| Ray Wylie Hubbard - A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment | Shadow Gallery - Digital Ghosts | Steve Morse Band - Out Standing in their Fields | Striker (dir. Chandan Arora) | Freak Kitchen - Land of the Freaks | Serious Sam HD: TFE (impressions) | Double Bill: Bolo Raam / Accident on Hill Road | Antichrist (dir. Lars Von Trier) | Songs for a Douche Vol.1 | No Age - Losing Feeling | Sonic Youth - The Eternal | Porcupine Tree - IIT Mood Indigo 09 | Satoko Fujii Quartet - Zephyros | Parachute XVI - Sodium Trail EP | Deccan Rock Fest 09 |
Popular of Late
Forum Latest
Login / Logout
|
|
There are two important facts that one needs to bear in mind while watching this trigger (and baseball bat) happy film. The first is the fact that it's inspired by an Italian exploitation film of the same title, albeit correctly spelled. The second is the fact that it's directed by a certain Quentin Tarantino whose film-making style is propelled heavily by irreverence and kitsch. That being said, it should be a given that this film would be an all-out parody of all things American with plenty of blood spillage. However, this isn't the case as one gets the feeling that Tarantino's playing down the potential for the bizarre that this plot holds. Set in Nazi-occupied France, the movie opens with an SS officer, Col. Handa (Cristoph Waltz) killing a Jewish family in hiding, barring the daughter, Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) who eventually comes to own a cinema theatre in Paris. In the same year, across the Atlantic, Lt. Reine (Brad Pitt) of the American army is putting together a division of Jews to kill and scalp anyone in a Nazi uniform. Their paths cross three years later when the Nazis stage the premiere of one of their propaganda films on the premises of Dreyfus' theatre in Paris, thus presenting the perfect opportunity to destroy the Third Reich. Tarantino makes the most of the film-screening story arc to delve into references to German Cinema of the 1920s and 1940s that will leave cinephiles squealing with excitement. However, there are moments when one gets the feeling that Tarantino is underestimating his audience's intelligence, especially when he shows flashbacks despite a clear-cut back story in the beginning. While the camera-work is fairly decent, the dialogues have low recall value and the acting is campy, at best. The biggest disappointment, however, is the Censor Board which indiscriminately cut scenes leading to awkward jumps between scenes and significant gaps in an already shaky storyline. The final verdict? Download the uncut version or buy the DVD, if you feel generous because this is clearly a movie that rests on creative ways to maim and kill.
|
| More where this came from: | |
You need to login or register to post comments.

Discuss (11 posts)
|
Re: Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Oct 03 2009 01:44:10 Nice review. This censorship deal has me worried a bit. May as well skip it and wait for the DVD-rip now.
|
#13200 |
|
Re: Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Oct 03 2009 11:55:00 I liked this movie a lot more on a second viewing. It sucks that the censors have messed with it. There are some truly terrific moments and some passable moments.
|
#13201 |
|
Re: Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Oct 03 2009 12:11:46 Wow. 2.5/5? I'll wait for the dvd rip to turn up. Just one question though, does the climax happen in slow motion?
|
#13202 |
|
Re: Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Oct 03 2009 18:35:47 yes gk. most of the climax happens in slow motion.
|
#13207 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Nov 12 2009 11:57:09 I think the review was a tad unfair - 2.5 does not do justice, of course IMHO !!
