Inglorious Basterds

Sarah reminded me I hadn't posted here in a while, although I didn't realize it had been almost a year.I'm also pretty surprised I haven't covered Inglorious Basterds yet.

Put simply, it's Quentin Tarantino doing a revenge fantasy version of WWII.  If you're not familiar with Tarantino's work, this means gratuitous violence, and witty but generally quite dirty dialog.  Actually, it plays more like several movies that all tell parts of a single story.

The first part is a Nazi officer hunting Jews, and Christoph Waltz does pretty much the best charming evil I have ever seen.  With as many movies as I watch, it's rare for me to be genuinely creeped out anymore, but this guy...  even if you're not interested in the rest of the movie, find a clip this part.

After that, the movie passes into more familiar Tarantino territory, with Brad Pitt leading a team of Jewish Americans in murdering Nazis.  He does a passable Appalachian acccent, although Mom informs me his vowels were slightly off.  There are even stories he liked the character so much, he did the accent at all times.  This part is fun to watch if you like Tarantino dialog and violence, and horrible if you don't.

Those are the best parts of the movie - there's a subplot with a girl that Waltz's character was hunting deciding she's going to murder the entire leadership of the Nazi party, which collides with an Allied plot to do the same thing.  Most of that isn't as much fun as the rest of the movie, with two exceptions: 1) Pitt saying Italian words in his Appalachian accent, and 2) the culmination of the plot, which is very nearly as spooky as Waltz's performance at the beginning of the movie.

Verdict:  See it if you like Tarantino's movies.  (ie, if you're a guy.)  Even if you don't, find a clip of Christopher Waltz playing Hans Landa.  (And while that character survives to the end of the movie, he definitely gets his.)

Comments

[Sarah]

Hey, weclome back! :-)