Movie Review #18 Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds (2009) Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz Directed By Quentin Tarantino

I don't think anyone deserves to get Quentino Tarantino'ed more than Adolf Hitler. In Basterds Tarantino throws out the history books and tells it (WWII) the way he wants...you gotta problem with that? If you said no then you will love "The Basterds" stomping through France killing Nazis. When Tarantino makes a film he takes his influences and "Super-Sizes" them to give the viewer a truly one of kind experience. Sometimes I have a hard time with these influences (Kill Bill, Death Proof), other times its Oscar-worthy (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction). In Basterds we see a lot of "Spaghetti-Western" (and yes Prof. La Chappelle...I remember your course). The music and editing all fit nicely into that genre (like the Dirty Dozen went to Germany to face The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...and um Nazi's). I don't think in this case he overdoes it, however there is a flaw I would mention, in the first 10 or 20 minutes we see excellent pace and good strong editing and that seems to wane off as the film goes on. I think to tell the story he wanted to tell he had to sacrifice some of his style...which is fine, but at a 150 plus minutes...I actually felt like there was some story missing (which at times should be more important than style right?). I wanted to see a little more of "The Basterds" and a little more plot explanation. It is hard to pick on a guy like Tarantino but there are some scenes that carried on a bit long, and some characters that could have gotten a touch less screen time, so we could see just a tad more Nazi ass-kicking right? Well I'm no film maker but to me that was the difference between this being an 8.0 or a 7.5.
Basterds tells the story of a Jewish-American WWII unit called "The Basterds". Their mission is to kick Nazi ass and spread fear throughout Nazi occupied France. This Unit is led by Lt. Aldo Raine (a very heavy accented Brad Pitt who seems to have a lot of fun with the part). The Unit Consists of several interesting characters that I really wanted to see more of (Eli Roth Sgt. Donny Donowitz and Til Schweiger Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz are the two best) ...but nonetheless they are all cool and crazy fun to watch. They are being hunted down by the scene stealing Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), it is his character that really paces the story. Diane Kruger also steals scenes as a German actress serving as a double agent. Since it isn't based on fact I won't give too much away, however I will say that if you are tickled with the idea of Joseph Goebbels and Hitler getting their ass-kicked then my guess is you won't be disappointed.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Um the Dirty Dozen meets up with the Unit from Private Ryan, while they search for the suitcase from Pulp Fiction...and when you open the suitcase you find a bunch of Nazi's??? Maybe I shouldn't even try, how about a very good 7.5 on the scale putting it in the top five of the year so far. (500 days of summer, The Hurt Locker, Star Trek, Inglourious Basterds so far if you are keeping score).

Food for thought: I enjoyed a nice big fat bucket of popcorn, and had a soda...what else for a kick ass war film?? However just before had a Dunkin Donuts Vanilla coffee iced medium regular...so I fought through the film trying hard not to think of how much I had to pee...and I held back thank you very much. Up next for Tarantino is Come Drink With Me and Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill...details are slim but great titles. Pitt continues to sharpen his acting resume as he works with Terrence Malick and Sean Penn on The Tree of Life set in the 50' as well as a comedy (Oobermind) with Will Ferrell (yeah that's right) about a superhero who has lost his oomph??