Inglourious Basterds [DVD] [2009] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I always thought that Tarantino as a director was making quite violent films for my taste. I watched Kill Bill a few years ago, and i have to admit that i loved it, despite the fact that it involved a lot of violent scenes. When inglorious basterds first came out I didn't rush to the cinema until my dad who watched it described to me the first scene at the French village. His description was very good so i decided to watch it. Some of the scenes take your breath away, i love his directing style as he focuses on the characters' emotions, and then the next minute the most violent scene will follow. I never thought that Brad Pitt was a great actor, but in this film he was great. Tarantino's combination of slow almost pausing, moments in the film where the viewer focuses on the character and his/her drama and then immediately an almost frightening scene of extreme violence keeps you a bit on your toes. A lot of plot twists and of course (a film spoiler now) a fantastic imaginary scene of how we would all wish it had happened in the first place: Hitler killed by a Jew, instead of taking his own life. A very good scenario, with good actors and directing. The character of the German detective is so good that it makes you really scared of him. An evil, extremely clever person and an excellent actor Christoph Waltz at his best. His language excellency in french, german, english and italian in the film makes the rest of us green from envy. Not to mention his acting talent. If i was in the academy, i would definitely consider him as an oscar winner. Even if you are not a Tarantino fan, give this film a chance. It is not the best film in the world ever, but it would be in the top 100 I am sure :-)

I think this is Tarantino's best film. I was really rocked by it the first time I saw it, and was confirmed in my impression by a re-watching. It is quite violent, even for a Tarantino film, but is very, very engaging. There are many unforgettable scenes and pieces of dialogue and acting, and it has a very satisfying ending. Everyone who is in this is at their best - Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Christopher Waltz, Til Schweiger, and, though this was the first thing I've seen her in - Mélanie Laurent - was excellent as well. Waltz was brilliant as 'the bad guy', the kind of bad guy you really enjoy seeing on the screen yet despise at the same time and is convincingly threatening yet charismatic. As the biggest star by far, Brad Pitt could have made this film lopsided, but I think he fits into his role very well, and serves the scenes he's in without dominating them or pulling the focus towards him. I do think he is a very good actor. Though I'm sure plenty would disagree, I think this is Tarantino's best, and I would be surprised (but also pleased) if he could better it. I really liked Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction in particular, and I think these are his top 3. But we shall see!

The first time I saw this movie, I was disappointed. I was disappointed because I saw a trailer that marketed the film as an action movie, which it isn't. In fact if you want action, just watch the trailer, because it's all in there. The second time I saw the movie, the penny dropped and I became engrossed in the superb dialogue that Tarantino is famed for. The third time I saw it, I fell in love with it. From the exceptional opening chapter (a film sequence to rival the material in Pulp Fiction) to the big finale, everything about Inglourious Basterds is well done. Brad Pitt is hilarious as Lt Aldo Raine and his group of "Basterds" contains plenty of character with good performances from both Til Schweiger and Eli Roth among others. The show stealer however, it Christophe Waltz as Hans Landa, the infamous "Jew Hunter." He puts in a superb performance and was well deserving of his Academy Award. Tarantino is obviously in his element here as the plot of his movie revolves largely around a film theatre in France. This gives his characters the opportunity to discuss Tarantino's main passion, movies on and off throughout the story. Add to this subtle references to other movies (ala "Once upon a time... ...in Nazi occupied France" etc) and it's definitely Quentin's comfort zone. I'm actually pleased that Inglourious Basterds doesn't fall into the trap of becoming a mindless action movie because Tarantino's dialogue is so much more interesting to watch again and again. Plus, the opportunity to converse in French and German as well as English adds another dimension to the movie that I loved. If you are a Tarantino fan, you'll love it. If not, it may not change your mind about him but I would recommend the movie to anyone 18 years or older who doesn't mind a bit of mature content in their films. It's superb!

You like me will have seen this film before however I could not resist it to watch again, with actors like this Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent . Dont miss it

