View All Critic Reviews (306) Audience Reviews for Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino returns with the story of the Basterds, a group of Jewish soldiers performing guerilla warfare and terror tactics behind enemy lines to strike fear into the hearts of German soldiers during World War II. Inglourious Basterds is a very difficult film to pigeonhole. It's part Jewish revenge fantasy, part gung ho war film, part knowing parody of patriotic flag wavers and 100% Tarantino. His trademark patchwork of styles and references is as evident as ever; the opening scenes are pure Leone, turns into The Dirty Dozen and then zig zags off on tangents all over the place. It's impossible not to enjoy a film with this premise (unless you are a closet Fourth Reicher or member of the BNP) and Brad Pitt's hilarious send up of a hick war hero is almost as good as Christoph Waltz's high camp evil Sherlock Holmes (complete with pipe). But I'd have to say much of the film that does not feature these two could've stood for some judicious pruning and very oddly for a Tarantino film, the soundtrack sometimes just did not work.

Unlike the likes of Lucas and Cameron though, Tarantino is a pure film fan's film maker so when he gets too self indulgent, it is with the direction, dialogue and characters rather than visual bullshit and so even at their worst his films are always interesting and of merit. xGary Xx Super Reviewer I'll be honest this was the first Tarantino film I've ever watched. However, if this is good, I can't wait to see his better films, like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. With a superb opening with such an intense pace, from these 20 minutes, it's very clear of how powerful a performance Christoph Waltz gave, especially the fact he won the Oscar he surely deserved. The rest of the film is packed with violence, some good laughs and some intense moments in which hell breaks loose within seconds. To top this off, Christoph Waltz is backed up with Brad Pitt (Fight Club), Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) and even Director Eli Roth (Hostel). Overall, Inglorious is a superb feature, that is compared way too much with Tarantino's earlier work, which has a nice twist within its WWII setting. A must watch for action and Tarantino fans.

Samuel Riley Super Reviewer So fucking great. It's tied with Django Django and Pulp Fiction as my favorite QT film. Suspenseful, funny, and very well-acted. Matt Goodman Super Reviewer Nice little Tarantino flick of revenge set against the backdrop of WWII. The actors are top notch and the carnage is just right. John Manard Film review: Inglourious Basterds | Film | The Guardian Inglourious Basterds 1 / 5 stars Quentin Tarantino's cod-second world war adventure is a transcendentally disappointing dud, in which Brad Pitt delivers his most charmless performance to date. By Peter Bradshaw Unendurably, unbelievably tedious … the card-playing scene from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.

Photograph: PR Wednesday 19 August 2009 07.08 EDT First published on Wednesday 19 August 2009 07.08 EDT Share on Messenger Close Quentin Tarantino is having what Martin Amis readers might call a "Yellow Dog" moment - something which happens when, following a worrying, mid-to-late period of creative uncertainty, a once dazzlingly exciting artist suddenly and catastrophically belly-flops, to the dismay of his admirers. His new film is a cod-second world war adventure about a Jewish-American revenge squad sent into occupied France to spread terror among Nazis. Brad Pitt plays their leader, Lt Aldo Raine, and Eli Roth, the director of Hostel, is his ferocious second-in-command Sgt Donny Donowitz; Diane Kruger plays a German movie star called Bridget Von Hammersmark who has secret quasi-Dietrich sympathies with the Allies, and Michael Fassbender plays Lt Archie Hicox, a cucumber-cool British commando who in civvy street was, of all things, a film critic.

Mélanie Laurent plays Shosanna Dreyfus, a beautiful young Jewish woman who has had to change what in France is a resonant surname; she owns the Parisian cinema at which the Nazi top brass, including the Führer himself, will assemble for one of Goebbels's propaganda movies. Here is where the Basterds hope to make their hit: but opposing them is the chilling SS Colonel Hans Landa, nicely played by Tarantino's personal casting discovery Christoph Waltz, who won the best actor award at Cannes for this performance. It is notionally inspired by a 1970s B-movie called Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato, otherwise The Damned Armoured Train, renamed Inglorious Bastards for its American release: a war picture in the Dirty Dozen style by Italian director Enzo Castellari. But Tarantino's debt is much more obviously to Sergio Leone, weirdly mulched in with Mel Brooks.

