2.5/4  Revisionist Fun
The revisionist history that some will clamor to study more than the actual unknown events of the Nazi War is an absolute, unquestioned blast. The Basterds supporting cast of The Bear Jew and other crazyies you wouldn't want to meet in a ... (read full)

3.5/4  Tarantino Overload!
A film brimming with creativity, perfect direction, and an incredibly enthralling storyline, one of 2009's best movies? Quentin Tarantino's appropriately named Inglourious Basterds fits quite snugly into this description. It's almost as if... (read full)

4/4  An amazing summer movie
Very few times in my life have I seen A film that has impressed me as Much as this one ,I knew it would be good considering I loved the cast ond especially the director but never would I have thought it would be the best movie of the year ... (read full)

4/4  Inglourious Basterds
This flim takes place in Nazi occupied France where a young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa as they are hiding underneath the floorboards of a French dairy farmers home. Narrowly ... (read full)

4/4  Inglourious Basterds
Read this article with caution, because it may contain some spoilers!

The story is set in alternative history in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, where a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen spec... (read full)

3.5/4  These Basterds Are Legitimate
This is what I've come to expect from Quentin Tarantion and this is why I like him: scenes of witty, tense dialogue punctuated by intense violence. Inglourious Baterds reminded me a lot of Pulp Fiction - it had the chapters (this time in o... (read full)

4/4  Inglourious Basterds Quick Review
This is the way the war should have ended! Tarantino is a movie god! Hands down, the best of 09 so far!

3/4  Inglourious Basterds Quick Review
What a terrific movie! It could've used just a little bit more blood guts though.

3/4  Inglourious Basterds Quick Review
This movie is full of everything you expect (and want) from Quentin Tarantino. This movie is a must see.

4/5 Killer n' Filler
  by Untitled (nowhere)
Inglourious Basterds is a very long movie, clocking in at nearly 2 and a half hours (this is not counting the credits, though I tend to stay for the music in a Tarantino movie. Chick Habit, Coconut, etc). But while Pulp Fiction changes all the time, featuring many different topics, great bursts of action, Basterds doesn't quite accomplish this, with many periods of dialogue that seems to drag and drag. Jackie Brown was as long and featured even more dialogue, but the dialogue sets didn't drag all the time. I think that Basterds is on the same boat as Brown, but that's only because Jackie Brown doesn't feature as much action or fun. The dialogue isn't as bad as Kill Bill Vol 2, and there is great dialogue all over the place, but Basterds has a tendency to drag.

This still has Tarantino written all over it. The spaghetti western music is just as infectious as Pulp Fiction's surf oriented sound track, Jackie Brown's funk and soul sound track, basically, all the Tarantino sound tracks. The humor is still there, and at it's best, it's classic hilarity. The action scenes are ace. When I saw it in the theaters, I'm sure there were people who laughed off the violence and called it cheesy of over the top, that's what makes the movie so fun. The shootouts are loud, overtly done, and makes me wish there were more violent scenes (I can't wait to see what he does with classic mafia staples, such as tommy guns). The sets are amazingly done, as they are totally exotic and he knows how to pick em' out. It's nice to see him venture out of Los Angeles. His direction is top notch, and the acting is great, from Eli Roth. And I love Roth's character, as he's loud and obnoxious, as well as Hugo Stiglitz. There are lot's of great characters in this, and some of them have already entered among my favorite Tarantino characters.

The reason why I'm calling this Killer n' filler is because when Basterds cooks, it really cooks like any other Tarantino movie. This is most evident in the first, second, and fifth chapters, featuring great dialogue and cool action. The first chapter has tension, and shows how multifaced Landa, "The Jew Hunter", is. The second chapter is all pure fun. Aldo's speech is hilarious and quotable from beginning to end. b And the fifth chapter is another masterpiece of storytelling, with a great ending, and lot's of numerous intercutting stories and everything else worth. Uh, what else can I say? It's top notch stuff, and I could really write paragraph and nitpick my favorite points.

