Inglourious Basterds (DVD, 2009)

This 2009 release marks a turning point in the directing life of Quentin Tarantino in a good way. The story telling gets more interesting & alive, which happens to make the characters extremely surreal & larger than life (not half-baked).

Although the film was nominated for 8 academy awards, I still felt that there were many things rushed about the final product. It's hard to put your finger on, but I think the film may have done better with the general public if it cut out some of the cruelty/gore that seems to permeate films today. The cursing didn't really seem to play any integral part as well. Camera shots & cinematography were used extremely well in this film as well as the audio.

Actually, the only character in this film that really didn't fit in to this picture was Brad Pitt's character Lt. Aldo Raine. He may have been chosen to bring in the big bucks for the film, however, it made the film less believable overall. Not that Pitt made a mess of his character, but the Tennessee southern accent really didn't fit well with over 22% of the film being spoken in French and 28% German. I found it very hard to follow the action in the film & read the subtitles as they was much dialogue that was long & choppy. The subtitles ran much to fast (too short a time span to read) at the bottom of the screen; sometimes running into contrasty areas of light & dark.

When drama was called for, Quentin really beefed up the soundtrack. When violence was shown, it really got bloody. This will not go down in history as a well-rounded family film, however, the grind-house feel was still there, which made it an extremely tense & an edge-of-your-seat type of film. I can't say Pitt performed any better than Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, but the casting, the direction, & screenplay makes it stand on it's own. I can't really say it should be in the top 5 films of 2009, but it was indeed a memorable film for it's creative fantastical fictional fantasy story that has many people talking about the what ifs of the outcomes of WWII ending before D-Day.

David Bowie's song about "putting out the fire with gasoline" was a nice touch to the final sequence. Although I thought there were unnecessary clips added to the film dispersed throughout to add additional story telling, it somehow did break a few long and exasperating scenes of monotony. The actor Melanie Laurent who played Shoashanna Dreyfus really pulled off some really great scenes as she hid her true emotions from Hans Landa (Chrisotph Waltz) who won the only academy award for Best Supporting actor.

Whether I thought certain scenes were cruel and unnecessary are or not is not the point, however, one sequence that was total acting (not reality) was when Pitt puts his finger in the bullet wound of Diane Kruger in order to get her to talk. At that particular point in time, her lack of intense displeasure of pain & her verbose speech that followed while he held his finger in the wound was a bit half-baked and, in my opinion, should have been shot a totally different way.

I dig Mike Myers in most any role that he plays, but it seemed that Myer's role made the film a bit too comical as his character reminded me too much of Austin Power's arch nemesis Dr. Evil. His speech was much too long in one sequence & should've been dispersed throughout the film for more character development. Myer's role, once again, in my opinion, needed to be much more serious as well as the whole tone of the film seemed comical.

If you need to write an essay or a report for school about World War II, then don't take it from this movie, seriously this film is about as acurate to the real thing as the Kokoda track had an escalator instead of stairs. Inglorious Basterds (it's ok to say as long as you say as Basterds not tards) is World War II as depicted as Quentin Tarantino as a group of jewish American soldiers called The Basterds are dropped into Nazi occupied France to kill as many Nazis in the most horrifing, cruelest and most torturest way imaginable, and I love it.

What I don't like is the way Quentin shows off to us his knowledge of films is as he shows it so much in this movie. Comparing this to say Pulp Fiction is like comparing an iced coffee to a long island iced tea, both of them have the feel of a Quentin Tarantino movie, you know he wrote and directed both of them but they are completely different genres of films, ones a gangster film with not that graphic of violence and the other is a fictional WWII with the level of graphic violence that could bring tears to the eyes of a person with no eyes. The only actors anyone can spot right there and then is Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, the learder of the Basterds and Mike Myers as a brief cameo. all the other actors you wll have to think hard as to where you have seen them before.

So basically what I'm saying is don't go into this movie with the mindset of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, just don't go into any mindset at all. I can guarantee you will enjoy even more.

Quentin Tarantino's latest movie is probably his best yet.

This one is about a group of misfits who set out to kill as many Nazi's as they can in France during WWII. Brad Pitt has a great performance as Lieutenant Aldo Raine who is leading his Jewish-American forces.

At times funny, and at times very serious, this movie keeps you entertained from beginning to end, despite it length (it is over 2 1/2 hours but worth every minute.

The all star cast includes: August Diehl, B.J. Novak, Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Denis Menochet, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Jacky Ido, Julie Dreyfus, Martin Wuttke, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Samm Levine, Sylvester Groth, Til Schweiger

Watch this movie you will be glad you did.

This is an incredible film, both entertaining and technically brilliant. Tarantino shows no signs of slowing down and continues to create engrossing films that offer intriguing storylines, pitch-perfect dialogue, and of course, relentless violence. With Inglourious Basterds, you don't have to choose between seeing an adrenaline-packed action flick and a creative, intelligent picture. The flawless performance by Christoph Waltz, accompanied by the array of talent in the rest of the cast, propels this picture to the top of the Tarantino's list of works. Tense, almost horrific, scenes are interspersed with light comedy and flashy action scenes in a manner worthy of oscar mention. The dvd itself has no noteworthy characteristics, with few special features. I would recommend purchasing the special edition if your budget allows (I have not seen the features on the special edition, but I assume they are better) because this is a film worthy of viewing any director commentary. Overall, this is an excellent film and it deserves to be in your dvd collection.

It was the best of films, it was the worst of films...

So what's the big idea with having about half (or more) of a film (that's supposedly in English - that's the language I chose on the DVD) subtitled??? Did someone think that made the film 'art?' WRONG! It just made it annoying!

Here was a film that I was ever so anxious to watch (and probably watch over and over) - great director (Tarantino), great star (Brad Pitt) and an interesting story line. Was the direction great? Yes! Was the star great? Yes! Was the story line/plot great? Yes! Did I enjoy the film? No - No - No! Would I watch it again? NO! Would I recommend it to anyone else? NO!

When you have to read subtitles through most of the film (and in my case out loud for my friend who could not see them well enough to read them on his own) it's hard to relax and just enjoy the film - and I didn't! (It also didn't help that many of the subtitles went so fast I couldn't read the whole thing aloud AND some of them were in white against a pale yellow background making them virtually impossible to make out.)

I think that sometimes directors get so tied up in their (so called) 'art' that they forget that their primary goal is to entertain (even if you want to teach a moral or promote an idea or view, you darn well better entertain me or I'll be turning the flick off before your message is delivered). If I wanted to read 'Inglorious Basterds' I'd have looked for it in print!