Having seen it once in Cannes earlier this year, and again for its UK release I was struck afresh by how exasperatingly awful and transcendentally disappointing it is: a colossal, complacent, long-winded dud, a gigantic two-and-a-half-hour anti-climax, like a Quentin Tarantino film in form and mannerism but with the crucial element of genius mysteriously amputated. Over-stretched scene follows over-stretched scene in plonkingly conventional narrative order and each is stuffed with dull dialogue which made it feel like Mogadon was somehow being pumped into the cinema's air-conditioning. The cut is now marginally different from that which premiered in Cannes, slightly longer in fact, and there appears to be a new introduction to the unendurably, unbelievably tedious scene set in a beer cellar where the actors play a guessing-game with playing cards. There's no doubt that the 52-year-old Waltz - an Austrian-born actor who had been plying his trade on TV until Tarantino plucked him from the ranks - is a real find, and Mélanie Laurent also deserves this leg-up to stardom.

But they can't make any real difference, and Brad Pitt gives the most wooden and charmless performance of his life; he acts and speaks as if the lower half of his face is set in concrete. Now, it is misleading to complain about boredom, when we all know how Tarantino can alchemise this into something special. In Pulp Fiction two hitmen famously put the exciting business of murder on hold while they discussed dull things like what Europeans call a quarter-pounder. But there the ostensible banality was sexy, funny and above all intentional, and the director could in any case turn the action on a sixpence into something thrilling or horrifying whenever and wherever he felt like it. He exemplified Don DeLillo's maxim about America being "the only country in the world with funny violence". But here the boringness is just boring, and the violence doesn't get gasps of shock, just winces of bafflement and distaste - and boredom. Tarantino just seems to have lost his cool, lost his mojo. When I saw Inglourious Basterds at Cannes, my traumatised complaint was that it fails as conventional war movie, as genre spoof, as trash and as pulp.

Since then, its defenders have claimed that the point of the film is that it is "kosher porn": an over-the-top revenge fantasy for Jews. Well, erm, maybe. But it might simply have the highly un-porny effect of reminding us what actually happened. And if "kosher porn" was the point, wouldn't it have been better to make the Basterds' leader actually Jewish? Instead of which, their CO is Brad Pitt, the good ol' boy from Tennessee, a part of the world in which progressive sympathies with European Jewry are - how can I put it? - atypical. Even this, moreover, isn't exactly the point. Wildly bad-taste ahistorical fantasies about Nazi Germany are great: but here they are nullified by middlebrow good-taste cinephile stuff referencing UFA, Emil Jannings etc, in which the details of course have to be exactly right. Tarantino's genius always lay, for me, in his audacious and provocative adventures in style, making generic textures bubble and react. His great riffs were sublime, similar to what Godard saw in Nicholas Ray: pure cinema. What happens when these surfaces fail to fizz?

You get what you have here: great heavy lumps of nothing. I have always deprecated the growing and rather supercilious critical consensus that the Master's best film is Jackie Brown - a good film, yes, but uncharacteristic, and without the brash inspiration of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction or the late-flowering delirium of Kill Bill. Yet maybe this is the sort of thing that Tarantino should now work on: solid adaptations to steady and re-settle his greatness. That could be a way to put his mojo-loss into remission and return to the glory days. Quentin Tarantino appears to have defied both critics and cricket to rake in a triumphant opening weekend haul.

