There’s always a huge amount of hype surrounding a new Quentin Tarantino movie and for the best part the movie lives up to the hype, with an obvious exception or two, one being Jackie Brown. Incidentally, Tarantino started thinking / working on Inglourious Basterds just after Jackie Brown. So, after a best actor award at Cannes this year, and not much else baring the its too long criticism at the big French film festival, the latest Tarantino movie finally has arrived.
The story is straight forward. Lt. Aldo Raine (played by Pitt) heads up a, deep behind enemy lines, top secret bunch of lunatics (for choice of a better word) called the Inglourious Basterds. Their sole purpose is to put fear into Nazi’s and they do this by scalping and killing any that they find, but for good measure they leave one alive to tell of the horror! Ultimately of course, they want to kill Hitler as their main goal and in a movie that twists and turns fantastically, that's what they try and do.
From the get go, Basterds grabs you by the testicles or the equivalent for the ladies. It clocks in at just over 2 hours 30 minutes and it thunders along. I know the original cut is 15 minutes longer, but either way I’m not sure where the “its too long” criticism comes from. Tarantino produces classic dialogue, scene after scene and tops it off with what, has become, part of the Tarantino attraction. Violence. And when the violence happens, boy those it happen. Baseball bats go batting and scalps go scalping. But Basterds is far from an action movie. There is a great story here, obviously fictional but it sucks you right into the thick of it, partly due to great writing. The sets look stunning and given Tarantino being such a lover of old cinema, he certainly must have had a geek out field day with this. It just looks superb! The details are just fantastic. Particularly in the cinema scenes, Tarantino has left no detail unturned. From old cinema posters to projectors and a real old style auditorium.
Pitt delivers a funny and solid performance and the rest of the cast nail it pretty good! But, there is one exception. Christoph Waltz is mind blowing. He plays Col. Hans Landa and just about blows everybody else off the screen. An amazing performance, and one that may well get a supporting actor nod! Just superb!
I thoroughly enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino has made, in my book, a huge return to form here! Do yourself a favour, don't miss out on one of the movies of the year!
The story is straight forward. Lt. Aldo Raine (played by Pitt) heads up a, deep behind enemy lines, top secret bunch of lunatics (for choice of a better word) called the Inglourious Basterds. Their sole purpose is to put fear into Nazi’s and they do this by scalping and killing any that they find, but for good measure they leave one alive to tell of the horror! Ultimately of course, they want to kill Hitler as their main goal and in a movie that twists and turns fantastically, that's what they try and do.
From the get go, Basterds grabs you by the testicles or the equivalent for the ladies. It clocks in at just over 2 hours 30 minutes and it thunders along. I know the original cut is 15 minutes longer, but either way I’m not sure where the “its too long” criticism comes from. Tarantino produces classic dialogue, scene after scene and tops it off with what, has become, part of the Tarantino attraction. Violence. And when the violence happens, boy those it happen. Baseball bats go batting and scalps go scalping. But Basterds is far from an action movie. There is a great story here, obviously fictional but it sucks you right into the thick of it, partly due to great writing. The sets look stunning and given Tarantino being such a lover of old cinema, he certainly must have had a geek out field day with this. It just looks superb! The details are just fantastic. Particularly in the cinema scenes, Tarantino has left no detail unturned. From old cinema posters to projectors and a real old style auditorium.
Pitt delivers a funny and solid performance and the rest of the cast nail it pretty good! But, there is one exception. Christoph Waltz is mind blowing. He plays Col. Hans Landa and just about blows everybody else off the screen. An amazing performance, and one that may well get a supporting actor nod! Just superb!I thoroughly enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino has made, in my book, a huge return to form here! Do yourself a favour, don't miss out on one of the movies of the year!
