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The Hateful Eight brings together eight bounty hunters in post-Civil War Wyoming, who try to find shelter during a blizzard, but get involved in a plot of betrayal and deception. The question posed is – will they survive?
My question is – Can this actually improve upon the overegged pudding that was Django Unchained, a decent two-hour film trapped in a sprawling near-three-hour mess?
The eighth film from writer/director Quentin Tarantino, while I loved his first three – Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, I went less a bundle on both Kill Bill movies. Death Proof, which seems to be left out of this ‘eight’ was a mess, but I thought Inglourious Basterds was almost a complete return to form.
On viewing this first teaser trailer for The Hateful Eight, I noticed it was wider than Tarantino’s usual choice of 2.35:1, and as the trailer confirms, he’s shot it in Ultra Panavision 70 at a widescreen ratio of 2.75:1, which is a slight bit wider than the original Ben Hur (2.66:1), but a little less than the three-screen Cinerama delight of How The West Was Won (2.89:1).
I would just hope that this movie doesn’t go on as long as Django Unchained, but either way, I’ll be going to see it on the Odeon IMAX screen in Manchester, which is the second largest IMAX screen in Europe (just slightly smaller than the BFI in London).
The Hateful Eight has a huge cast including Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Zoë Bell, Michael Madsen, Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern and a rumoured appearance from Channing Tatum and is released in the UK on January 8th 2016, ahead of the US getting it on Christmas Day. No doubt Tarantino’s going for the Oscar/BAFTA nods next time round…
Check out the trailer below and click on the poster for the full-size image:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.