I thought the first half was fantastic, with lots of fantastic writing, cinematography and captivating character exposition. It was everything I love about Tarantino.
But then, all the story development and interesting writing pretty much stops at the intermission / before Chapter 4. The rest of the movie is really just Tarantino's usual murderporn. The flashback scene fell flat, with the tension being killed by us knowing the fate of the characters as well as not really giving a shit about anyone involved. The whole setup with the jelly beans and all seemed really pointless, but I assume it was included as a reference to some movie Tarantino loves the shit out of. It was also strange to have SLJ's big reveal of the "No Mexicans" story immediately followed up by the scene showing Minnie not giving a shit when the Mexican arrives. Michael Madsen and Tim Roth's characters never received any exposition. Channing Tatum's character could be cut from the movie and you wouldn't even really notice.
Also as mentioned, all the characters behave completely illogical at multiple points in the story, but that's pretty standard Tarantino fare. I don't mind, as long as everything else works.
Given the huge expectations I had coming in, and the fantastic movie I saw before the intermission, I was really disappointed when I left. Maybe I just didn't watch enough old westerns to catch the references.
Note: I watched the extended version of the movie with full intermission and all. I don't know if the standard release is edited differently and if that makes the experience better. The second half might be stronger without the break in the middle killing all the tension.