A Movie Review: The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight. The setting of this movie is Wyoming just after the Civil War. John Ruth (Kurt Russell) is a bounty hunter. He is transporting Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock via stagecoach. A severe blizzard is on the way and so along the way the stagecoach picks up another bounty hunter named Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and a newly appointed sheriff named Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins).

The blizzard forces them to stop at Minie's Haberdashery. They are greeted by Bob (Demian Bichir) who claims that Minie took time off to visit family. This raises suspicions with John Ruth and Major Marquis Warren. Their suspicions are justified as a number of the individuals in the Haberdashery are there to rescue Daisy.

This movie is filled with great bloody violent fun. The characters are also very black and white. Though initially there isn't full trust, the stage coach companions (John Ruth, Major Marquis Warren and Sheriff Chris Mannix) all find themselves surrounded by the members of Daisy Domergue's gang. They are essentially the good guys fending off the bad guys.

There are some nice moments where Major Marquis Warren starts to make assumptions on what is happening around him. I love those moments in film when folks start to put two and two together.

Should this movie have been an Oscar nominated film? I think so. I personally would have added it in place of Brooklyn, Room or The Big Short. Of course, there are 10 spots so it could have slipped into the 9th spot.