Inglourious Basterds

Last night I decided to venture down to my local movie house to catch the latest from the always entertaining Quentin Tarantino. My thought like many other viewers concerning Tarantino is that his first two films, Reserviour Dogs and Pulp Fiction are undisputed masterpieces and that any later work by him doesn’t measure up but is decent none the less. Inglourious Basterds continues this trend.

The film follows two main story threads, firstly there is the story of Shosanna Dreyfuss (Melanie Laurent), hell bend on getting revenge on the Nazis for the murder of her family and secondly there is the story of the Basterds, a group of American soldiers lead by Lt Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), hell bend on getting revenge on the Nazis for the shear hell of it. Gradually these two story intertwine with one another leading the way to a hugely spectacular and brilliantly edited climax (which is much in debt to the prom scene in Brian DePalma’s Carrie) in which a cinema full of Nazi’s is burnt down and even features Adolf Hitler himself being shot repeatedly in the face and then shot repeatedly some more until his face is in pieces.

Rest assured Tarantino doesn’t skimp on his trademark violence, in fact this is probably his most violent yet. We get to see Nazi symbols carved into people’s face with knives, fists being shoved down throats, people wincing majorly at gun wounds and even Nazis being scalped right down to the brain. This is true ultra violence that may make even the most hardened viewer cringe.

There is no denying it, this film portrays the Nazi as caricature villains. However Tarantino also find room to create sympathy for Nazis. One scene has Eli Roth beating a Nazi to death in a flamboyant manner with a baseball bat whilst another Nazi watches in horror knowing that he will die next. We also feel Nazi sympathy for German war hero Frederick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) who must forever live with the Nazi Stigma.

From a performance point of view the cast here is pretty strong. Brad Pitt and Eli Roth play their roles with the perfect balance of malice and humour although throughout the film there is no stand out performance. Tarantino once again recycles music from his favourite artists and effectively incorporates them into this film. One musical moment that stuck out was at the beginning in which a farmer is hiding Jews under his floorboards and a Nazi General comes to question him, then after a while he realises they are hidden under the floor. At this point the intense music starts up and a squad of Nazi troops come in with guns blazing and annihilate the Jews.

However despite all that was good about this film there was one major issue I had with it, which is as follows: In previous Tarantino film one of the impressive aspects was the chemistry between the actors as they discuss various aspect of culture (remember the quarter pounder with cheese). This was always a highlight however in this film they devote too much time to having formal conversation or discuss pompous French cinema and they also natter on for far too long. I feel that Tarantino is just retreading old ground albeit in a different genre, I also feel he is running out of things for his characters to discuss. This therefore make it one of the weaker entries in the Tarantino cannon.

None the less I would recommend Inglourious Basterds for all it has to offer and if you’re a fan of Tarantino’s work then it is a great way to kill 2 hours. Light years behind Reseviour Dogs and Pulp Fiction, not as good as Death Proof or Kill Bill and about as good as Jackie Brown.

4 STARS

Moon

The third and final film I went to see whilst in The States was Moon. The problem was however that when I went to see it I was absolutely knackered and drowsy whilst watching it due to all the great stuff I had done over the days leading up to it so therefore I failed to fully take it in. I remember very little about the film’s plot so it best you don’t take my views on this film seriously. None the less I must review every single film I see at the cinema no matter what.

So what can I say? The cinematography was impressive, it was beautifully shot and well directed, had some good ideas and plenty of intrigue. It felt a bit cliché like I had seen everything already in 2001: A Space Oddysey, Alien and Sunshine. However it was good to see a film released in summer that had brain.

I get the impression that science fiction may well be making a comeback with this film as well as James Cameron’s Avatar and Chris Nolan’s Inception. Fingers crossed.

That’s all I can say in my shortest review ever. It seemed pretty good so I’ll give it a good grade and I must remember to watch it properly when it comes out on DVD.

4 STARS

Up

For the past 5 weeks I have had the good fortune to be in America. From New York to Chicago, onto Los Angeles and back to New York. It was absolutely amazing and the best time I’ve had in my life however it was also exhausting. Fortunately I was able to find down time with my visits to the cinemas of time square. I took this opportunity to see Pixar’s latest, Up, a film not yet released here in the UK, so this was a perfect chance to see it before anyone else back home.

