John reluctantly allows the major onboard, but as they head through the fast approaching blizzard, they're both suspicious of a third man, Chris Mannix (WALTON GOGGINS), who they likewise encounter standing in the middle of the snow-covered road. He claims to be the soon to be sworn in sheriff of Red Rock whose horse suffered a broken leg, and while John and Marquis don't really believe any of that, and the major doesn't like the fact that the man's Confederate family was known for killing black people and this guy's an obvious racist, the fact that he could be telling the truth about his new position means they let him onboard, albeit at gunpoint.

They're headed for Minnie's Haberdashery, a remote outpost run by Minnie Mink (DANE GOURRIER) and Sweet Dave (GENE JONES), with the help of Six-Horse Judy (ZOE BELL) and a few others. Unbeknownst to those in the carriage, their arrival has been preceded by a quartet of men -- Bob (DEMIAN BICHIR), Oswaldo Mobray (TIM ROTH), Joe Gage (MICHAEL MADSEN) and Jody (CHANNING TATUM) -- who've stopped there and found an old Confederate officer, General Sanford "Sandy" Smithers (BRUCE DERN), already there. When John and others then arrive, tensions rise as he and Marquis become increasingly suspicious that one or more people there might be intent on harming them and freeing Daisy.

Considering his track record and the sort of films that molded his movie mentality, that’s probably even less likely to occur.  But it would be fascinating to see him try that as he obviously has a knack for terrific storytelling, creating memorable characters, and writing great dialogue for them.  Granted, he recently said he might only make ten films total, so the likelihood of that occurring is just about nil, but one can wish, can’t they?

After watching his eighth film, "The Hateful Eight," one might also wish he and his editor, Fred Raskin, were just as ruthless with the total running time as the characters within it are with those around them.  With the limited run, 70mm version clocking in at 187 minutes (complete with a several minute overture and a 12 minute intermission) and the "regular" version most people will see (running 167 minutes), the film isn’t edited badly by any means, but it’s unnecessarily long and, natch, over self-indulgent at times.

While there aren’t any powder kegs attached to damsels in distress tied to railroad tracks in the path of an approaching locomotive, another kind of powder keg is definitely present.  And that’s from a number of unsavory characters being holed up together in a snowed-in, one-room haberdashery in the post Civil War West.  

In a way, it’s somewhat akin to the 1939 western "Stagecoach" and it actually starts in one of those vehicles as a leathery old bounty hunter (an excellent Kurt Russell) is transporting a murderer (a hilariously unladylike Jennifer Jason Leigh) to watch her hang and collect his handsome bounty.

Trying to stay ahead of an approaching blizzard, they first encounter another bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) with a pile of dead bodies, and then another man (Walter Goggins) who states he’s the new sheriff of the town where the hanging’s to take place, although he has nothing on him to back up his claim.  Russell’s character is understandably suspicious of these two, but his concerns grow as they reach an outpost which the local proprietors have conveniently left for a few days.  

Or so says those inside the place (Tim Roth -- seemingly channeling Tarantino’s recent favorite in his latest films, Christoph Waltz -- along with Demian Bichir and Michael Madsen), while an old, racist Confederate general (Bruce Dern) doesn’t like the looks of Jackson’s character’s skin color.  The two bounty hunters are sure one or more of those men are in cahoots with their captured murderess, and thus the powder keg has been lit and we sit back and wait for it to explode.

Until then, there’s lots of talking inside the one-room establishment that obviously confines and pretty much negates what cinematographer Robert Richardson can do with his now rarely used ultra widescreen cameras (although the footage leading up to the stop at the outpost looks terrific).  While what’s present is never boring (even if it’s too long and could have been cut some, or even a lot), the film doesn’t have the sort of signature moments that made Tarantino’s previous works, such as "Pulp Fiction" or "Inglourious Basterds," so memorable.  

In both of those flicks, certain scenes are better than the entirety of many other films I’ve seen over the years.  I kept waiting for the same to show up here, but aside from a few bits of dialogue or funny character behaviors, it never happens.  What does occur, though, likely to no one’s surprise, is a lot of violence that finally erupts in the second half.  The director and his effects crew don’t hold back, but although much of it’s graphic, a lot is so over the top and exaggerated that the severity is lessened a bit.

Even so, all of that and the director’s usual bag of storytelling tricks (including, yes, an extended flashback to interrupt the story’s otherwise linear direction) only makes me want to see Tarantino forced to limit what he can show or have his characters say (including an abundant use of the N-word) and thus push his obvious creativity in a new and possibly fascinating direction.  Good, but not anywhere near his best, "The Hateful Eight" rates as a 6.5 out of 10.