Justin's Birthday & The Hateful Eight...

Yesterday Justin finally entered the dirty thirty club and since it was his day I asked him what he'd like to do to celebrate. He isn't big on birthday parties or anything, so he just wanted the two of us to go out for dinner and then go to the movies to see The Hateful Eight (2015).

So that's exactly what we did. I took him to Churrasqueira Bairrada Restaurant, a Portuguese steakhouse (Think Brazilian steakhouse) here on Long Island where he could have all you can eat meats. And then we headed over to one of the handful of theaters playing the 70mm Roadshow edition of The Hateful Eight.

 Justin and I actually went into the movie cold. We knew nothing about the movie except that it was a Quentin Tarantino film that had Samuel L. Jackson in it and we figured we'd go see it because we like Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson. We both didn't even know what the whole 70mm Roadshow thing was about either (I'll have an explanation of it further down in the post for those of you interested). We just went to see it blindly.

And are we glad we did. We both absolutely loved The Hateful Eight. It was an interesting and beautifully shot piece of cinematography with an outstanding cast.

But that being said, if you aren't a fan of Tarantino you probably wont like this film. But I say give it a shot if you're into westerns or if you like Samuel L. Jackson and/or Kurt Russell because they were amazing in it.

For those of you that haven't already seen the trailer and don't want to go in cold, here is the trailer...

Now on to the 70mm Roadshow thing.

Here is a press release break down (That I ignored in my inbox for weeks) of the movie, what a Roadshow is and film shot in 70mm format...

The exclusive roadshow engagement that THE HATEFUL EIGHT is embarking on will replicate the special event releases that films used to receive in the early and mid-twentieth century. They screened a longer version of the film than would have been shown in wide release, including a musical overture to start the show and an intermission between acts, and moviegoers received a special souvenir program. THE HATEFUL EIGHT roadshow experience will offer moviegoers all three special features. Roadshows were the gold standard for exhibiting pictures like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, GONE WITH THE WIND, CLEOPATRA, BATTLE OF THE BULGE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and BEN HUR.  

The Weinstein Company (TWC) and Tarantino's presentation of THE HATEFUL EIGHT will mark the widest 70mm release that the industry has seen in over twenty years. The film will open in 44 markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Washington DC, Houston, Detroit, Phoenix, Seattle, Tampa, Minneapolis, Denver, Miami, Cleveland, Orlando, Sacramento, St. Louis, Portland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Baltimore, San Diego, Nashville, Kansas City, San Antonio, West Palm Beach, Birmingham, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Austin, New Orleans, Providence,  Knoxville, Santa Barbara, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. Quentin and cast members from THE HATEFUL EIGHT will be touring the country making surprise appearances in select cities at 70mm roadshow showings.  

Not since the 1966 film KHARTOUM starring Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier has a film been shot in Ultra Panavision 70 format. In 2012, TWC distributed Paul Thomas Anderson's acclaimed film THE MASTER in a similar 70mm format. Beloved by filmmakers and cinephiles for its wide-scope and high-resolution image quality, Ultra Panavision70mm stock captures nearly twice the landscape of the more common 35mm and digital styles. Because of its unique quality and its importance to the art of filmmaking, Quentin, TWC, and a number of other major Hollywood directors and studios have negotiated deals with Kodak to continue production of 70mm and other film formats despite their higher costs and complexity of use.

The lead cast for THE HATEFUL EIGHT will include: Samuel L. Jackson (DJANGO UNCHAINED), Kurt Russell (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK), Jennifer Jason Leigh (MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE), Walton Goggins (Justified), Demian Bichir (A BETTER LIFE), Tim Roth (RESERVOIR DOGS), Michael Madsen (RESERVOIR DOGS), and Bruce Dern (NEBRASKA). Written and directed by Tarantino, THE HATEFUL EIGHT is produced by Richard N. Gladstein, Stacey Sher and Shannon McIntosh. Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein and Georgia Kacandes are executive producing, and Coco Francini and William Paul Clark are associate producing.  

This bit is about the plot. So if you ignored the trailer, you will wanna skip this part.

In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as "The Hangman," will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town's new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie's Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie's, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who's taking care of Minnie's while she's visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all...

And for those of you that didn't wanna read all of that, here is a video of Tarantino and some of The Hateful Eight cast talking about 70mm Roadshows...

So yeah, I had no idea what a Roadshow was before last night but I enjoyed it. I loved how quirky it seemed in this day of digital streaming and such. I loved getting a program about the film and the overture in the beginning and the fact that there was an intermission. It was all just neat.

If you want to see The Hateful Eight, I highly recommend seeing the 70mm Roadshow edition if it's playing in a theater near you. And please let me know if you do, as well as what you thought about the movie. I know my review was very vague but I enjoyed going into the movie cold, so I figured if any of you wanted to do the same I wouldn't say much.