But when you deduct the extra previews, it's not quite such an impressive story Published: 25 Aug 2009 Quentin Tarantino's second world war fantasy marched to victory in the charts, while James Cameron's much-hyped preview of Avatar promises a titanic windfall Published: 24 Aug 2009 Quentin Tarantino's silly, sadistic, unsatisfying latest has Brad Pitt hunting Nazis and the director hunting his old genius, says Xan Brooks Published: 21 Aug 2009 Brad Pitt, the star of this year's second big-budget Nazi war epic has ridiculed fellow A-lister Tom Cruise's effort. Let's pit them head-to-head and see which one comes out fighting Published: 25 Aug 2009 Aldo Raine | Inglourious Basterds Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Aldo Raine is first seen talking to a group of soldiers. He introduces himself as Lt. Aldo Raine and claims that he needs 8 soldiers, 8 Jewish-American soldiers to be exact. He tells them that there are rumours about an armada waiting to happen. They will be leaving a little earlier.

He tells them that they'll be dropped into France and there, dressed as civilians, they'll be doing one thing and one thing only: killing Nazis. Some time later we see private Butz telling Hitler how they were ambushed by Raine's men. Aldo calls Seargent Werner Rachtman and asks him if he knows who Hugo Stiglitz is. Afterwards, he demands that he tell him the place where the other German party is, what weapons they have and how many men there are. Rachtman refuses and Aldo calls The Bear Jew aka Sgt. Donny Donowitz to beat him to death with his baseball bat, as he eats a sandwich. Afterwards, he tells Donny to bring Butz to him to point on a map the location of the other German unit. After Butz tells him what he needs to know, Aldo pulls his knife and gives him a swastika scar. From a trunk shot, we see Donny telling Aldo that he's getting pretty good at that. Aldo confirms that, saying that its just practice. Chapter Four - OPERATION KINO Edit He meets with Lt.

Archie Hicox in a ruined house in the village of Nadine , where they're supposed to meet with their contact, the German actress Bridget von Hammersmark . Here, we see him being angry that the rendezvous place is a basement. Hicox tells him that it's actually a tavern, to which Raine replies that it's a tavern alright, but in a basement. He adds that fighting in a basement is a problem, to which Hicox replies that she wasn't looking for a place to fight, but a place isolated and without Germans. During the rendezvous a shootout occurs, leaving everyone in the tavern dead except von Hammersmark and a German soldier named Wilhelm. Aldo successfully bargains with Wilhelm to let them take von Hammersmark. After Wilhelm drops his weapon, von Hammersmark guns him down. With the German speaking members of the Basterds all dead, Aldo decides that there's no other choice but for him, Donny, and Omar to attend the premiere in their places, posing as von Hammersmark's Italian escorts.

Chapter Five - REVENGE OF THE GIANT FACE Edit Later in the film, he attends the premiere with von Hammersmark, but Hans Landa speaks with them and sees through their disguises. Hans then kills von Hammersmark and has Aldo captured along with another Basterd, Utivich. Hans then negotiates his surrender with Aldo, and the missions goes as planned, with the theatre blowing up and the Nazi High Command being killed, ending the war. At the end, he kills the German driver while sparing Landa. He then carves a swastika on Landa's forehead as he screams in agony. He states to Utivich "This just might be my masterpiece." Trivia Edit The place where Aldo Raine briefs the Basterds is identified as England only in the original draft of the script. The reason for the scar on Aldo Raine's neck is not mentioned in the film. The script hints that Raine survived a lynching, a common punishment in the 1920s and 1930s.

The hanging scar is a reference to the character Tuco, one of the three protagonists of The Good The Bad The Ugly by Sergio Leone, who managed to avoid death by hanging on several occasions. When Aldo Raine is introduced, he is shown wearing the insignia for the "Black Devils" the 1st Special Service Force, composed of both Canadian and American soldiers. Aldo snuffs tobacco from a box with engraved above the eagle Nazi (object certainly stolen from the corpse of one of the enemies), which comes in the form of powder obtained by grinding the leaves of tobacco, was much in vogue in previous centuries, especially during the 17th century. [1] Shortly after carving the swastika on Butz's forehead, Aldo responds to Donny, who had just complimented him, by saying the phrase: "You know how you get to Carnegie Hall , doncha? Practice". The joke is a reference to this very old American joke: "A tourist visiting New York stops and asks a passerby," How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

