The Hateful Way We Write Filmmakers Off When We Shouldn't

The film year for me has now started with vim and verve and my mindset now turns to the weekly schedule of new releases to prep for Radio each month.

One of the first I saw this year was Quentin Tarantino's new film the Hateful Eight which I have to confess I was not all that keen about as I have rarely enjoyed QT's work in the past (Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill would be the exceptions) so it was with some level of hesitation that I went into the film.

When I came out of it I said to the girls at the foyer desk "It's a Tarantino film" and in my written review I gave it a 2.5 out of 5 score feeling that while there were many things that I liked about it (the R18+ tone, the super wide screen, the dialogue, the performances and the musical score) I did also feel that it ran a little too long and the blood and swearing and abuse also got a little too much after a while.

But as the days and weeks have rolled on the film has surprisingly grown a fair amount in my mind and the negatives I felt about the film when I first saw it have faded somewhat, hell its even gotten to the point where I want to see the film again in the cinema which is always a sign that happens when I love a film.

What it has also shown me is that no matter how much you desperately want to and sometimes there can be good reasons to do such a thing you can just never ever write a filmmaker off and indeed part of me had written off Tarantino mainly because his last couple of pictures either didn't interest me very much or I was not a huge fan of.

And yet when I try to think about why that is in an exact sense in terms of having a clear and definitive answer I can't really think of one maybe it's just one of those sort of movies that comes along every once in a while that you probably don't think a lot of going in or even as your more immediate reaction when coming out of that film but it just becomes one that grows in your mind over time.

But if I'm going to say this for Tarantino then I had better say it for Michael Bay for as much as I LOATHE with every single fiber of my being his work on the Transformers films I have to say part of me is keen to see his upcoming 13 Hours film about Benghazi in 2012 it has had good reviews in the US but it hasn't clicked at the Box Office despite Paramount probably hoping like hell it would be their own American Sniper esque hit but as with all these things we wait and we see.

Cause After all I never thought another film in 2016 could give X-Men Apocalypse a run for its money but that was indeed the whole point of doing this column you just never know what can come around the corner movie wise nor can you write off filmmakers you may not have liked in the past because well folks stuff like this happens.