The Hateful Eight (2015)

I read recently that Tarantino’s mission is to make movies that will stand the test of time -- movies that college kids will be discussing in film school next century. Well, he’s got his work cut out for him as this effort didn’t even stand up through the 5-minute walk to our car outside the theater.

Spoiler: there are 9 people in one room, 6 of whom are in on a plan to free the girl and kill her captor. Seeing as the baddies slaughtered 5 other people without remorse when they first arrived in the room, there’s no reason to believe they would have any problem offing the two extra guys. So that means that the only reason they don’t do so immediately (or at least the minute the girl’s uncuffed from her bounty hunter) is because Tarantino’s more interested in tricking us -- the viewers -- rather than having his characters behave in any reasonable manner.

But the trick isn't clever at all. It's like pretending to throw a ball for your dog to fetch but not releasing it: the dog may take off running, but the ruse is short-lived and the dog trots back all "you got me... now FIX it and throw the damn tennis ball." But there's no way to fix this. The plot just falls to pieces if you think about it at all.

D+