TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

"I've never heard someone be called the N-word as much as I have in this movie." This is a quote from a friend of mine who saw The Hateful Eight , and boy is it accurate. Quentin Tarantino, along with, you know, changing the movie landscape and all that, is a fan of gratuitousness. His first two films ( Reservoir Dogs and Pulp  Fiction ) clock in, according to Wikipedia, at 534 f-words combine, and you can guess it's not "falafel." The first Kill Bill movie has Uma Thurman chopping off dozens of samurai limbs, and Django Unchained   had...everything. The lover of everything B-cinema loves to meld genres, tropes and character archetypes together to give you an X-rated smorgasbord for movie fans and casual watchers alike. It almost seems like a burden to have that much of a crammed imagination. I've yet to see Jackie Brown and his Grindhouse collaboration with Robert Rodriguez, but otherwise I'm happy to report I've seen Tarantino's entire d...

I have to confess the only thing I'd ever seen Melissa McCarthy up to this point was her hilarious guest appearances on "SNL," the peak performances trumping with her physical slapstick. I've always wanted to see "Bridesmaids" to see that Oscar-nominated performance of hers, but in all honesty, "Identity Thief" and "Mike & Molly" looked silly to me, and I never watched "Samantha Who" or "Gilmore Girls." All I had to judge on was reviews claiming she carried "The Heat" on her shoulders, and those choice over-the-top delicious roles on "SNL." The verdict: she's hysterical. Indeed McCarthy does something fascinating: everything coming out of her mouth is nearly always funny (to the degree of  funny is debatable), profane and rapidly paced. She is the sole reason the movie works, well, to give her co-star credit, the chemistry between her and Sandra Bullock is pretty darn good too. In a bett...