Inglourious Basterds (2009)

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Rating ****3/4

I think the fact that it’s already in IMDB’s Top 250 fits with what I’m going to say… I loved this movie. Shane loved this movie more. The only girl in the theater that didn’t seem to like it was bitching because she had to “read too much”. I’m sorry they actually spoke the languages of the countries they were in…

I don’t think I need to summarize this. If you haven’t seen a trailer yet, well climb out from under your rock and watch the one I’ve included at the bottom of the post :) Inglourious Basterds (2009) was brilliant. Tarantino is extrodanary. The story. The cinamatography. The music. Everything fit together so beautifully. It was supensful and funny and heartbreaking and vulgar.

And the actors!! Brad Pitt was great. Accent. Attitude. However it was actor Christoph Waltz that stole the show. He plays Col. Landa with such malicious charisma that he almost makes you forget he’s a hideous sadist. Almost. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that some of the French/German/European actors are fairly well-known overseas. If not, they should be. I for one LOVED that they spoke the languages they would have spoken in real life.

I spent the whole movie trying to figure out where I knew one of the Basterds from… Ryan from the Office! He sure knows how to scalp a Nazi :)

I’m sure you can guess by now that I’m recommending you see this movie. This will not be like any war movie you’ve seen…

And since I still seem to be in shock, here’s part of someone else’s review:

…

What’s better than action, composition, editing, camera movement and a machine-gun spray of killer Tarantino dialogue if you want to go medieval on Nazi ass? Hollywood has been murdering language for years. But here’s Tarantino with the oxygen blast of multi-lingual pulp poetry. Yes, there are subtitles. Live with it.

At 46, Tarantino still loves walking a tightrope minus the net. So it’s easy to pick at his film’s flaws: It sputters, bogs down in minutiae, talks itself into blind alleys and trips on its own ambition. Detractors say the 152-minute epic should be shorter, funnier, more fierce, less verbal, add battle scenes, yada-yada. Sorry, haters. Tarantino does it his way…

…Waltz is a wonder. His dazzling, diabolical performance blends seductive charm and monstrous malice (in four languages). Listen up, Oscar…

…Will Basterds polarize audiences? That’s a given. But for anyone professing true movie love, there’s no resisting it.

- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

click here for the full review (with minor spoilers)

Viennese actor Waltz just about walks away with the whole shebang. Tarantino handed him the role of a lifetime, and he doesn’t waste it: Waltz imbues Colonel Landa with such malicious charisma that the lights seem to dim whenever he’s off screen. What Waltz doesn’t do is play the sympathy for the Devil card: Landa is a great character, but Waltz never lets you forget that he’s a hideous person, a preening, opportunistic sadist in love with the sound of his own voice.