Quentin Tarantino returns to the Western genre with his eighth film, The Hateful Eight. This isn't the sweltering heat of the plantation-era South, referenced to great effect in Django Unchained. Instead, it's the bleak winter of Wyoming.A few years ago Tarantino announced that he planned to retire from film-making after his 10th film and with each new film his ego, ambition and bravado increase, making it hard to imagine what he'll do to top himself next.The credits introduce the film cheekily as "The 8th Film by Quentin Tarantino," while we watch a stagecoach passing through the pelting snow to the ominous orchestrations of cinema's most baroque composer, Ennio Morricone.The film is also bigger, literally - Tarantino shot it on 70mm filmstock and he's made cinemas bring in projectors and projectionists in the US to ensure that audiences see it in its Cinemascope glory. Here, we're settling for 35mm viewing but Tarantino's use of the wider format is more than just egotism, and cinematographer Robert Richardson uses it to full effect as a means of opening up a darkly claustrophobic chamber piece.It's an Agatha Christie play mashed up with the verbiage, extreme violence and plot twists that Tarantino has made his own.Bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson) finds himself stuck in a blizzard while trying to deliver two dead baddies to Red Rock. He flags down a stagecoach that coincidentally has been hired by his bounty hunter acquaintance John Ruth (Kurt Russell), also on his way to Red Rock to deliver his expensive prize, one Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh).The grizzly and irascible Ruth gives Warren a lift and on their way to shelter from the blizzard at a half-way stop called Minnie's they pick up Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) on his way to Red Rock to take up the sheriff's post. All of which brings us to Minnie's, which is run by a suspicious Mexican named Bob (Demian Bichir) and occupied by hangman Oswald Mowbray (Tim Roth), a silent cowboy named Joe Gage (Michael Madsen) and General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern) a Civil War veteran. When things take a turn for the murderous it falls to Major Warren to figure out what the hell is going on.Tarantino deftly squeezes the mounting tension, and his characters, trapped with no escape from the weather or each other, get to monologue to their hearts' content. When the violence comes, it is brutal and graphic and all the more shocking for the seeming placidity it erupts from.At three hours with an intended intermission this is the kind of old-school epic cinema that few but Tarantino have the luxury of making any more. He revels in the opportunity but is perhaps too taken at times with his love of dialogue, leading to rambling scenes and stories.It's generally an enjoyable, but sometimes difficult, film to watch - and the actors clearly had fun .Jackson makes a meal of Marquis, who is the closest we get to a hero. Although she gets hideously banged around for much of the film, Leigh's performance is excellent and she elicits both our sympathy and our anger with a few deft alterations of her blazing stare. It's pleasing to see Russell back in action, and Roth and Madsen haven't had such visible and interesting roles in too long.Indulgent? Certainly. Gory? Absolutely. Verbose? Unashamedly. But with flashes of brilliance and the kind of genre- bending cheek that put him so far ahead of the rest of the early 1990s American Indie crew, The Hateful Eight is not only a great Tarantino but satisfying entertainment.What others sayBy blowing out brains Tarantino wants to blow our minds. Anthony Lane, newyorker.comStarts low-key but ultimately delivers big, bold, blood-soaked rewards. Ian Freer, EmpireA return to Tarantino's small-scaled, dialogue-heavy, non-linear storytelling, bloody, shocking origins. Eric Eisenberg, cinemablend.comAlso opening5TH WAVEDecent post-apocalyptic, young-adult, world-in-the-balance survival thriller.Eddie Cockrell, variety.comTHE DANISH GIRLWell-crafted film about a pioneering spirit who remains an inspiration for today's transgender movement. Geoffrey Macnab, independent.co.ukDIRTY GRANDPANot just the worst movie De Niro has ever been in, it may be the worst movie ever.Pete Hammond, Deadline..