Saturday, March 5, 2011

Review: Inglorious Basterds



Tarantino's latest offering Inglorious Basterds(sic) is an alternative history movie set in Nazi-occupied France and follows the stories of a Secret Service group called "The Basterds" led by Lt. Aldo Raine(Brad Pitt) a American jew from the south(he has one hell of an accent.), a nazi colonel(Christoph Waltz) and a Jewish-French woman(Melane Laurent).

The movie starts with one of the best single scenes I have ever seen., the Nazi colonel, Hans Landa , visits a French farmer suspected of hiding Jews. The tension it builds up is absolutely incredible, not only because of Tarantino's once again brilliant script(a large portion of which is in a foreign language) but also because of Christoph Waltz's amazing performance( for which he won an Oscar) in his portrayal of Hans Landa, an evil, charming and supremely intelligent Nazi colonel.





 Brad Pitt also delivers, in my opinion a strong performance, as Lt Aldo Raine, as with many characters in the movie such as Goebbels and Hitler he is a comedic character.(Yes, Hitler is a funny character)
The rest of the English Basterds unfortunately have somewhat weak acting imo.


Melanie Laurent plays the Jewish woman, she is the proprietor of a movie-house and through a nazi war hero love-interest she lands a film premier which Hitler attends.

She is the "heart" of the movie without which it would be too cold and gruesome.

A large portion of the movie is in German, French and a little Italian played by a European cast unfamiliar to Hollywood, and they really shine.

The plot is a bit fantastical but a great story nonetheless.


For this gruesome, evil and funny story I give 8.5/10

Friday, March 4, 2011

Pulp Fiction: A review

Tarantino's second film after Reservoir dogs is considered to be his greatest yet.

Judging this film by its porno-movie cover one immediately knows this is going to be a controversial film, and the brilliant, just-the-right-amount-of-twisted mind  of Quentin Tarantino does not disappoint.

The basic plot revolves around 2 mob hit men played by Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, a gang leaders wife by Uma Thurman and a Boxer by Bruce Willis, spiritual transformation, loyalty, drugs and Quarter Pounders. We also have Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Quentin Tarantino playing minor roles.



The storyline of this movie is quite unique, it is in fact more like several movies rolled into one epic than a single movie. It is shot in a non-linear sequence, and is neatly demystified at the end.

The plot albeit good, is nothing without the strong dialogue and brilliant performances by the cast.
This is the most "Tarantino" movie you will find, the dialogue is humorous and down to earth, nobody captures the essence of dialogue quite like Tarantino.

It is a movie that has everything, yet is like no movie you'd have ever seen before.

Quite simply the epitomeof film noir.

Tarantinos masterpiece gets a 9.5/10