"(The most prestigious concert hall in the world) meaning, of course, the road directions to reach it and the New Yorker, in the mood of jokes, answers him: "Practice, practice, practice", meaning, however, what you need to do to be able to perform in the famous hall. Aldo's dagger was made specifically for the film by using the blade of the Bowie hunting knife "Smith & Wesson Texas Hold 'em". The phrase said by Aldo, "Fightin 'in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement!" is a reference to the movie Fight Club , where Pitt stars. The standoff between Aldo and Wilhelm during the La Louisiane scene is similar to a scene in Quentin Tarantino 's other movie Kill Bill: Vol. 2 in which Beatrix Kiddo just finds out she is pregnant and is attacked by a hit woman. The two have a standoff in which she makes a deal with the hit woman to let her go as she is pregnant. Sgt. Wilhelm makes a deal with Aldo to let him go as he had become a father that night.

The difference in the two scenarios is that Beatrix honors the deal and the hitwoman escapes, while Aldo honors the deal but Bridget von Hammersmark shoots and kills Sgt. Wilhelm. When Aldo Raine pretends to be an Italian actor at the movie premiere, he uses name "Enzo Gorlami", which is the birth name of the director of original Inglorious Bastards ( The Inglorious Bastards ), Enzo G. Castellari. Despite his character's reputation and being leader of the Basterds, Aldo Raine only kills one person on-screen (the radio operator). In "Quentin Tarantino's Universe", the character of Lt. Aldo Raine is Floyd's - aka The pothead on the couch from True Romance - great grandfather. In Legends of the Fall , Brad Pitt plays a man who scalps two German soldiers and gets involved with bootlegging. In this film, he plays the leader of a group that scalps German soldiers and mentions a past involvement in bootlegging. Aldo said that every 'Basterd' owes him 100 Nazi scalps.

This may be a refernce to the Bible story in which King Saul commands David to bring the former 100 Philistine foreskins in exchange for the bride. Aldo Raine states that he's a descendant of "the mountain man Jim Bridger ," who really did have Native American wives. Consequently, his nickname is "Aldo the Apache." However, none of Bridger's three Indian wives were Apache (they were, in order, Flathead, Ute, and Shoshone). Lt. Aldo Raine says he is from the Smoky Mountains, and later from Maynardville, Tennessee. Maynardville is not actually in the Smoky Mountains, but in one of the East Tennessee valleys between the mountains (some distance north of the Smoky Mountains). Notable quotes Edit Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y'all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin'. You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner-takin' business; we in the killin' Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin'.

'Looks like the shoe's on the other foot.' Yeah, I was just thinking that. You know somethin', Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece! Behind the scenes Review: 'Inglourious Basterds' - SFGate Review: 'Inglourious Basterds' Published 4:00 am, Friday, August 21, 2009 The trailer for "Inglorious Basterds." Media: San Francisco Chronicle It's not enough to say that "Inglourious Basterds" is Quentin Tarantino 's best movie. It's the first movie of his artistic maturity, the film his talent has been promising for more than 15 years. The picture contains all the things his fans like about Tarantino - the wit, the audacity, the sudden violence - but this movie's emotional core and bigness of spirit are new. "Inglourious Basterds" is an amalgam, an expansion and a fantasy riff on every World War II movie Tarantino has ever seen, but this time his referencing of earlier cultural markers doesn't seem arbitrary or in-jokey.

