INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
CAROLINE: I took myself to see the latest Quentin Tarantino bloodbath, “Inglourious Basterds,” last weekend since neither of us could attend an advanced screening of it. Sadly, I was a little underwhelmed.
RYAN: I haven’t seen it yet, but here’s what I expect going into any QT film: major gore, good music and a touch of humor.
CAROLINE: This movie has all of that. But when I’ve thought about it over the last few days, I feel like I didn’t like it. It has many good things about it, especially the acting; but I just can’t help but think Quentin Tarantino is just a 14-year-old boy who got his hands on millions of dollars and now makes movies for Harvey Weinstein.
RYAN: He definitely makes movies that he likes. He does what he wants and has fun doing and it and is like, “See it if you want.”
CAROLINE: And they’re always bloody and have hot girls in them that he could never have gotten to talk to him when he was in high school. LBH, he’s still the same video store geek he was twenty years ago.
RYAN: And he totally has a foot fetish. Were there feet in this movie?
CAROLINE: Yes! There’s a pretty pivotal scene involving a woman’s shoe and a Cinderella moment.
RYAN: Oh Quentin, you’re so transparent. Let’s talk about Mr. Pitt. He’s one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, and I love him.
CAROLINE: He has a supporting role since the movie was broken into five chapters and he’s not in a couple of them. Each chapter has different characters but then they start to overlap.
RYAN: Like “Pulp Fiction.”
CAROLINE: Exactly. Which is another thing that annoys me about Quentin Tarantino. It’s almost like he doesn’t know how to make a cohesive movie, so he just makes short vignettes that intertwine. It’s a cool device, but it also feels like a cop out. I don’t think every movie he makes has to be this way. I’d like to see some growth from him, please.
RYAN: Can we get back to Brad Pitt?
CAROLINE: Sorry. He’s good in this. He has a Southern accent and he’s the head of the so-called Basterds. It’s a fun movie in the sense that it’s anti-Nazi and it’s about revenge and plotting the murder of Hitler. But it also felt cartoonish and over-the-top at times.
RYAN: As you know, I’m so over war movies lately, especially World War II ones. Did this feel like a war movie? And how bad is the gore?
CAROLINE: The gore is manageable except for the scalping of the Nazis. That I didn’t want to see. And it’s definitely not a long, boring war movie with heavy battle scenes like some we’ve seen. It’s more fun that that, but still way too long.
RYAN: Yeah, two and a half hours. Did it feel really long?
CAROLINE: Of course! No movie needs to be that long. I took a ten or fifteen-minute snooze, in fact. Would you expect anything less from me?
RYAN: At this point, no. And it’s got sub-titles, right?
CAROLINE: Yes! There are four different languages spoken in this movie, and I loved that. One guy, Christoph Waltz, who’s already getting Best Supporting Actor buzz, speaks all four fluently, and he was amazing. Plus I loved hearing Diane Kruger speak her native German. She was phenomenal and she looked gorgeous in the clothing of the period.
— BOTTOM LINE —
CAROLINE: Some aspects of it are really good. I liked the first chapter a lot. But it’s a very long, talky movie. Parts of it annoyed me and other parts were good, like the cast. Overall, I was kind of bored by the experience, but I’m still glad I saw it. I kind of feel like the only reason people are talking about it is because it’s directed by Quentin Tarantino. If it hadn’t been, wouldn’t we all be like, “Ugh, another WWII movie?”
RYAN: I hear you.
CAROLINE: Let’s be honest, he makes B-movies. They’re revenge flicks. Some are better than others, and this one isn’t my favorite of his. I liked “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill: Vol. I” better. But if you’re a fan of his, you’re going to want to see it.
— RATING —