The film start out with a moving montage that tells the story of Carl Frederickson has he experiences all the peaks and troths that one must face throughout life. Following this the bulk of the film focuses on Carl as an elderly man forced to relocated from his own home to and old people’s home. Carl doesn’t like this and ties balloons to his house and flies off on a journey to fulfil his dreams of living in South America. However 8 yr old Russell accidently stows away on board his house and so begins the adventure.

Thankfully I can say that Pixar have yet again produced a well written, funny, heart warming tale that all audiences can enjoy. I think one of the key themes to this film is the strained relationship between Carl and Russell. Carl, who never had a son or daughter and is mourning the loss of his wife just wants to get away from everything. Russell on the other hand never had a father figure but sees it in Carl but has trouble being like by him due to his rather flamboyant nature.

A key theme in this film is age and how certain age groups are frowned upon in the modern society. Like Gran Torino earlier this year the film deals with how old age pensioners are looked down on by the rest of society and are assumed to be hopeless.

The humour in this film is also impressive, particularly the scenes involving talking dogs (dogs with collars that translate what they are thinking into word). These scenes account for many of the films belly laugh. One such incident involves a dog which is supposed to be sinister and evil but speaks in a very camp voice due to a malfunctioning voice translator.

Worth noting however is that this is the first Pixar film to be presented in 3D and unlike Bolt which I saw earlier this year the 3D adds a considerable dimension to the animation. The animation happens to absolutely stunning whether in 3D or not.

Overall Up is an impressive film. See it when it is released in the UK.

4 STARS

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

Throughout this decade that only some refer to as the ‘noughties’ we have watch the hugely popular Harry Potter film series grow and mature along with the films young cast themselves. Now here we have the 6th and penultimate film (not taking into account that the 7th book shall be two films) and it seems like things have come a long way.

That’s right, it seems like hardly any time ago that we watched an 11 year old Harry first walk through the gates of Hogwarts and now here we are at the final stretch of the saga and walking into considerable darker territory, a tale of murder and betrayal one would not necessarily associate with a franchise were the fan base are predominantly children (or adults who grew up with the franchise).

Rest assured when I say this is the most adult of all the Potter films I really mean it. There is a sense of constant threat that runs through the film where as a viewer you get the sense that the wizarding world has truly hit hard time. This is largely thanks to David Yates confident and dynamic direction where he creates a wholly immersive world where our lead characters can operate in.

The acting here is also the best in the series so far. The lead trio have amazing chemistry as well as some of the supporting child cast. Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon and Jim Broadbent as professor Horace Slughorn also have plenty to work with. Best of all however is that Draco Malfoy has been given an expanded role, especially good considering for the past two films Malfoy has done next to nothing. Also good to see is how he has drastically changed as a character, he has become more conflicted under the pressure of his task in hand whereas in the earlier films he was the typical school bully/spoilt brat.

One thing that came to my attention when watching this film however was that it was somewhat of a statement of substance abuse, which is a common theme one might associate with youths. There are numerous example of this e.g when Harry finds the potions book belonging to the half blood prince he keeps using it to enhance his performance in class even if it does end up causing him to ultimately go overboard. This is a strong reflection on people who use performance enhancing steroids. Another scene has him taking a good luck potion and then acting ‘high’ for the next ten or so minutes of the film. Other scenes include Ron Weasley foaming at the moth after taking a lethal combination of potions and Dumbledore being forced to drink an entire basin of lethal fluid.

This brings me to the climax of the film, skip this paragraph to avoid spoiler. The death of Dumbledore is mostly handled well. The scene that stood out for me was where his corpse is lying on the grounds of Hogwarts and the students and staff are all crowded around him raising their wands out of respect. The only issue I had was that the betrayal of Snape is so undercooked. In the book the betrayal aspect is treated as a major incident. Unfortunately here it is assumed everyone has read the book and there is no need to re-establish it for those who haven’t.

Overall I feel that the makers of the Potter film franchise have delivered another decent blockbuster. One that fall only slightly short of The Prisoner Of Azkaban and The Goblet Of Fire. All I can say now is Bring On The Deathly Hallows.

4 STARS