The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015)

8/10
I stewed on this one for a while before finally bringing it up to an 8 from the 7.5 or so I had in mind when I saw it. It is certainly the most interesting movie Tarantino has made in almost a decade, since Death Proof I would say. Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained were cartoony throwaways. The Hateful Eight isn't perfect, and it probably riffs on Reservoir Dogs a little too much to stand on its own as a dazzlingly unique Tarantino creation. But it did feel, at the very least, like QT was challenging himself with this script. These are some of the most interesting characters he's written in a long time, and his knack for storytelling is as sharp as ever. As a theatre-style, locked-room mystery, it's very interesting. As a movie, well you probably could have shaved 20-30 minutes from the runtime, and I don't think it really says much despite the presence of the superficial racial politics that Tarantino is eternally obsessed with, but I liked it more than I thought I would. I was expecting a big action movie and it's quite a different beast indeed. So, not "perfect" but I'll happily settle for "interesting" at this point in Tarantino's career.

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)

6.5/10
The biggest surprise about Tarantino's new movie is how...undistinguished it seems. I may have disliked Inglourious Basterds with a passion, but it was certainly a unique vision. Compare with Django Unchained - if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie. I think part of the problem is that Tarantino is no longer a director who has to make movies - I hesitate to use the term "spinning his wheels" but that's definitely what Django feels like.
It's not all bad though. Some have complained the movie is something of a slog, but I never felt the lengthy running time, which is always a plus. Leonardo DiCaprio is very good, but Christoph Waltz steals the show. Almost to a fault, in fact - as soon as Waltz's character isn't on screen, you start to miss his presence. Particularly noticeable in the scenes where Foxx has to carry the movie on his own. Foxx isn't a bad actor, but Django is such a blank slate compared to Waltz and DiCaprio's characters that he needs to be surrounded with some, uh, colour and suffers plainly when it's not there.
Overall, generally entertaining with some ups and downs. Probably my second-to-least favourite Tarantino movie, but nothing overly atrocious or even memorable, really. Which, as I said, is probably the biggest surprise of all.

Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino, 2007)

8/10
I liked it a lot and thought Tarantino held true to the kinds of movies he and Rodriguez were paying homage too. It was a bit too talky at times, but was never too uninteresting for too long. The final car chase was pretty amazing, as was the crash that ends the first half. I also wish there was more Kurt Russell but I guess the less you know about him, the scarier the character.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)

8/10
Most of the excitement and eye-popping visuals take place in the first one rather than spread out evenly between the two volumes so Vol. 2 moves a bit slower (despite being longer) than its predecessor. Nevertheless the movie is still very enjoyable, and David Carradine steals every scene he's in (Michael Madsen is also excellent). The ending is surprisingly touching although like in the first one, the movie's final showdown is an abrupt one. I also thought some of the stuff at the end was kind of cheesy but I'd spoil the ending if I went into greater detail so I'll leave it at that. Very satisfying end to a story that's far more inventive than it first appears.

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

4/10
I'm really surprised so many people liked it. I saw it last night and thought it was incredibly boring, almost astonishingly self-indulgent, overlong, and just an all-around waste of time. The dialogue (Tarantino's forte) is generally uninteresting and too many scenes drag on for no real reason other than, from what I can tell, pure self-indulgence. The only interesting character (and the only one Tarantino bothered to develop) was Christoph Waltz's...and while he was good, I was underwhelmed considering he took Best Actor at Cannes and has been getting Best Supporting Actor Oscar buzz.
Brad Pitt was good when he was given something to do (the whole Italian-speaking scene was great) but he was criminally underused in the movie. We only really got to know a handful of the other Basterds and even then it was only in passing. You could have chopped at least an hour out of the movie and you wouldn't have lost any of the emotional impact (of which there was none, but nevertheless). Really disappointing.