The Hateful Eight: 8 Reasons It's Quentin Tarantino's Worst Film
7. The Performances Are Caricatured
Much of the praise for The Hateful Eight has been for the performances and the rich bench of acting talent that the film contains. And while its true that there are some fine performances in the picture, most notably Jennifer Jason Leighs now Oscar nominated turn as Daisy Domergue and Kurt Russells bow as John The Hangman Ruth, it remains that while never outright bad, most of the performances on show here are caricatured, acted by stars acutely aware that they are in a Quentin Tarantino movie. This has been the case for a while in the directors work, and a few great Inglourious Basterds turns aside (and Jamie Foxxs in Django Unchained, to be fair), it remains that, post-Kill Bill, his movies are becoming increasingly frequented by Quentins Cartoon Characters. In The Hateful Eight, Samuel L. Jackson is good but really just going through the standard SLJ motions; Walton Goggins - highly praised - is extra-cartoonish, all rootin and tootin and misplaced Western genre sensibility; Kurt Russell is great but is still basically doing a John Wayne impression; Michael Madsen just kind of shows up; and Channing Tatums cameo is one of the most misjudged, uninspiring bits of casting in recent memory. Add to that a role for Academy Award nominated actor, Demián Bichir, as a stereotypical Mexican, complete with phony accent (not, you know, his own authentic Mexican accent), and you get a measure of just how misshapen The Hateful Eight's performances are.
