Easily Tarantino's best and most cohesive film since Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds adopts the same homage-strewn, noirish quality of that earlier film, and fits snugly into Tarantino's oeuvre. Anyone looking for historical accuracy or depth of character should look elsewhere for their entertainment, because Inglourious is entertainment in its purest sense, a Boy's Own yarn that wouldn't be out of place in the pages of The Eagle. The film works like a kind of cartoon, and if you take it in the spirit that it was intended, it's hard not to enjoy it.

The central premise is in the title, namely a hardcore group of Allied soldiers charged with the sole mission of killing Nazis. As you'd expect from Mr T, the scenes portraying this mission are casually and unflinchingly violent. As Lt.Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) tells his newly assembled troops 'Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps.'.' This somewhat direct and darkly humorous plot line is interwoven with that of Jewish escapee and French cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus (a luminous Mélanie Laurent). Having watched her family murdered by notorious ‘Jew Hunter’ Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), Shosanna is out for revenge, and when a Nazi war hero strays into her life, revenge is handed to her on a platter. Smitten with Shosanna, Pvt Zoller (Daniel Bruhl of The Edukators fame) encourages the relocation of the movie portraying his exploits (and in which he arrogantly stars) from the Paris Ritz to Shosanna’s smaller suburban cinema. When Hitler and a good portion of the Nazi High Command take an interest in attending the movie, the two plots are set on a collision course. The results, as you'd expect from Tarantino, could never be anything less than explosive.

Inglourious Basterds is that rare thing - a movie that owes its genesis to so many others, yet completely dismisses them in favour of fantasy. This kind of originality, this refreshing of old and hackneyed themes, is the hallmark that made Tarantino famous and is, indeed, his speciality. Where that homage stumbled in the hit-and-miss Kill Bill, the director is right on the money here, presenting an engaging and amusing film that never takes itself too seriously. Inglourious deliberately defies deeper analysis and at times you get the feeling that Tarantino is having a laugh at his own expense. A word of warning: if you don’t appreciate Mr T’s work, it’s unlikely that you’ll enjoy this film. If you do, chances are you'll love it.

There are many great scenes here - the red-faced and ranting Fuhrer tied in knots by the rampaging Basterds, the flirtatious actress Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) fending off the attentions of a drunken German soldier in a tense moment of subterfuge, Mr Pitt's dreadful (or rather, non-existent) Italian accent just when it’s needed most. However, Christoph Waltz steals the show as the clever and scheming Landa, one of the cruellest Nazis you'll ever see on screen. In fact, it's the comic book characters and pop culture mentality that make this movie work so well. When the bullets start to fly, you know you'll probably never see such wilful relish in the slaughter of Nazis again. The director is clearly having fun. Sentiment and 'glory' are dispensed with entirely, and you're left with a very different kind of war movie, one that sticks two fingers up to its critics by simply doing what it sets it out to do. Entertain.

JB

Waxy, are you serious? I thought this was a load of Tripe!

Deadly serious. It's not tripe. It's counter culture and out of a lot of people's scope.

JB

I'm looking forward to seeing this Better late than...

Sarah

If you like Tarantino, you should enjoy it.

JB

I do like Tarantino - but this one got a right panning.

Here's the Indy review - not a panning? Made me intrigued to see it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/inglourious-basterds-18-1774995.html

Sarah

There's this by Mark Kermode, I was thinking of:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/markkermode/2009/08/5_live_review_inglourious_bast.html


and this - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/19/inglourious-basterds-review-brad-pitt-quentin-tarantino

and this:-
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article6804156.ece


Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

No modern film-maker has paid such an obsessive tribute to genre while subverting it at the same time.

I'd agree with the above from the Independent review.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that I think a lot of audiences don't really 'get' Tarantino. And aside from the 'cool' aspect of saying they enjoy him, they never have. For one thing, some lack the genre references that support his films, the comic-book style (deliberately shoddy and overwrought), the glaring homage, the subtle pastiche, the fantasy of it all... The Times wades in from the outset bemoaning 'tasteless violence'. I've always wondered about that phrase. Is there such a thing as tasteful violence? 'It’s crass, juvenile and profoundly distasteful' the reviewer wails (probably clutching her frilly skirts). Ahem. It's a Tarantino movie? What did you expect? Bambi?

Yes, Tarantino has his flaws as do most of his movies, but these reviewers are wide of the mark, I think, when they propose that this director has lost his touch or that Inglourious is a bad film. It seems to me that the platform from which some critics review his movies is all wrong, and that just because they don't 'get' something, doesn't make it bad. It just means that they don't get it.

I found Inglourious a well made, funny and entertaining film. It's original in it's fantastical and OTT approach to history. Almost sarcastic. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the simple fact remains that nobody makes movies like Tarantino, and most of his naysayers seem to think he should. Vive la difference, I say.

JB



<Added>

Sorry, wrote in a rush. Meant to say that '...his naysayers seem to think he should make movies to the same formula as everybody else'.

Admit it, we live in the age of Sameyness. We should celebrate Mr T for doing something different on the big screen.

I don't think you can knock Mark Kermode for not knowing his Tarantino, though. He knows probably more than most, I'd say.

He just seems to think he's become rather undisciplined and needs someone to tell him so.

It's a differing view. I think the lack of discipline is part of the form?

JB

<Added>

I did laugh at his gestures in the video. Someone should strap the man's arms down!

Waxy, be very careful what you say about Doctor K. I am his biggest fan. The man is a geek and I love him.

Nah, he's ok. Infinitely preferable to the local newspaper critic up here who only likes cheesy big budget movies and slates everything else.

JB