However, I'm giving this a lower grade because of the short comings of the third and fourth chapter. The fourth chapter is kind of fun, featuring some interesting insight, great bits between Hugo, basement complaining, and the shootout near the end (not to mention the funny bit where Raine sticks his finger through Bridget's leg wound, I was the only one who laughed like crazy). However, the scenes has many parts when it just drags, and even though the characters are likeable (Diane Kruger is damn good looking, and I don't usually look at actresses), it offers little to no insight. The third chapter suffers from this even more, and while some of the stylistic parts are great to see, others parts aren't. While the use of music is great, the diner scene, and especially the restrauant scene, had me half asleep. Sure, his style (not to mention Tarantino's most beautiful sets yet) is still evident at points, but style isn't everything, and even Tarantino's style isn't enough to save some of the parts from boredom.

Still, it's still a Tarantino movie, and it's a worthy edition to his ever growing filmography of cinema. ANd while there's problems with it's self indulgence regarding dialogue, it's still yet another Tarantino movie to add to the growing collection of my favorite director. A cheesy Salute, to the Basterds"!

B-

5/5 Tarentino's Masterpiece
  by G P Padillo (Portland, ME United States)
Inglourious Basterds is, without a doubt, Tarantino's masterpiece. In fact, not to jinks him or wish him anything but the best in future endeavors, but it is my opinion the odds of him surpassing what he has achieved in this film are slim indeed.

While there have been numerous complaints (even in the most complimentary of reviews) of the many incongruous elements found throughout the film, I have found it is the very disparity of those elements that tie this film into a unifying whole - and precisely what makes it one of the most satisfactory films and satisfying movie experiences of 2009. It is this genre-busting, "what is it?" quality that makes it unique among the major players of this year's top films.

Visually, Tarantino has done nothing to date that quite matches the opulence he achieves here a tailor made look evocative of the "Grand Hollywood Style" of those glorious Technicolor epics of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Like those, every frame of "Inglorious Basterds" seems worthy of being reproduced as "art" in its own right. The color spectrum he employs throughout is rich and vivid in that 1950's fashion - simultaneously lurid yet beautiful.

He elicits performances from his cast that are among the most memorable seen in years. The arc of the Shoshana story - Melanie Laurent in a powerfully searing performance that throbs with a ferocious intensity, anchors the various chapters of the film brilliantly. That performance is matched (and maybe even surpassed) by her chief tormentor, in the guise of Austrian actor Christopher Waltz as Hans Landa of the SS. Waltz, in fact, makes one of the most amazing film debuts in American film history. Chilling doesn't begin to describe his performance here.

Not to be outdone by her costars, Diane Kruger gets to star in one of Tarantino's most brilliantly conceived scenes from any of his films - the basement bar scene. As the unlikely (and hilariously) named Bridget Von Hammersmark, Kruger gives her finest performance since Joyeux Noel and proves herself both as comedian and grand tragedienne.

The Basterds - headed by Brad Pitt - have found some critics singling theirs out to be the weakest element of the movie, but I disagree. Strongly. While the danger of the European war front can be elegantly confusing throughout the entire film (e.g., the almost Andrew Wyeth spareness of the opening chapter; the inviting danger of the basement bar; the opulence of the Cinetheque, etc.) the sheer audacity and brutality of the scenes with the Basterds adds a provocatively American feel to the story's proceedings.

The Basterds are almost a comic chorus line - not quite interchangeable archetypes in a film otherwise populated with specific and memorable characters. Of course several of them (including Mr. Pitt) get to partake in a finale that is (even by Tarentino standards) so over the top it is nothing if not jaw dropping. The entire finale offers one of the most hauntingly beautiful and memorable scenes modern cinema has had to offer in a very long time.

Mr. Tarantino paints all of this onto the broadest canvas possible using a palette that combines the almost unseemly mixtures of film noir, slapstick, crude comedy, art house film, historical fiction, James Bond-style slickness, buddy pic and action flick seemingly without a fleeting concern as to what anybody else thinks. It's a "take no prisoners" style of filmmaking that (clearly) does not play to all tastes and demands that it be taken on its own terms. If one is willing to take that journey with him the rewards are remarkable and immeasurable. A truly remarkable film achievement. Bravo, Signor Tarantino!


