海角大神

Quentin Tarantino鈥檚 鈥淭he Hateful Eight鈥� opens with a six horse-drawn聽stagecoach galloping through a Wyoming snowscape. The film was shot聽in 70mm Ultra Panavision and so the vistas are vast. The same cannot be聽said for the drama occuring inside those vistas.

To be accurate, the main action is preceded by an overture 鈥� remember聽those? Tarantino is nothing if not old school. (There hasn鈥檛 been a movie聽shot with these Ultra Panavision lenses since 鈥淜hartoum鈥� in 1966.) The聽music is by Ennio Morricone, who did the score for Tarantino鈥檚 favorite聽movie, Sergio Leone鈥檚 鈥淭he Good, the Bad and the Ugly.鈥� 鈥淭he Hateful聽Eight鈥� dispenses with the Good and goes with the Bad and the Ugly.聽

What鈥檚 surprising about the film is that, after a suitable interval in the聽great oudoors, the remainder of its three-hour running time takes place indoors, inside a large stagecoach stop which is en route to a town where聽the various players in the piece are converging.

Aboard the stagecoach is John 鈥淭he Hangman鈥� Ruth (Kurt Russell), a聽bounty hunter with a walrus moustache who is transporting his shackled聽prisoner, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh, complete with mossy聽teeth) to collect his big reward and see her hang. Joining the fray is Major聽Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a former Union soldier and also a聽bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), a former Rebel聽soldier who claims he鈥檚 the new sheriff in town.

Inside the stagecoach stop, which is large enough to house a battalion,聽are a few more suspicious varmints, including Oswaldo Mobray (Tim聽Roth), a Britisher with a bowler hat who claims to be a hangman; Bob聽(Demi谩n Bichir), who is playing a stereotypical Mexican; Joe (Michael聽Madsen), a surly cowboy not fond of eye contact; and General Sanford聽Smithers (Bruce Dern), a former Rebel officer and an arrant racist.聽It鈥檚 a heady stew, except Tarantino overvalues their appeal. It鈥檚 clear聽that things are not what they seem, and, as usual in his films, we wait for聽the score-settling violence to erupt. It takes an awfully long time for that聽to happen, and when it does, it鈥檚 so garishly over-the-top that the movie becomes a kind of killing comedy. Except I didn鈥檛 hear myself laughing.聽

Tarantino writes crackerjack dialogue with his signature stamp on聽every line; he has, on occasion, a crackerjack film sense, too. But this聽attenuated Western whodunit is overscaled and underfelt; the slam-bang聽mayhem happens for no other reason except that Tarantino has few other聽emotional (or filmic) resources to fall back on. He鈥檚 filmdom鈥檚 reigning聽arrested adolescent. Except for 鈥淛ackie Brown,鈥� his least-recognized聽movie and probably his best, his eight-film career is a euphoria of聽homages to the mostly pulpy flicks he favors.

Actors love working for him because he provides roles you can 鈥撀爈iterally 鈥� sink your teeth into. It鈥檚 fun for a while to see Kurt Russell聽hamming it up behind his voluminous mustache or Samuel L. Jackson聽once again raising rafters by laying down the law. But the film is聽pointless, even as entertainment, because it builds to nothing more than a聽comic book blood bath. You can鈥檛 accuse Tarantino of playing out his聽second childhood because it鈥檚 not clear if he鈥檚 ever left his first. Grade:聽C+ (Rated R for strong bloody violence, a scene of violent sexual content, language and some graphic nudity.)