Tarantino gets inside our collective movie dream of World War II for the sake of liberating the audience from convention. He'll throw a funny sight gag into a tense scene and somehow only increase the audience's anxiety. He allows himself a range of expression from the brutal to the poignant, from playfulness to "Tristan and Isolde"-like tragedy. The nimbleness of tone is striking, but what holds it all together - the David Bowie song on the soundtrack, Samuel Jackson 's voiceover narration, the pathos and the horror - is Tarantino's singleness of vision. It would be an epic misperception to see "Inglourious Basterds" as some irreverent pastiche. It's not. Every liberty Tarantino takes, in both tone and history, is part of the filmmaker's overarching determination to remind audiences - remind them so they feel it - that World War II was, to put it mildly, the worst thing that has ever happened. Nearly seven decades of cinematic cliche may have dulled our response. Tarantino explodes those cliches to shake us awake.

If you've seen any of the commercials or advertisements, you know that "Inglourious Basterds" stars Brad Pitt as a redneck lieutenant who leads of band of Jewish soldiers into Nazi-occupied France. That's a smart way to market a film - Pitt is a movie star - but the Pitt plotline is not the most important element, and Pitt himself is only adequate in the role. He finds the humor in the character, but unlike every other actor in the cast, he doesn't dig deep enough to find the seriousness of it. He glides on the surface. Photo: Weinstein Co. 1 / 3 Back to Gallery Americans are hillbillies. The Brits are blithe and effete and yet, somehow, tough as nails. And SS butchers are always polite, in a menacing kind of way. Tarantino gives us the stereotypes, but pumps them up so that we notice them, then finds the truth inside of them.

His greatest creation in "Inglourious Basterds" is the Nazi colonel known as "the Jew Hunter," who shows up in the film's first scene - an extended scene, like so many in "Inglourious Basterds." The Nazi colonel, as played by Christoph Waltz, is the ultimate polite Nazi - engaging, loquacious, playful, fun-loving, well-mannered, anecdotal . . . and terrifying. Waltz, who has worked in German television, is everything Pitt isn't as an actor, one who can do an exaggerated portrayal and yet keep it authentic every second he's onscreen. His colonel is both a lightweight and a demon, probably a nonentity in civilian life, and yet too shrewd to dismiss. Waltz's face can turn from friendly to deadly with the subtlest shift of expression. Most of "Inglourious Basterds" tells the story of Shosanna, a young French Jewish woman who witnesses the slaughter of her family by the SS and escapes to Paris, where she gets a job in a local cinema.

Because Shosanna is hiding her identity, the role is largely internal, yet through French actress Mélanie Laurent 's remarkable performance, we can always see the emotion beneath the composed surface - the terror and the sadness, as well as an annihilating rage almost bordering on madness. Waltz and Laurent have been unknown in America until now. The same could almost be said of German actress Diane Kruger ("Troy"), who plays Bridget von Hammersmark , an Allied spy. Kruger brings an élan, a passion and a bitter humor to this role that she's previously showed only in her European films. This casting trifecta - Waltz, Laurent, Kruger in roles that Hollywood stars would have killed for - makes the movie and speaks to Tarantino's pursuit of excellence over box office. With its story of how a movie theater becomes central in the war against Nazism, "Inglourious Basterds" celebrates cinema - its power and dangerous allure. At the same time, Tarantino never forgets what cinema can't do and what war does do.

In real life, the people who get killed don't know they're going to be killed, so they don't act like the guest star wearing the red uniform on "Star Trek." When bad things happen, it's a surprise. "Inglourious Basterds" provides exhilarating release, but it's also a deeply sad film. It leaves the audience suspended in a tangle of strong and conflicting thoughts and feelings, the hallmark of great art. -- Advisory: This film contains extreme violence and strong language. To hear Mick LaSalle talk about movies, listen to his weekly podcast at sfgate.com.podcasts . Inglourious Basterds War saga. Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger and Mélanie Laurent. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. (R. 142 minutes. In French and German with English subtitles and in English. At Bay Area theaters.) Latest from the SFGATE homepage: Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.

