Mike Reviews Inglourious Basterds
Happy Monday!
1. Over the weekend, I went to go see Inglourious Basterds. And before I go any further with this review let me just say a few things.
-I think I’ve spelled this movie correctly. I’m going off the poster.
-If you’re in a movie theater with a large group of people don’t divide your group into two and have one section sit behind me and have the other sit directly in front of me. It is very unsettling. So much so that I will switch seats.
Back to the review. I’ve been looking forward to this movie ever since I first caught wind of it oh so many years ago. I love the premise and the promise that that premise holds. My anticipation for this movie had reached such fever levels that it was almost inevitable that I would be let down. Which I was. That’s 
not to say this is a bad movie. It’s not. In fact, I thought it was pretty awesome. Mr. Tarantino just had to pit his movie against the perfect movie in my mind (my brain movie), which is a formula that as Roger Ebert has famously never said, “is fucking impossible to solve.”
Anyhoo, Inglourious Basterds is an amazingly well written film wherein there is a tense “sit off” involving a table, chairs and 2 or more people every 15 or 20 minutes. Seriously, I’ve had trouble sitting and talking to people for nearly two days now. I am convinced that such an encounter will lead to my demise. For example, last night I went to Applebee’s and a man who looked like he could’ve been a Nazi in a past life sat down next to me. It was awful and has only added to my paranoia. I had heard what a gore fest the movie was, and while there is certainly plenty of it to be had, the real impact of the movie are the moments leading up to the violence. Moments that are wrapped in really wonderful dialogue.
My “brain movie” skipped those moments in favor of more action. And my “brain movie” made a terrible mistake.
FOTIs
I always avoid the hype. Didn’t we learn anything from the Matrix Sequels? (shutters)
shudders?
LDH-Ryan clearly meant that he was shuttering the image of The Matrix sequels out of his mind. Clearly.
Ryan-Thank you for your comment.
I liked it a lot, but it is not AT ALL what it was marketed to be, which is a gritty action flick featuring Brad Pitt kicking Nazi ass from one end of the movie to the other. It’s more of a simmering noirish spy thriller counterpointed with a few choice segments of cartoon revenge.
As the guy sitting next to me said, “That was a great movie. Now I’d like to see Inglourious Basterds.”
Tom-I agree with you. I was expecting Kill Bill: The War Years and obviously the result was different. Still, I enjoyed it.