Posted on 12/27/2015 1:26:30 AM PST by Rummyfan
The Hateful Eight, billed as "the 8th film by Quentin Tarantino", has opened in selected cities in 70mm format. I'd thought by this stage that some new young hungry film critics would have emerged who'd like to make their names by having a go at the aging enfant terrible. But, judging from the reviews, that does not seem to be the case. On the other hand, I gather there's some sort of boycott being mounted by those offended by Tarantino's recent remarks re black men who get shot by cops. It would be, as they say, ironic were the director to be damaged by a political stance he took off-screen, since as James Wood wrote in The Guardian two decades ago:
Tarantino represents the final triumph of postmodernism, which is to empty the artwork of all content, thus avoiding its capacity to do anything except helplessly represent our agonies... Only in this age could a writer as talented as Tarantino produce artworks so vacuous, so entirely stripped of any politics, metaphysics, or moral interest.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
>> or what the ingredients of a Big Kahuna Burger are
Wouldn’t know, the GF is a vegetarian...
I like the fact that I never have to go to a movie. All I have to do is read the reviews from Mark Steyn or David French. I save so much money and effort!
Steyn ping.
Saw it, wasn’t impressed. Sadistic and vulgar. Stupid me went into the film thinking it was a spaghetti western, didn’t know it was from the Pulp Fiction fellow.
When I goof, I goof big.
It was reservoir dogs redux with a mix of an Agatha Cristie type setting. Not as good, not as meaningful. In a ways it was QT paying homage to himself, or flattering himself.
Cinematography was superb, 70mm is awesome. Kurt Russel and Samual Jackson turn in solid performances. But like Sicario or The Revenant, it simply had a hopeless ending.
Do yourself a favor, skip the movie until you can stream it and go watch True Grit 2010 with Jeff Bridges. A great movie despite Matt Damon’s fish out of water performance.
Guess I’m in the boycott camp, although I would be unlikely to to go see it anyway.
Tarantino does some off the wall entertaining stuff but I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
Do yourself a favor and read True Grit - a brilliant novel very funny and wise
I know that those who see this as high art will just take me as shallow, but I found the movie to be utterly unwatchable after 20 minutes, and made my pal turn it off. I guess its deep, but only deep in that “It means what you want it to mean, or not mean.” . . . post-modern, deconstructionist, not-even-existentialist garbage.
These days I don’t hesitate to walk out on a movie if it trips my circuit breaker.
Having walked out on or turned off more than one Tarantino movie, I save myself the trouble now. Why spend the dollar in gas and the $30 on tickets and popcorn just to walk out half an hour in. The thing with him is, he really doesn’t have anything to say. He tries to make that a feature, a selling point, like an inside joke, but in the end there really is nothing there except a big thumb poking you in the eye on your dime.
Tarantino: Trump of the movie business.
Free PR everywhere!
Tarantino is a con-man.
I don't know why it's so difficult to put a great story onto film (or digital media) anymore.
Which pretty much means that I’m a vegetarian.
L
The NY Post's Kyle Smith is also typically excellent (though I do find myself disagreeing with him occasionally).
A good reviewer gives you enough information to get an idea of whether you’ll like the movie. He can say, “I hated X,” but maybe X doesn’t bother me at all. On the other hand, if he says, “I loved Y,” maybe Y drives me nuts.
I don’t usually see a “recent” movie until one of my kids gets the DVD and insists on watching it while I’m sewing.
Please don't deprive yourself. Some sci-fi superscreen efforts in XD, IMAX, and/or 3D are well worth seeing and are not morally vile or vacuous.
Blade Runner was an 80's screen adaptation of a Philip K. Dick moral inquiry -- Dick was a former seminarian -- written as a short story and titled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Not current, but offered as an example of what I'm talking about, that you may be familiar with if only because it's been around so long.
Among current films I heartily recommend, Prometheus was a prequel to the Alien series with some stunning big-screen 3D SFX, and Minority Report, a sci-fi action thriller from a few years ago with Donald Sutherland playing the inevitable bad guy, was also visually arresting; but the interest of the film is in the moral uses or abuses of technology.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.