Inglourious Basterds Movie Review (2009) | Roger Ebert Tweet Quentin Tarantino ’s “Inglourious Basterds” is a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he’s the real thing, a director of quixotic delights. For starters (and at this late stage after the premiere in May at Cannes, I don’t believe I’m spoiling anything), he provides World War II with a much-needed alternative ending. For once the basterds get what’s coming to them. Advertisement From the title, ripped off from a 1978 B-movie, to the Western sound of the Ennio Morricone opening music to the key location, a movie theater, the film embeds Tarantino’s love of the movies. The deep, rich colors of 35mm film provide tactile pleasure. A character at the beginning and end, not seen in between, brings the story full circle. The “basterds” themselves, savage fighters dropped behind Nazi lines, are an unmistakable nod to the Dirty Dozen.

And above all, there are three iconic characters, drawn broadly and with love: the Hero, the Nazi and the Girl. These three, played by Brad Pitt , Christoph Waltz and Melanie Laurent , are seen with that Tarantino knack of taking a character and making it a Character, definitive, larger than life, approaching satire in its intensity but not — quite — going that far. Let’s say they feel bigger than most of the people we meet in movies. The story begins in Nazi-occupied France, early in the war, when the cruel, droll Nazi Col. Hans Landa (Waltz) arrives at an isolated dairy farm where he believes the farmer ( Denis Menochet ) is hiding Jews. He’s right, and a young woman named Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) flees into the woods. It is for this scene, and his performance throughout the movie, that Christoph Waltz deserves an Oscar nomination to go with his best actor award from Cannes. He creates a character unlike any Nazi — indeed, anyone at all — I’ve seen in a movie: evil, sardonic, ironic, mannered, absurd. Advertisement The Hero is Brad Pitt, as Lt.

Aldo Raine, leader of the Basterds. Tarantino probably wants us to hear “ Aldo Ray ,” star of countless war films and B pictures. Raine is played by Pitt as a broad caricature of a hard-talking Southern boy who wants each of his men to bring him 100 Nazi scalps. For years, his band improbably survives in France and massacres Nazis, and can turn out in formal eveningwear at a moment’s notice. Pitt’s version of Italian is worthy of a Marx brother. The Girl is Shosanna, played by Laurent as a curvy siren with red lipstick and, at the film’s end, a slinky red dress. Tarantino photographs her with the absorption of a fetishist, with closeups of shoes, lips, a facial veil and details of body and dress. You can’t tell me he hasn’t seen the work of the Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, and his noir paintings of the cigarette-smoking ladies in red. Shosanna calculatingly flirts with Frederick Zoller ( Daniel Bruhl ), a Nazi war hero and now movie star; he persuades Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere of his new war film in her theater.

This sets up a plot that includes Tarantino breaking several rules in order to provide documentary footage about how flammable nitrate film prints are. Advertisement A Tarantino film resists categorization. “Inglourious Basterds” is no more about war than “ Pulp Fiction ” is about — what the hell is it about? Of course nothing in the movie is possible, except that it’s so bloody entertaining. His actors don’t chew the scenery, but they lick it. He’s a master at bringing performances as far as they can go toward iconographic exaggeration. After I saw “Inglourious Basterds” at Cannes, although I was writing a daily blog, I resisted giving an immediate opinion about it. I knew Tarantino had made a considerable film, but I wanted it to settle, and to see it again. I’m glad I did. Like a lot of real movies, you relish it more the next time. Immediately after “Pulp Fiction” played at Cannes, QT asked me what I thought. “It’s either the best film of the year or the worst film,” I said. I hardly knew what the hell had happened to me. The answer was: the best film.

Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once. Popular Blog Posts Inglourious Basterds Written by Jack Giroux on August 21, 2009 WARNING: The following review contains SPOILERS. Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino’s new epic World War II film, will be looked upon as another tremendous gem in his filmography. This is a film stock-full of all of Tarantino’s signatures, from the twisted sense of humor to a great soundtrack. Basterds is a terrific film that contains an excellent ensemble cast, a fantastic script and a visual style of its own. This may not be the masterpiece that Tarantino was hoping for (judging by the last line of the film), but it will still be looked on as a “glorious” piece of work. Set during World War II, the story follows a team of Jewish-American soldiers nicknamed “The Basterds,” a revenge-thirsty movie theater owner named Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) and a dangerous high-ranking German officer named Col. Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz), aka “The Jew Hunter”.