1/5 DO NOT LISTEN DO DROOLING FANBOYS -- This Movie SUCKS. SUCKS.
  by FerretKing
Everyone I know who does not have a man-crush on Q.T. thinks this movies SUCKS. And they are RIGHT.

BORING.

INSIPD.

TRITE.

UNFUNNY.

UNMOVING.

The opening scene (Hide-a-Jew) is awesome. After that -- 2+ hours of sheer CRAP.

BYPASS.

4/5 Flawed but awesome
  by Andrew H. Smith
First off, let's get this out of the way: Quentin Tarentino will never, EVER top "Pulp Fiction". Period. Not gonna happen. So everyone really needs to stop comparing his movies to "Pulp Fiction". Second, this isn't supposed to be an accurate, dramatic depiction of World War II. We've seen a million of those types of films, and no portrayal of the Holocaust is going to surpass "Schindler's List", nor should it: it's one of the best movies of all time. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, "Inglourious Basterds" isn't perfect but it's still a good movie. Christoph Waltz is to this movie what Javier Bardeim was to "No Country for Old Men": a menacing, sadistic lunatic who you wanted to die but at the same time didn't because he's such an interesting character. Hopefully Mr. Waltz will get more roles in major American films, because his portrayal of "the Jew Hunter" is amazing. Brad Pitt is extremely entertaining as the leader of the Basterds, Aldo Raine, and his "artwork" and the "debt" he extracts from his men are so horrible that you have to love it. He also does a wonderful East Tennessee accent that other actors could stand to learn from (I'm looking at you, George Clooney). However, Melanie Laurent steals the movie as Shosanna, the secretly-Jewish Parisian cinema owner determined to not only take out "the Jew Hunter" for murdering her family but also the entire Nazi regime during the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film. She's cold yet vulnerable and sweet yet ruthless, and she's clearly the center of attention in the scenes she's in.
Unfortunately, Tarantino's obsession with dialogue prevents this movie from taking the step from good to great. Despite the title, there are precious few appearances by the Basterds; they're pretty much confined to the end of the first chapter and portions of the last chapter (and then many only make cameo appearances). Eli Roth as Donnie Donowitz ("The Bear Jew" as he is know to the superstitious and scared Nazis) is a particular lost opportunity, because aside from Pitt's character he's the most interesting of the Basterds as well as the most sadistic (in a good way: we're talking about killing Nazis, after all). Diane Kruger's portrayal of double-agent Bridget von Hammerstock isn't terrible, but her character is so underexposed and boring that there's no real reason for her existence in the film. In fact, the entire episode in the bar is so unnecessary, drawn-out, and straight boring that you have to wonder what Tarantino was thinking shooting this scene at all; he could've used that time to undergo more exposition for the Basterds (or at least cut down on the length of the movie). This exact same criticism applies to the British agent and the scene with Churchill. I personally would've liked to have seen Shoshanna's biracial romance brought out a little more, and the entire high command of Germany meeting in a movie theater does seem a little far-fetched even for this movie (although the end result is wonderful).
Overall, I would say take this movie for what it is: a fun, incredibly violent (seriously, don't see this if you're sqeemish) ride. The ending is bittersweet, but anyone who hates the Nazis will still wish this is what had happened in real life (preferably in 1933). Now, some people (at least among critics) are upset because they think the all-Jewish Basterds are so horrifically violent that they are no better than the Gestapo. My response to this is who cares?! The Nazis - specifically the high command and the SS - commit so many atrocities that it really doesn't matter how violent the Basterds respond in kind: they can never be worse than the Nazis they terrorize. Definitely see this movie.

4/5 Another hit for tarantino
  by Virgil Collington
Quentin tarantino continues with his eclectic style of directing in this film. A all star cast as usual that coincides with each other. Each having there own tale that in a bigger picture all coincides with one another. I felt at times the film could have used more detail but all and all a great film. Also the majority of the film is either in french or German so if your not a big fan of reading subtitles then this may not be for you. Equipped with some humor and some strong acting chops the film delivers the suspense.