Exceeds Expectations and Gives a New Light

Rating: Null/10 (22 August 2009)

For years upon years, Quentin Tarintino has mentioned Inglorious Basterds in dozens of interviews while promoting/filming other films. By Quentin, the film was hyped to be the greatest thing ever to be made, and that eventually, after he'd improved in writing and directing, he'd put I.B. in the 'main priority' section of his schedule. However, after mixed reviews for the Kill Bill films, combine with disappointment by nearly EVERYONE for Death Proof, fans of Quentin began to doubt if I.B. would ever be made, and if so - would it ever be able to resurrect the Tarintino feel that so many fans had began to accept as dead? Michael Madsen, Simon Pegg, Eddie Murphy, Tim Roth, Bruce Willis, Adam Sandler as well as many others, had each been casted at one point in time during pre-production. However, quite randomly, Quentin cleared the entire cast list and sent precise offers to specific people, resulting in the final cast (with a few exceptions). When news broke that Brad Pitt and Eli Roth (a man who is notoriously hated by film fans for his awful job as director for films like Hostel) would play the two leading Basterds, uproar shot through the internet like thunder through the fog.
The thing which even the most optimistic fans couldn't see, is exactly what Quentin could. The feel of the film, the style, the formula, each character's unique style/development and even the methods used by Quentin to "change" the viewer are all executed in Basterd-like fashion. Meaning, it's paced well, it's bad ass, applied well to the content, more than entertaining but more importantly, the climax/end of the film makes viewers THINK. In their lies the reason as to why Inglorious Basterds is such an extraordinary film that even the skeptics need to get out and see - Maybe it's because the film industry has become more intelligent and arrogant in the past two decades, but for whatever reason(s), realism is an element that is unspoken listed as a necessary thing. Sometimes though, like in I.B; a film can prove that, if executed WELL, taking a handful of American-Bad-Boys and putting them in a situation where they can kill Hitler, well, it's not a bad idea at all. Oddly enough, I actually found myself to be clapping as Eli Roth's character Donnie 'The Jew Bear' commit heinous crimes against history, and I could help but feel a bit like when I was a kid, watching John Wayne for the first time - The Duke sure was great, but the edited version where he DOESN'T die? I still like it more than the original.
In short, I.B. is a film so unique in style, feel and content that attempting to compare it to any other film would be a crime so bad that punishment by the Basterds themselves might be the only justified answer. Tarintino can rest happily knowing that nearly his entire fan base, plus millions of Q-Virgins across the globe, have fallen in love with I.B. along with each of it's great characters.
In my humble opinion, I believe that this film is by far the best film released in 2009. I'd go as far as to actually say, I enjoyed it more than any of Tarintino's other films - which says a lot on it's own considering I own everything released.
10 out of 10, two thumbs up, a giant smile on my face, recommendation to the Academy Awards, crossed fingers for a prequel!