There are some brilliant moments in the movie - Christoph Waltz (as Landa) and Melanie Laurent (as Shosanna) are quite extraordinary in their portrayals (the "strudel" scene is quite awesome). Nowhere has this movie claimed to be a "holocaust denial" mechanism - it is Tarantino's obsession with violence and that is nothing new - from the Kill Bills, to the Reservoir Dogs or Jackie Brown when has Tarantino refrained from projecting violence. It is the form it takes that makes each of his offering a staggering feat. I am a Tarantino fanboy, no second thoughts on that. I think the screen play is quite nice and the dialogues are not as boring an affair - they are quite intense. Anyway - I could go on and on but this is not a review, so let me leave it at this. For the record, I think it is a great movie and well worth the watch |
#13518 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Nov 22 2009 13:08:58 Finally saw the movie last night and agree with Cannon. 2.5/5 for this movie seems really unfair. There were some really terrific scenes in this movie and no real moment where I wanted to skip forward in spite of it being about two and a half hours long. The movie was nowhere close to the violence of a Kill Bill but had a pretty sustained atmosphere of tension. The scene with the bastards interrogating the German unit was terrific and just about every time Christopher Watlz turned up on screen the movie caught fire. It was a fantastic performance from him as Colonel Landa. Scary motherfucker.
I thought the acting was great and not particularly campy. Waltz was fantastic, Pitt was alright too and the chick who played the cinema owner was terrific. Diane Kruger doesn't look particularly great in the movie but again that basement scene with the bastards and the SS dude was one tension filled scene. The opening scene also set the stage for the movie establishing Landa's pragmatic and calm evil in what I thought was a terrific scene with deadly atmosphere. The massacre at the cinema hall with its totally over the top tone was great fun although there was no slow motion climax sequence so his homage to Castellari by way of Peckinpah didn't happen. And no, trix, the climax is not in slow motion unless we saw two completely different movies (although judging by our differing opinions on the movie, we might just have :p). Overall, liked this one a lot and I think a re watch will only improve it. Deadly ending too. I thought this was a much more mature Tarantino just tells a straight story but everything from the Spaghetti like Morricone score to Brad Pitt's name (Aldo Raine = Aldo Ray) to the Bastards themselves seem to be referencing Tarantino's love for B grade war movies but thanks to his three main larger than life over the top characters and largely thanks to Waltz who makes one hell of an impressive villain, this movie kicks ass. Okay, I'm done ranting now I guess. |
#13595 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Nov 22 2009 16:10:26 It was probably in slomo to compensate for the cuts. I got it downloaded, will report here promptly once watched.
|
#13598 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Nov 22 2009 18:30:46 General Knowledge wrote:
Overall, liked this one a lot and I think a re watch will only improve it. It was even better on a second viewing. |
#13605 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Nov 24 2009 10:13:15 Inglourious Basterds turned out to be a movie with references and bad ass interrogations that never end but we know what's coming. Waltz has at least half a dozen of those, and the neverending basement scene too made it more boring than gripping to me. Good thing is, I like a lot of the same movies that Tintin Quarantino's generally referring to - the spaghetti and the old school war movies, and I really like how he flawlessly executes his scenes. A lot of the casting turned out to be great except for a few - the two main women were awful (Diane Kruger especially can't act), Eli Roth was the wrong choice, and the Mike Myers cameo was just wtf. Some good scenes and overall a decent movie, but goddamn the director needs to realise most of the movies he likes and pays tributes to didn't have extended monologues and cool dialogue exchanges for hours involving these smooth, classy, eccentric villains.
3/5 thadiyans from me. |
#13623 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Dec 02 2009 00:56:19 Loved everything about it. The homages, the dialogues, most of the music, the long scenes of interrogation which brim with nerve-racking tension that are also hilarious and the acting. I think it's Tarantino's best film, his most coherent storytelling-wise and one where his homages blend very well with the film as a whole. I thought it started on a high and it kept getting better to end in that extraordinary climax. So yeah, it was great, felt like I was watching a movie where I'm not supposed to take anything seriously. About 5/5 thadiyans from me.
|
#13694 |
|
Re:Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Dec 05 2009 11:32:56 I am going to have to weigh in with Bhalla and GK here. This is easily the most likable and strangely enough the least self conscious Tarantino film. Sure, some of the asides and dialogues happen for no credible reason other than the director wanting them to be there (a disease that Anurag Kashyap suffers from a terminal case of), but it was really taut and entertaining with several LOL moments.
|
#13742 |






