The Hateful Eight

Admittedly, the trailer to this movie didn't impress me at first. So I finally got a chance to see what all the buzz was about. The Hateful Eight is an impressive and solid Tarantino movie with the best cast of many of his previous movies.  Yes, there's significant blood and violence and unexpected moments in Tarantino fashion. But much more, it is a strongly, dialogue driven, who done it mystery with the seemingly simple premise that unravels like a ball of yarn attached to dynamite.  All the best moments of Tarantino films are there, intertwined with the usual talents of Sam Jackson, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Kurt Russell back at the table. Anchor this to no less impressive performances in Jennifer Jason Leigh and Walter Goggins (I'm so fuckin' glad this talented dude from tv's Justified got a chance to shine on the big screen).  I certainly wouldn't say it's the absolute best Tarantino film, but I certainly appreciate what he was trying to pull off.  The ensembles pieces of the old classic dialogue and mystery films and even what I discerned was a kind of reunion with his own earlier classics like Reservoir Dogs in particular, were what I really personally appreciated the most about The Hateful Eight.  Like, he was also going back to his own stylistic roots. It of course, has it's flaws.  The unfolding of the plot falls off a bit 3/4 of the way in and kind of erodes away the slow burn of character revelation and development, that certainly could have rounded out the overall story arch. Tarantino has certainly been guilty of that before.  I get it.  He and we as the audience are like a kid in the candy store gone wild after discipline has been sustained for too long.  As in Django Unchained, Tarantino is still flirting with the slavery and Civil War ashes of the 19th century in America and still gives Sam Jackson some of the best and funniest moments of the film (perhaps as a sort of redemption for his Uncle Tom gone wild character in the previous).

Terminator Genisys

An ambitious project it surely is, not as bad as I might have thought and also not as good as it could have been. Terminator Genisys will be spawning a sequel and it is said, a television spin off; so real effort had to be put into it. It shows that effort in star power with the return of Schwarzenegger (who's actually quite good and clearly having fun), and more importantly in the storyline. However, in an attempt to return to the origins and capture the best moments of the film franchise, it trips over itself too many times with an overly convoluted plot and not enough heart to warrant it's length. This is a case where the plot basically cannibalizes itself, from something that was surely promising at the onset.  Rather than an attempt at rebooting the Terminator films, this film seems more appropriate to finally concluding the series.  Granted, there's a plethora of really good action sequences, particularly the fresh helicopter sequences. Yet, even that staple of the genre can't save Terminator Genisys from over reaching in it's ambition and settling to a mere, mildly entertaining second rate action film; though admittedly the star power return of Arnold bolsters it above the last two installments.