Inglourious Basterds (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

Comment: This movie was ok, there was some fine acting, but Quentin is one sick basterd.

Talk about over doing the gore side of things, it was just unnessessary and really took away from sum.

Would not buy this for my collection, and would not reccommend it either

Comment: I would never have gone to see this movie had it not been at a friend's behest on a dull Friday night. I got what I expected, and therefore - I suppose - what I deserved.

The inexplicably misspelled "Inglourious Basterds" is an adaptation of a comic book. This World War II tale concerns an American Lieutenant (Brad Pitt) leading a group of Jewish commandos to carry out reprisals against German soldiers in occupied France. A para-plot follows Shosanna (played by Melanie Laurent), the sole survivor of the Nazi massacre of her family, plotting to burn down a cinema while the entire German high command are in it. Her scheme overlaps with that of Pitt's.

This is a movie which has obvious bad guys and obvious good guys: Nazis on the one hand; and the Jewish/French resistance on the other. Yet the most revolting violence in the film (which occasioned gasps of revulsion from the audience I was in) is not perpetrated by the Nazis, but by the people whom we were supposed to be cheering for. It is a testament to how morally garbled this film is that the most memorable scene in it has the 'Bear Jew' (Eli Roth) literally smashing a German officer's skull to pieces with a baseball bat and triumphantly screaming out that he's "knocked it right out the f***ing park" while fellow Jews stand around laughing and applauding. Stop me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the kind of thing the Nazis used to do? It seems that Tarantino was in such a stampede to get some gore on screen that he didn't notice his heroes descending to the level of his villains. (The dispatched officer is never seen doing anything we might feel obliged to hate him for.) Using music and overlong suspense, the scene is stylised in the manner of a gunfight, yet the German soldier is unarmed and on his knees throughout. Is this how we want to remember the Nazis?

Eli Roth is a friend of Tarantino's, whose cinematic oeuvre has no theme, just recurring violence. Roth has confessed - without any irony - that when he floated the idea for his movie "Hostel", Tarantino exclaimed that this was the sickest thing he had ever heard, before adding: "You have *got* to make that film!" Roth went on to make Hostel II. When confronted with the movie's box office failure, he blamed it on video piracy. When confronted with the movie's critical failure, he explained that he only cares about fans, not critics. (Translation: I only listen to people who *like* my films.) It is therefore entire natural that Roth and Tarantino should club together to produce an immature, sweepingly self-indulgent gore-fest. Their partnership is a boyhood friendship formed between adults. Would you have picked this pair to produce a level-headed film about Jewish suffering under the Nazis?

Brad Pitt's performance was - to use an industry term - phoned in. But of course - for reasons outlined above - the line was bad before he even started, so it's not entirely his fault. It is very rare in even a mediocre motion picture for the audience to see the mask slip and suddenly be made aware that they are just looking at some guy acting. Yet I saw this happen about twice with Pitt in this film. Plainly he didn't believe in what he was doing. So why should we?

The opening scene - which centres bafflingly around milk - is far too long: and the suspense, though present, is overwrought. When Michael Cimino made the universally execrated "Heaven's Gate", the critic Danny Peary remarked that the director obviously thought that everything he had filmed was too precious to cut. Plainly Tarantino - who was once nicknamed "The Ego has Landed" by an Irish critic - suffers from the same kind of galloping self-regard.

There is one redeeming feature in this mess of a film. And that is the superb European cast. The supporting performers Melanie Laurent, Daniel Bruhl, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, August Diehl and Christoph Waltz (who took the Oscar) are all polyglot thesps who can really shine. So much so, in fact, that they completely outshine the American actors (and the myriad mistakes in the film itself). This is painfully symbolised in the scene in the cinema lobby in which Waltz encounters Pitt, who is trying to pass as an Italian while equipped with little more than 'Bonjourno'. As Waltz (who in real life can speak Italian, German, English and French) launches into a conversation with Kruger in fluent Italian, Pitt just has to stand there with a pained and stupid expression on his face. It is a symbol of all that has gone before: a world-famous but monoglot American movie star reduced to haplessness when surrounded by multi-lingual (and thus multi-talented) European unknowns. Fame truly counts for nought.

Comment: I never saw a Tarantino film but when I saw the trailers of this one I thought it was funny and the plot was original and inventive. When I saw it on theaters, I absolutely loved the movie. It is so well acted, well written and really really funny. I also liked the way all this people talks in different languages and how this mingles into the story. I didn't mind the violence and I think that adds to the film rich plot. It was dissapointing to see that this excellent film just won one oscar when it deserved best picture, director and screenplay. Of course Cristoph Waltz was brilliant as Hans Landa and he deserved every award that won. Inglourious Basterds is now one of my favorite films and definetely the best of 2009 (alonside with Up).

This two-disc special edition DVD does not dissapoint at all. Aside from the picture you got plenty of good extras that adds to the film value. I totally recommend this film and this DVD (except if you own a blu-ray) is the best way to see it.

Now I'm gonna see Pulp Fiction.

Comment: ...and my second favorite Brad Pitt movie after Fight Club. Very funny movie for the cynical at heart.

Comment: As with all of Quentin Tarantino films this is such a masterpiece. So far all of his films to date are entertaining. You know you're watching a good film when you lose track of time and find yourself totally into it. He's such a great filmmaker. In this film the killings were a bit disturbing and the subtitles (when the characters spoke german or french) were also challenging since I wasn't use to reading them. Besides that, I really enjoyed watching it.