"Inglourious Basterds" reviewed by 3 geek bastards

mastorak's Review: We were very excited yesterday. EraserheadX woke me up with an sms calling me a bastard, everyone vowed that they will be at the cinema half an hour prior to the big event, I had stopped playing Team Fortress 2 an hour prior to going to the cinema, we had put on our most deranged smile and had eaten our popocorns by the time the previews started showing.

What happened though is that the movie started half an hour late and everyone would have been late by 45 minutes if the movie had started on time (Pop Quiz:what time did they arrive?). Without any further delays I loved the movie. It was brilliant. I do not know yet if it is Tarantino's greatest work as Brad Pitt implies at a certain scene but it was epic. Where were the inglorious basterds though?

Going into to the cinema I had prepared myself for a totally different movie. I had gone to see a movie about a bunch of badass, dodgy, half-crazy, people killing nazis in million different ways while uttering Tarantino's funniest script lines yet. Until sometime into the second half I was still expecting this to happen and the fact, that it took me a good while before I realized that it is not coming, left me with a funny feeling throughout the movie. What I got was excellent, but albeit different than what I expected. The movie had a slower pace, carefully woven plot and extremely well written dialogs. As most (if not all) of Tarantino's work it was dialog driven with some twisted situations taking place. All the cast had done great job with their characters (especially Pitt with his hillbilly role. Edit after ebenet's review: I did not really care about the SS Officer character, even though he was convincing and brialliantly played he did not manage to grasp my imagination).

My biggest disapointemnt was that I did not meet the inglorious basterds. I did not get to enjoy their work for long. I really liked the very few parts where the basterds and their mentality were the center piece of a scene. These scenes though did not last long and were not enough. I wanted more character depth for the basterds, crazy background stories for them and more screen time to get to know them.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVED the movie but I went to the cinema to watch an entirely different movie that I am still waiting for. In fact, I am going to watch it for a second time in order to enjoy it more now that that I know what to expect.

....and another thing...where was Tarantino in the movie?Did anybody see him?

ebenet's Review: Skipping the introductory parts, it really was Tarantino's best movie since Jackie Brown. Indeed, the basterds themselves were hardly a part of the movie, but that wasn't actually a problem, because the other parts were preety terrific. Expertly written, I also believe it is Tarantino's most mature directorial work.

The introductory chapter was masterfully written, as was Christopher Waltz's role as the SS investigator, which is really the movie's core, compared to Brad Pitt, whose character is really a glorified comic relief. Also the story with the Jewish girl and the cinema house was very impressive, as was Bruhl's performance. Fassbender was also perfect in his small role as the only British member of the gang (spoiler: pity that he's killed so early). One complaint though, is that the movie's funny and self-referential parts really killed the more serious and suspenseful parts for me. I wonder if the final film would be better if the whole basterds band was simply excised from the movie... 4/5

EraserheadX's review:

I won't hide the fact that I am a Quentin Tarantino fan boy.

I love everything the man has put on the big screen. I can watch his films over and over again without ever getting tired of them. So it should come as no surprise that I "absolutely, positively" LOVED his latest cinematic endeavor titled Inglourious Basterds.

The name and the marketing of the film are a bit misleading. This is not a film about a team of Jewish soldiers killing Nazis. In fact almost all of the scenes featuring nazis getting killed by the Basterd are in the trailers. That story is just part of a much bigger story and we only get glimpses of it. The other (bigger) parts of the story are about an SS investigator nicknamed "The Jew Hunter" and a Jewish girl that escaped him in 1941. Three years later those two and the Basterd will all end up on a french cinema for the film's showdown and all hell will break loose.

I would say that this is probably Tarantino's best written film to date (or a tie with Jackie Brown). The dialogues are expertly written (and delivered) throughout the film but especially in 2 pivotal scenes that play like a mexican standoff but with words instead of guns (the opening scene and the La Lousianna bar scene).

A special mention should be made about Christoph Waltz's portrayal of Col. Hans Landa (a.k.a "The Jew Hunter"). He is definitely one of Tarantino's best characters ever and Waltz plays him with such charm that you can't help but like the guy a little even though he is a monster!

One last thing that should be mentioned is Tarantino's use of languages. The German characters speak German, the French speak French and the English speak English (and some Italian to a hillarious effect!). When non-English characters speak English there is a reason for them doing so and not just because American audiences can't be bothered to read subtitles. Kudos to Tarantino for that!

I normally don't give number/star ratings on films but I would give Inglourious Basterds a perfect score of 5/5.