This film surprised me. I read the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw rip it to shreds with his one star loathing. I have a love/hate relationship with Tarantino myself but have never denied his infectious enthusiasm much needed in the age of homegenised mass culture. I've always wanted to see Quentin do some more interesting genre mash ups. It would be great to see him do a romantic comedy or an out and out western, even a period film. Kill Bill did nothing for me and with Death Proof or Death Knell as it so nearly was, I was becoming increasingly relaxed about Tarantino's seeming demise into the realms of bloated boy genius territory. Then this film came along and reminded me at least why he's so worth watching at times. The violence is putrid, really gut wrenching stuff, but the way I see it ... Tarantino is basically saying that the Nazi's created modern violence and more specifically violence in movies. It's interesting that when "Nation's Pride" is screened at the end, we're so appalled by the real time violence that this black and white pastiche seems just as shocking. The Nazi's are revelling in their glory portrayed on screen and yet we're disturbed by it. This film reminds me of so many war films from different genres. It has Renoir, Lubitsch, Peckinpah, Aldrich and Leone all rolled into one. In the final climax which I won't give away, we have all the various story lines assembled into one venue, a cinema. At this point it feels as if Tarantino has invited every style of war film into the narrative at this point with the buffonery of Pitt reminiscent of the Marx Bros and Lubitsch. The ending reminds me of the "morning after" atmosphere of Renoir's Rule Of the Game". It's not often you see a mainstream film appall and excite in equal measure but here is one such example. The clever use of language being a way to undermine and add tension to the characters footholdings in double agent situations is brilliant. I think this is a stunning idea all round. Thanks Quentin for reminding me why you're needed sometimes.

Quentin Tarantino has never been a man to let reality get in the way of telling a good story. For all its coolness and hip dialogue, even his justly celebrated Pulp Fiction has a sense of unreality about, I mean, no one really talks like that, no one. And with his latest, Tarantino has taken this sense of unreality to a whole new level. When we first enter Tarantino's new reality, we are quickly informed that this is occupied France, once upon a time. A young Jewish girl Soshanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hands of SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), but she manages to escape. Fast forward a few years and Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is organising a group of Jewish soldiers to operate behind enemy lines, striking terror into the heart of the Nazi war machine. Nicknamed "the Basterds" by their foes, Raine's men rapidly become a unit to be feared, and is chosen by the high command to take part in a top secret operation. "The Basterds" join German actress and undercover agent Bridgit Von Hammersmarck on a mission to destroy the German high command. Their job is to blow up a cinema in Paris where the Nazi elite are attending a movie premiere of Goebbels latest piece of propaganda. However, the owner of the cinema is the now adult Soshanna (Melanie Laurent) and she has her own plans for revenge. With its preposterous plot and World War 2 setting, you may be expecting a no holds barred action movie, but instead what you get is a movie that is very hard to categorise, and that is only to its credit. Constantly subverting the viewer's expectations, the film is by turns dramatic, violent, action packed and wickedly funny, often all of them in very quick succession, but the one thing it is not is a war film, Tarantino merely uses the setting to tell his tale. And what a tale it is, so utterly over the top it takes a while to realise that it's a joke, but once you do get the point that this is all about the director thumbing his nose at convention, it becomes so much more. With a number of scenes played utterly straight for dramatic tension, in particular the opening interrogation sequence and the following brutally casual execution of the fugitive family, and certain scenes of atrocious violence played for laughs (witness the torture sequence of German prisoners by "The Basterds") it takes a while to get a handle on the film, but Tarantino has littered the film with clues (the opening title sequence, the use of incidental music in a less than incidental fashion, one of the characters in the film being a film critic), and once you get the joke, it becomes very very funny, in that darkly comedic style of Fight Club, where you find yourself laughing in the face of adversity. And not only is it funny and at times so verbally dextrous it is almost impossible to keep up, it is also littered with superb performance, both comedic and dramatic. Brad Pitt gave a hint of his genuine comedic talents in fight Club and later in Burn After Reading, but here he really hits his stride, delivering an at times rousingly funny performance as the larger than life Aldo Raine. Smaller performances of no less appeal litter the film, including Michael Fassbender putting his best stiff upper lip forward as Archie Hicox, Eli Roth as the baseball bat wielding lunatic Donny Donowitz, the Bronson like brilliance of Til Schwieger as Stiglitz (who gets an outrageously brilliant introduction within the film) and Daniel Bruhl as Private Fredrick Zoller, a hero of the Nazi regime and the subject of the film within a film. But if the film belongs to anyone, it is a straight out fight between Melanie Laurent as Soshanna and Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa. Soshanna is a superb creation, frighteningly believable in both her tougher and tender moments, surviving as a tribute to her deceased family whilst at the same time burning with a desire for revenge that eventually extinguishes her desire for self preservation. But rivalling Laurents performance is Waltz as Landa, a sophisticated sadist with a genuine love of his work, even though that work is hunting down and destroying the enemies of the Nazi regime. By turns mannered and menacing, he is an intelligent, quick witted man who is always doing what is best for himself at any given time, and in the hands of Waltz he is a murderer who comes for you with a smile on his face. The film is very funny as I have said before, but that's not to say that bad things don't happen, often to good people, but that's the nature of the tale that Tarantino is telling, after all this is war, albeit Tarantino's highly stylised war. Don't watch this film expecting anything approaching historical accuracy, but watch it instead as Tarantino intended it to be viewed, with your tongue firmly in your cheek.

Excellent product and delivery!

very good