Inglourious Basterds

By now, all film buffs should be well acquainted with the work of Quentin Tarantino. His stamp on a film automatically means that we are going to enjoy it. He knows what people want to see in a film, mostly because he appears to have seen more films than anyone on the planet, and instead of spending his time trying to make a meaningful piece of art, he goes ahead and just makes whatever film he wants, and accidentally makes a meaningful piece of art. Having said that, this is by no means his greatest film. PULP FICTION is always going to be a hard one to top, and the pure scale of the KILL BILL's may never be topped again. None the less, if you are a Tarantino fan, or even a newcomer, you won't be disappointed.

Starting with the phrase "Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France", we are immediately told that this is not a historically correct movie, it is a story, almost a fairy-tale (and also a homage to Sergio Leone). The first section of the film keeps in the style Tarantino set up in KILL BILL (Volume 2 particularly), very sombre tension building to a thrilling climax, and you know that the rest of the film can only get better from there. We follow groups of mercenaries around during the film, all linked together through the one pivotal character, Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). I don't want to give too much away, but Waltz definitely holds this film, and his performance is striking, eerie, and almost calmly terrifying.

One thing that refines throughout each Tarantino movie is the production values. There were times when I was shaking my head in disbelief, the music and the image is often near perfection. This may be his slickest movie yet, and what makes them so slick is that he culminates trends in photography from every age of cinema, not just the current one. But, we know he is a genius, so I won't keep harping on about it.

Where this film falls behind others of Tarantino's, is in the pacing. We all love the dialogue in his films, but this one just felt like there needed to be more action. The film is titled INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS after a group of vigilantes that set out from America on a mission to kill nazis, but there doesn't seem to be much of a journey with the Basterds. We learn about their reputation, but don't see much of it in action. JACKIE BROWN had a similar pacing, I suppose, but I thought the payoff in it was better conceived. But I say this only to be critical, it is a great movie, and I think that it was only by comparison to Tarantino's other films that I judged this one a little harshly. Compared to other movies I have seen this year, this movie is A-1.