. They're as innocent in their way as Huck and Jim, floating down the Mississippi and speculating on how foreigners can possibly understand each other.”

Travolta’s career is a number of jobs he can’t quite handle. Not only does he kill people accidentally (“The car hit a bump!”) but he doesn’t know how to clean up after himself. Good thing he knows people like Mr. Wolf, played by Harvey Keitel, who is a master in messes, and has friends like the character played by Eric Stoltz, who owns a big medical encyclopedia, and can look up emergency situations.

Travolta and Uma Thurman have a part that’s funny and strange. She’s the wife of the mob boss, played by Ving Rhames, who tells Travolta to take her out for the night. Ebert said, “He turns up stoned, and addresses an intercom with such grave, stately courtesy Buster Keaton would have been envious.” They go to Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a 1950s theme restaurant where Ed Sullivan is the emcee, Buddy Holly is the waiter, and they end up in a twist contest. That’s before he overdoses and Stoltz, bringing a syringe with adrenaline, shouts at Travolta, “YOU brought her here, YOU stick in the needle! When I bring an O.D. to YOUR house, I’LL stick in the needle!” Bruce Willis and Maria de Medeiros play another couple: He’s a boxer named Butch Coolidge who is supposed to throw a fight, but doesn’t. She’s his sweet, innocent girlfriend, who doesn’t understand why they have to leave town “right away.” But first he needs to make a dangerous drive back to his apartment to pick up a sentimental family gift – a wristwatch. The history of this watch is described in a flashback, as Vietnam veteran Christopher Walken tells young Butch about how the watch was purchased by his great-grandfather, “Private Doughboy Orion Coolidge,” and has moved down through the generations – and through a lot more than generations, which is understandable. Walken’s monologue has the movie’s biggest laugh.

Ebert mentioned, “The method of the movie is to involve its characters in sticky situations, and then let them escape into stickier ones, which is how the boxer and the mob boss end up together as the captives of weird leather freaks in the basement of a gun shop.” Or how the characters who start the movie, a couple of gun thugs played by Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer, go way overboard. Ebert said, “Most of the action in the movie comes under the heading of crisis control.”

If the problems are creative and original, so is the dialogue. Ebert said, “A lot of movies these days use flat, functional speech: The characters say only enough to advance the plot.” However, the writers in “Pulp Fiction” are in love with words for their own enjoyment. The dialogue by Tarantino and Avary is off the wall sometimes, but that’s the fun. It also means that the characters don’t all sound alike: Ebert credited, “Travolta is laconic, Jackson is exact, Plummer and Roth are dopey lovey-doveys, Keitel uses the shorthand of the busy professional, Thurman learned how to be a moll by studying soap operas.”

This is part of Tarantino’s life that he used to work as a clerk in a video store, and the inspiration for “Pulp Fiction” is old movies, not real life. Ebert said, “The movie is like an excursion through the lurid images that lie wound up and trapped inside all those boxes on the Blockbuster shelves. Tarantino once described the old pulp mags as cheap, disposable entertainment that you could take to work with you, and roll up and stick in your back pocket.” Also, people could not wait until lunch so they could start reading them again.

You could say that it’s like “Reservoir Dogs,” where the story is told interchangeably, but you can piece everything together by the end. If you haven’t seen this movie, what are you doing reading this review? Go out and see it if you’re a Tarantino fan. Also, expect Tarantino to make an appearance in this movie. Like I said, this movie is a must for everyone, whether you like Tarantino or not. I give it a high recommendation.

Look out next week when I look at the first of a two-parter in “Quentin Tarantino Month.”

Reservoir Dogs

For this entire month, I’m going to look at some of the famous movies by one of the famous directors ever, Quentin Tarantino. Let’s look at the very first film he made, that was independent, “Reservoir Dogs,” released in 1992.

If you withdrew at the direct language in “Glengarry Glen Ross” or the violence in “Unforgiven,” keep away from “Reservoir Dogs.”

This movie won’t only offend you; it will probably hurt you mentally.

A rash, brutal crime-caper film, “Reservoir Dogs” has enough of an energy for 10 movies and more than enough tough to traumatize the ones who cannot handle this. Jay Boyer said in his review, “But not only does Dogs have teeth, it has brains.”

In the beginning of the movie, we see a group of jewel thieves as they sit at a coffee restaurant for breakfast. Most of them don’t know each other: Boyer noted, “They've been brought together by a mob kingpin specifically to pull a heist, and they've been kept deliberately ignorant of one another's identities.”

Boyer continued, “Calling each other by made-up names (Mr. White, Mr. Orange, etc.), they shoot the breeze about this and that - the fine points of tipping waitresses, the promotional gimmicks of radio stations, even Madonna.” The movie really gets going after you can easily tell that at least one of the members is a snitch.

But which one?

That’s where the movie’s smart foundation is shown. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino keeps showing us different times from before, during and after the crime. Each scene gives enough information to fill in the gaps.

By the end of the movie, we can figure out everything and lots of people are dead.

Along with the behind-the-scenes work, Tarantino plays a really small role of Mr. Brown. The leader of the group is Harvey Keitel as Mr. White, a gangster who, even though he’s tough, is in some ways too sentimental for this career he picked.

With his long, expressive eyebrows, Michael Madsen comes close to being the highlight as Mr. Blonde, the most crooked member of the group. Steve Buscemi does steal at least a scene or two as the logical, goatee-face Mr. Pink.

Boyer credited, “Cast as the wounded-and-bleeding Mr. Orange, Tim Roth (Vincent & Theo) gives a finely calibrated last-gasp performance.” The rest of the cast – and the gang- are the late Chris Penn, fittingly gangster as Nice Guy Eddie, Lawrence Tierney as Eddie’s kingpin father, and Eddie Bunker as Mr. Blue.

The structure of “Reservoir Dogs” is only one appearance of the irresponsible skill of filmmaker Tarantino, who makes his directorial debut here. He also has a sharp fun that shows up in tough, crafty dialogue (the breakfast discussion of Madonna is funny) and in the use of the thick, uncertain voice of straight-faced comedian Steven Wright as a DJ.

Boyer noted, “Also darkly amusing is the film's ironic use of such musical selections as "Hooked on a Feeling," "Coconut" and "Little Green Bag." A horrifying torture sequence is choreographed to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You" - if you can imagine that.”

There’s even something theoretically amusing about the way the gangsters dress for the crime, in anonymous black suits and ties, white shirts and dark glasses. They look like they’re looking for trouble, and it turns out they really don’t have to go far.

Overall, this is a great movie, for an independent film that Quentin Tarantino made. Especially with the famous line, “Are you going to bark all day little doggy, or are you going to bite?” If you’re a Tarantino fan and have not seen this film yet, you should. It’s one of the best films he ever made.

Look out next week when I look at another popular film in “Quentin Tarantino Month.”