MOVIES
B Y M O L LY T E M P L E T O N
EVERYTHING IS
UGLY, AND EVERY-
THING HURTS
Vapid violence dominates the empty,
overlong spectacle of Tarantino’s
The Hateful Eight
A
lthough the party line these days is that one must
have a stridently absolute, carefully outlined
position about being pro or con Quentin
Tarantino, it is in fact possible to have thought
Inglourious Basterds was brilliant and also to
find The Hateful Eight a tiresome, incoherent, overlong
slog.
The story isn’t the problem; the tale of bounty hunters
and double-crossers works out just fine, and The Hateful
Eight is best when it’s a single-room whodunit, carefully
uncovering at least some of the lies told by its charming
occupants. Jennifer Jason Leigh looks like she could spit a
nail and hit you in the eye at 20 paces, and if there’s a bit
of scenery chewing going on, some of it (Demián Bichir)
is quite enjoyable. (Michael Madsen is downright
restrained in this company.)
The problem is that this is two movies. On the side of
the angels you have the legendary Ennio Morricone’s
ominous score, which does more to evoke a deadly,
lonesome sense of place — and the deadly, lonesome
people who wander through it — than anything in the
often blandly expository dialogue. Cinematographer
SAMUEL L. JACKSON IN THE
HATEFUL EIGHT
Robert Richardson does beautiful things with snow, and
with the saloon/outpost, Minnie’s Haberdashery, in which
much of the action takes place. Production designer Yohei
Taneda creates such depth in Minnie’s chilly, no-privacy
room that the space begs to be recreated as an immersive
theater project.
Except you wouldn’t want to be in this raggedly violent
story, with its paper-thin characters and lazy attempts to
shock. The Hateful Eight starts about 40 minutes before it
needs to, when Kurt Russell’s John Ruth reluctantly lets
Samuel L. Jackson’s Marquis Warren hop aboard his
coach. Both men are bounty hunters: Warren stacks a pile
of corpses on the roof, while Russell prefers bringing his
prey (Leigh’s Daisy Domergue) in alive. At Minnie’s, they
meet a bunch of strangers and all is well enough, in a tense
and moderately deadly way, until someone starts vomiting
blood. The projectile blood vomit is fairly delightful in its
absurdity, and it offers a nice change of pace from the
endless excuses the script finds for Daisy to get hit in the
face.
There are a few potentially interesting confrontations
about race, notably with Bruce Dern’s old general, but they
feel like little more than check-boxes, a tip of the hat to
theme and America, with nothing new to say. In the end,
they mean as little as any of the characters’ lives: everything
is ugly, and everything hurts.
The Hateful Eight is beautifully filmed, and Morricone’s
score should have escaped to find a better movie. But it’s
just a bloody sandbox in which Tarantino plays with his
favorite toys until it’s time to destroy them. If the moral here
is that everyone’s an asshole, well, mission accomplished,
loud and clear. (Regal Cinemas, Cinemark 17)
THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) ★
Fri. - Sat.(1135 305) 635 1005
TIX
$6
$2 $2 matinee
$1 off
Sun Tues $2 stud/SEN
*N E W * A L L A G E S
THE HATEFUL 8 [CC,DV] (R) ★
Fri. - Sat.(200 PM) 630 PM 1015 PM
FRI JAN 8 - THUR JAN 14
5:00, 9:35
5:15
ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE
ROAD CHIP (DIG) (PG)
11:40, 2:05, 4:35, 7:05, 9:40
THE BIG SHORT (DIG) (R)
11:20, 3:05, 6:50, 9:50
CONCUSSION (DIG) (PG-13)
2:50
CREED (DIG) (PG-13)
2:55, 10:00
DADDY’S HOME (DIG) (PG-13)
11:45, 2:30, 5:05, 7:45, 10:15
THE FOREST (DIG) (PG-13)
11:50, 2:25, 4:55, 7:25, 10:00
THE GOOD DINOSAUR (DIG) (PG)
10:45, 11:35, 2:20, 5:00, 7:40,
10:10
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (DIG) (R)
12:00, 4:05, 8:00
THE HUNGER GAMES:
MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (DIG)
(PG-13)
11:15, 3:00, 7:10, 10:25
IN THE HEART OF THE SEA (DIG)
(PG-13)
11:25, 6:55
JOY (DIG) (PG-13)
11:55, 3:10, 7:00, 10:05
POINT BREAK (2015) (DIG)
(PG-13)
11:05, 1:55, 4:45, 7:35, 10:25
REVENANT (DIG) (R)
10:55, 12:45, 2:35, 4:25, 6:15,
8:05, 9:55
SISTERS (DIG) (R)
11:00, 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE
FORCE AWAKENS (3D) (PG-13)
SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $3.00
UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS
11:30, 12:50, 4:10, 5:30, 7:20,
9:30, 10:30
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE
FORCE AWAKENS (DIG) (PG-13)
10:50, 1:30, 2:10, 4:50, 6:10,
8:10, 8:50
THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) ★
Fri. - Sat.(1205 330) 700 1030
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS 3D
[CC, (PG-13) ★
Fri. - Sat.(1200 1230 345) 645 1000
THE REVENANT [CC,DV] (R) ★ Fri. - Sat.(1230 330) 700 940
7:30*
7:30, 9:35
*NO SHOW SATURDAY JAN. 9
ALL AGES, ALL THE TIME
18
January 7, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
Times For 01/08 - 01/09 © 2016