To begin with, Shosanna is a young Jewish girl whose family was killed by Landa and his men in the opening scene of the film. After years of hiding, Shosanna is one day courted by pesky, young Nazi who’s earned fame for his wartime heroics, set to star in an upcoming propaganda film named “Nation’s Pride.” Thanks to his cruch, Shosanna’s theater is chosen for the film’s grand premiere, with guests such as Hitlet and Joseph Goebbels in attendance. From this, Shosanna begins plotting how to strike back at the Nazis. Her plans are similar to the Basterds, who are interested in one: lling Nazis (you probably got that from the trailer). Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and his men plot to break up the premiere and kill every Nazi in sight. Don’t be mistaken, however: this is by no means a “Brad Pitt film,” as the Pitt-headlining ads have been implying. It is an ensemble piece, much like Pulp Fiction. Which is fortunate, considering all the characters are equally fascinating. The film begins with an astonishing scene with Landa brutally slaying Shosanna’s family while investigating a farm house for Jews.

It’s a perfect opening scene, its suspenseful and visually striking while also setting up these two central characters perfectly. The audience sees how ruthless and how insanely quirky Landa is, while establishing Shosanna’s conflict – and motive. Raine and his men are set up as Nazi killers, and thats about all they are. They are infamous among the German army for their violent actions. None of them particularly change during the story, but why would they? They’re soldiers on a mission, who’ve been doing what they’ve been doing for a long time. The first act of the film sets up the characters’ motivations, the second act covers how the Basterds and Shosanna prepare for the premiere and the third act covers what happens at the premiere. Each act is consistently exciting and involving. Like most Tarantino films, the acting is universally excellent. Pitt delivers one of his best performances yet as Raine, a performance that ranks up there with his work in 12 Monkeys and Fight Club. Some will quibble about his rather over-the-top accent, but it really fits the tone of the film perfectly. Pitt’s Aldo is engaging, likable and also dangerously good with a knife.

Another terrific performance is given by Waltz, who chews up the screen in every scene he’s in. He makes The Jew Hunter an eccentric and insane character that is driven by his both duty and the personal enjoyment it brings. This outlandish persona he adopts is beyond entertaining. That being said, the actor supplied with the meatiest character arc is Laurent, who also delivers a great performance. Shosanna centers her life purely on getting revenge and Laurent portrays this perfectly. Her character transitions the most through the film and undergoes the most satisfying dynamism over the course of the film. Supporting players also deliver excellent performances, including Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger and especially Til Schweiger, who plays Hugo Stigltz, a war-crazed European Basterd who shows abolute fearlessness. Tarantino is a mastermind when it comes to framing, music choices and also unique characters. All these glorious factors are in full effect here and it pays off splendidly. He fills the screen with soon-to-be-iconic imagery, most notably the images that appear in the third act — including a big flaming film projection of Shosanna in close-up laughing uproariously at her unassuming Nazi bait.

During the acts of violence Tarantino’s beautiful visual aesthetic is present as well, especially with a color scheme that makes the reds pop. Similar to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino allows all the characters to have genuine character arcs and scenery-chewing dialogue. While Waltz is the main scene-stealer, Tarantino allows every character to have their moments and he provides them all with quotable lines. This will be a film that will most likely divide critics and audiences alike; some may not find the over-the-top tone very accessible, others perhaps unnecessary and derivative. Basterds features every aspect that a Tarantino fan expects. It has his usual shtick of original dialogue, top-notch performances and unique visuals. The only flaw to be had is minor: comedic actors B.J. Novak and Sam Levine play two of the Basterds, and aren’t really given anything to do, rendering their appearance in the film a slight distraction. Despite this minor quibble, this is another tremendous success for Tarantino.

