Recently in Quentin Tarantino Category

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis,Rosanna Arquette, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, Christopher Walken, Amanda Plummer,Harvey Keitel. Directed by Quentin Tarantino.Action/Drama/Comedy.

Synopsis: Two philosphical hit men run into a day's worth of unexpected events after starting the morning on a simple assignment from their drug dealer boss.

O.k., I know those of you (everyone?) who have seen flick know that my poor attempt at a synopsis does dot come close to doing this film justice. I know that, I get that. I feel you.

But, how do you describe this ensemble, non-chronological, realistic satire, modern day homage to both film noir and grindhouse schlock?

I'm not sure you do, other than this, it's really, really good. 

Pulp Fiction is quintessential Tarantino, the proverbial "one they will remember him for", no disrespect to some of Mr. Tarantino's  other well regarded films. You have Travolta and Jackson  working together, both at their best and playing off one another beautifully. The dialogue between them is priceless, my guilty pleasure being the 'spiritual debate' between them before the accidental shooting death in the car. It's simply hilarious, which I know sounds really bad...unless you've seen the flick, in which case you'll understand.

Bruce Willis (16 Blocks) is wondeful as Butch, the aging fighter who is looking for one last grab at the brass ring and, like Jules (Jackson) and Vincent (Travolta) is connected to drug king pin Marsellus Wallace. (Ving Rhames The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard   Shooting Gallery )

Arguably the most memorable scene in a movie that is, basically, a collection of memorable scenes, is the overdose scene of Marsellus Wallace's wife, Mia (Uma Thurman My Super Ex-Girlfriend), after she has been out for the night with Vincent (with her husband's blessing). Vincent's friends who help him out of this awkward situation, married couple Eric Roberts (Break A Leg) and Rosanna Arquette are memorable, to say the least.

Christopher Walken's (King Of New York) one scene might be the funniest monologue in movie history. The "fix up the accidental killing" scene with Harvey Keitel (Wrong Turn At Tahoe) is my personal favorite, but no discussion of this flick would be complete without reference to the scene that most people who see this movie will remember vividly until they lay down for their eternal rest: the Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames "one gets saved and one doesn't from homosexual rape" scene. Trust me, any scene that can spawn this line(s) in context "...you hear me, buddy boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight. I'm about to get medieval on your ass!!!" ...is part of a movie that is one for the ages. 

I loved the non-chronological flow as well as the sense that there wasn't so much of a standard 'plot', per se, but that I was just being introduced to these interesting characters and I very much wanted to see what happened next. 

This is a truly unique film that has a fresh and cynical take not only on our society and culture, but also on our culture of movies and what we like in them.

A timeless classic, in my humble opinion.

Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring: Christopher Waltz, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Diane Kuger, Jacky Ido, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Martin Wuttke. Synopsis: In WWII France, a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers are choosen specifically to terrorize the occupying Nazis with their brutal methods. Drama/War.  

I'm a big Tarantino fan, but Inglourious Basterds just didn't work for me...not even a little bit. Don't get me wrong, there are some compelling scenes, the trademark parallel story telling, violence, and dark humor of Tarantino, as well some fine acting, but the flick as a whole didn't do it for me and, I would suspect, not for more than few Taratino, Pitt, or war movie fans.

The first thing you might notice is that I don't categorize this movie as "historical", despite the subject matter, because its not even a little bit factual nor does it make a very serious attempt to be legitimate historical fiction. Another thing you should realize when you're getting ready to see this one is that, like many Tarantino movies, the story is heavy on dialogue, but understand that much of it is in French or German, and, in my view, at times the subittiles moved too quickly and/or were hard to read against background.

The story itself, as I alluded to, is fantastical. We have a very powerful and well done opening scene between an eloquently evil Nazi officer, Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz) and a nervous French dairy farmer who is secretly hiding a Jewish family named Dreyfus from the occupying Germans. This scene is, by far, in my opinion, the best of the flick and Walz is superb throughout.  In classic Tarantino fashion, we have another story going on at the same time and we just know the two will meet at some point.

Cut to a group of American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt Seven, Burn After Reading) is a fast talking, blood and guts, good ole' boy type who tells his assortment of troops that they have been assembled for two reasons 1) they're Jewish 2) they are going to spread unprecedented fear among the Germans by being incredibly barbaric. In fact, Lt. Raine tells his group of recruits that each of them owes him "100 scalps, or die tryin'". Let me make this clear right now: you will see some scalps being cut off in the film, sometimes when casual dialogue is going on.

Mpw, you might think this film will be a story of this group of men (which include Eli Roth Hostel, Daniel Bruhl, and Til Schweiger) -given the title of the flick-along with their feelings of revenge, justification due to their religion and the crime the Nazis had committed upon their people, but its not. In fact, the "inglourious basterds", other than Pitt, are merely secondary/backgound characters in the story, one dimensional and no real attempt to develop them.

On the other hand, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) is really the effective protagonist of the story, a theater owner who has a dedicated business associate (Jacky Ido) and who is developing an intricate plan to wreak some havoc on the Nazis who will be viewing a film in her theater, including Goebbels and Hitler ( Martin Wuttke) himself.

Look, I never want to be a spoiler and I already told you the plot was fantastical, but I just have to say again, it was a little too over the top for me and, worse, just didn't fit together as a good story. I will say that Tarantino fans should check this one out, no matter what, and I predict some will like it very much as it does have his distinctive flavor, but for me the one key ingredient to a good flick is a good story and this one doesn't get there. The dark humor mixed with violence  that works so well in most of Tarantino's films falls flat here, but in fairness, its hard to find any humor with Nazis and the war as your backdrop and, other than Hogan's Heroes, its probably better not to try.

Like I said, Waltz is excellent and Laurent is not far behind, but not enough to save this one. I was disappointed in Pitt. I know his character is supposed to be over the top, but to me it was to the point of being cartoonish, and this is beneath him a bit, in my view. Not a terrible performance, good for some laughs, and the character as written is over the top, but I just expected more from Pitt in terms of carrying the movie. He really doesn't. That might be unfair of me to expect great things from him in any film, but I do think he has that type of talent-I'm not talking about being a star-where its reasonable to expect more than I would from most actors.

I will also mention Wuttke's performance as Hitler, he has the look nailed and the histrionics are what many of us would associate with one of the most despicable men who ever lived. 

Overall, the good acting from some of the cast, trademark directorial florusihes, and a few interesting scenes just can't save a story that is too far fetched and contains events that just plain did not happen, e.g. the murder of Hitler along with hundreds of Nazis in a theater. I know the whole point was to paint a 'fantasy' revenge type of movie, but against the real life historical backdrop and people, it falls flat. 

But, you might think differently. Try it for yourself and find out, don't take my word for it. Hell, even I don't do that unless I've got no other alternative.