Tarantino's latest is a zany mix of the Good, the Bad and the Nazi!

Rating: 6/10 (24 August 2009)

Quentin Tarantino quite literally burst onto the scene in 1992 with one of the freshest, nastiest, most brilliant debuts of all time. RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) wowed critics and movie fans alike and revolutionized a whole generation of cinema fans introducing them to Mexican stand-offs, gut wrenching violence and a cinema screen soaked in blood, wrapped in cool dialogue and delivered with the best sound track to hit theatres for years. PULP FICTION (1994) cemented his place in the pop pantheon and while JACKIE BROWN (1997) was genius his later movies have failed to deliver.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is Tarantino's 6th film and sees him roaring right back at his roots with visceral dialogue, brilliantly violent villains and heroes that blur the lines between the good, the bad and the ugly.
It opens in the first year of the German occupation of France, with Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnessing the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution against the Nazi regime, demanding 100 Nazi scalps from each of his squad.
Lieutenant Raine's men are blood thirsty killers and hot for revenge, bashing in German brains while simultaneously battering down the doors of the German psyche, becoming a nightmare for the occupying forces who dub them "The Basterds". His squad joins forces with German actress and undercover British agent, Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge in a cinema, where Shoshanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own at the premiere of a movie starring an unwanted admirer of hers, Frederick Zoller.
Employing pulp and propaganda in equal measure INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS weaves together the infamous, oppressed, real, unreal and much larger than life stories of WWII.
It's opening title sequence, "Once Upon a time In Nazi Occupied France", is reminiscent of Leone's Dollar trilogy and his later Once movies. BASTERDS borrows heavily from the brilliant Italian, even using a number of Morricone scores, while he riffs on John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, particularly in the scene where Shosanna escapes from the clutches of the crazy Nazi, Colonel Landa.
Christoph Waltz is the best thing about the movie and is a Nazi that you will absolutely love to hate. He steals the pic from Brad Pitt and while it's a little early in the year to talk about Oscar winners, I'd put an early bet on him for Best Supporting Actor.
INGLOURIOUS is not, as Lieutenant Aldo Raine suggests in the closing scene, a masterpiece. Not by a long chalk, but even an average Tarantino is far better than the dreck that's usually served in the cinema. Go to this movie, because you'll laugh your ass off and love it. This film might not scale the heights of PULP FICTION, but then few do. And while Tarantino might not be fully back, on the strength of this he's certainly on his way!