A+ Inglourious Basterds -2009 - ComingSoon.net Inglourious Basterds Release date: August 21, 2009 Studio: Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company Director: Quentin Tarantino MPAA Rating: R (for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality) Screenwriter: Quentin Tarantino Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Omar Doom, Sylvester Groth, Julie Dreyfus, Jacky Ido, August Diehl, Martin Wuttke, Richard Sammel, Christian Berkel, Sonke Mohring, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Denis Menochet, Cloris Leachman, Maggie Cheung, Samuel L.

Jackson Official website: InglouriousBasterds-movie.com Plot Summary: "Inglourious Basterds" (sic) begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses 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 soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own... News Home Theater & Sound Movie Review -- Inglorious Basterds -- **** (8/2009) reviewed by Rad Bennett Photo � The Weinstein Company No living film director trumpets his sheer love of movies more loudly than does Quentin Tarantino.

Whether or not you like his latest work, you have to admit that its one of the most cinematic movies to come along this year. It drips with homage in a spirit of tribute so genuine as to be irresistible. Whether or not you surrender to it will have much to do with whether Tarantinos heroes from film history are your heroes as well. Tarantino here rewrites the end of World War II. The basic plot is simple, concerning The Basterds, a squadron of American Jews led by Lt. Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt at his comedic best, sporting a Tennessee mountain accent so thick it sounds phony. Raines mission for his men is to kill and scalp Nazis, and he demands from them 100 scalps each. Raine is the hero, and were no doubt supposed to think of Aldo Ray, who starred in many war movies as exactly that. Raines opposite is Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), an SS officer whos suave, sure, cunning, and cruel.

Landa is sure to go down as one of the great movie villains, and Waltz is virtually assured a nomination for an Academy Award (hes already won a Best Actor award at Cannes for this role). The opening scene, in which Landa questions a French farmer suspected of harboring Jews, is one of the most magnificent pieces of acting and directing that has come along in some time. Suspense doesnt get better than this. If theres a Hero and a Villain, then there must be a Girl, and this one is Shosanna Dreyfus (M�lanie Laurent), a Jew who escapes in the films first scene, early in the war, and appears later as the owner of a movie theater, a location she sets up as the potential final resting place of Hitler and his top command. The rest of the cast is A+, down to the smallest role. But its a Tarantino movie, so its not enough to have one plot to bump all the bad guys off.

Some scenes deserve a 5 rating, others 4.5, but my overall rating of Inglourious Basterds is dragged down to 4 by some scenes that just tread water, particularly one set in a pub in which the dialogue and film in-jokes just go on and on. Tarantinos dialogue is usually one of the best things about his movies, but this time he goes over the line between intriguing titillation and boredom. Theres also the matter of the movies overall tone. A tribute to the spaghetti western complete with music by Ennio Morricone, at times it seems more like a serio-comic graphic novel, at others just a comic book. Once in a while it seems as if Tarantino threw something in just because he liked it; sometimes that works, sometimes not. Lets just say that youll laugh, sometimes nervously, sometimes not. The movie looks like a million bucks. The director has chosen rich, vibrant colors that make it look, well, like a movie. Not just a movie but a Movie. The special effects are first-rate. The wartime explosions will give you a thrill, if youre into that sort of thing.

Inglourious Basterds is gory, but in a way thats like "play-acting." The scalping isnt realistic, but still you go "Yuck!," thinking what it might be like in real life. The period costumes and unscalped hair are ideal. Theres no mistaking the era or the geographical location. I dont want to say much more, as it might spoil your thrill of discovery. But whether or not you like Inglourious Basterds, its an important movie. It celebrates cinema and manages to be damned entertaining along the way, at least 80% percent of the time, and 80% of Tarantino is worth 100% of many others.

Question: Who plays the role of Lieutenant Aldo Raine in the 2009 film ‘Inglorious Basterds’?
Answer: Brad Pitt