Tarantino is back and better than ever!
Written: Sep 07 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Aweosme use of violence, great characters, terrific villain
Cons: ...None, Tarantino gets everything right this time...None, Tarantino gets everything right this time
The Bottom Line: Better than Pulp Fiction, better than Reservoir Dogs, best thing Tarantino has done with his career. Bold Statement? Yes but go see it and you will see why
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| musicc's Full Review: Inglourious Basterds |
I like Quentin Tarantino, Resevoir Dogs is an excellent movie, Pulp Fiction is overrated but still good. True Romance is flat out awesome and even though he didn't direct the script is dynamite. Never saw Jackie Brown but have heard good things from it. I never liked either Kill Bill, found them boring, I liked Death Proof a lot, but it didn't seem like enough, so I was ready to write Tarantino as nothing more than a has been. But then Inglourious Basterds came out and it blew me away, by far the best thing Tarantino has done so far.
The plot is simple and effective. Lt. Aldo Raine is in charge of a nazi killing squad known as the basterds. They are nortorious through out Germany and have quite a reputation. Shosanna Dreyfrus, a Jew who escaped from the nazis is now living in France running a movie theatre. When a nazi war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a liking to her, he has his movieset to premire in her theatre. She accecpts and makes a plan to kill all of the nazis including Hitler there since a lot of the higher ups will be attending. At the same time the Basterds are undercover in France try to take out nazis with the help of double agent movie actress Bridget Von Hammersmark.
This movie is not exactly plot heavy, it takes a relatively simple premise and turns it into a full movie. The story is good and Tarantino basically takes a spghetti western and fits it into a world war II story. Like most of his movies the characters are all very memorable, the biggest one standing out is Aldo Raine played by Brad Pitt. Speaking with a Southern accent he takes his character of wanting nothing more than to kill nazis and turns it into a wonderful hero for the movie. One of the best performances was Melanie Laurent as a Jew secretly living in France and having to pretend she likes Nazis. It was a challanging role but she played it so well. By far the best performance in the movie was Christof Waltz as the movies main villain, Lt. Hans Landa. His performance is so good I think its on level with Heath Ledger as the joker. Every moment he's on screen he steals the scene, he is quite evil but you don't want to see him die because he is so good. Good movie villains are rare nowadays but when you get a great one its a real treat. The rest of the cast is great mostly played by German actors. BJ Novak from the Office does a fine job, and Mike Myers shows up for a moment in a hilarious scene. But by far the most surprising was Eli Roth, a horror movie director who does a great job in his role known as the Bear Jew.
Like his other movies Tarantino uses excessive graphic violence to his advantage. Blood and guts are everywhere and he even uses his trademark Mexican standoff again. His classic camera angles such as the POV is used. This film takes every element that Tarantino does well and uses them to the fullest effect. His long pointless conversations are much reduced here and while excessive dialoge still shows up, it feels more natural and relevant to the plot.
At 153 minutes the time just flies by. I thought this was a 90 minute film when I got out of the theatre, it was just so much fun to watch, and the pacing was very well done. Usually movies that are well over two hours feel over long and unneccesary, but not this one. If anything it almost feels too short. Hopefully a directors cut comes out and has some extended scenes. But everything felt complete the story was well thought out, it just left me wanting more. I did want to see some more scenes with the Basterds since they were some of the best parts.
Overall I think this is the best movie of the summer. Its a perfect way to close it, this summer hasn't always been great with a few dissapointments (Public Enemies) but has been pretty solid and Inglourious Basterds is the best way to end it. If your a fan of Tarantino chances are you are going to like this film a lot, its got all his trademarks, hell even Samuel Jackson shows up as the narrator. Its a blast to watch, constantly exciting, never boring and just a great cinematic experiance. I just hope Tarantino's next film is half as good as this one, but for now I think his career is going pretty good. If you haven't seen this go see it, it is worth full admission price, I just can't wait for it to come out on dvd.
5 stars
Cast
Brad Pitt - Aldo Raine
Melanie Laurnet - Shosanna Dreyfus
Diane Kruger - Bridget Von Hammersnark
Eli Roth - Sgt. Donnie Donowitz
Christoph Waltz - Col. Hans Landa
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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Epinions.com ID:
musicc
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Member: Max Mosher
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Reviews written: 268
Trusted by: 38 members
About Me:
Going to film school in Canada, lots of fun, trying to keep up with Epinions.
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