An Inglourious Blog Post

I heard mixed things before and after going to see Quentin Tarantino's new movie, "Inglourious Basterds." IGN said it was a mixed bag giving it 3 out of 5 stars. A local paper said it had it's "glorious" moments. A friend on facebook said he didn't see what all the hype was about. Jme texted me just before to say that she highly recommended it.

So if you are wondering what I thought about it, I will tell you in one word:

Awesome.

Want a few more words? Ok, here we go. Let me explain the entire night for you.

We originally tried to go the 7 showing, only to stand outside in the rain to find out it was sold out. No problem, we went ahead and bought our tickets for the ten. Decided to meet up with friends when we got there which probably wasn't a good idea. You would think that if we say the 7 sell out we would be cautious, but arriving a little late to the 10:15 showing there were barely any seats left. So we sat in the very front row. Ya know, the one where you have to crane your neck to look at the screen and there is nothing in front of you. First part of the night starts when during the trailers, the audio goes out and the lights come back on. They fixed it, but when the movie started, instead of the curtains going out, they closed in. And it was out of focus.

These problems were fixed during the first chapter. The movie, broken down into five chapters, starts off with a lot of dialogue. A theme which would run rampant throughout the movie, but shouldn't be surprising to any viewer of Tarantino's movies. I will try to do this without much spoilers, but the opening scene was intense and set that tone for the rest of the movie. A lot of sitting in your seat wondering "oh shit, what is about to happen here."

The second chapter set the other tone of the movie. The "holy shit, this is going to be funny too" tone. This is because the second chapter is when Brad Pitt, as Lt. Aldo Rane makes his debut. And he hooks you from the second he opens his mouth. We also sort of see an introduction to the other members of the basterds.

Without giving too much away, the rest of the movie introduces characters and intertwines them, very nicely I might add, at the end. Here is what you need to know:

1) A lot of dialogue -- but it's a good thing. I don't know how well it will hold up after multiple viewings, but for that first time it is great for setting up anticipation.

2) The violence is well what you would expect. Over the top and in a "should I feel weird about this" kind of way -- fun.

3) Brad Pitt steals the show. I have compared him to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight or Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow in the second and third Pirates. Whenever they are off screen, you miss them and pretty much spend the movie waiting on them to come back.

So like I said, a lot of mixed things have been said. I loved it. I consider it to be a tie for movie of 2009 with Up. And on a final note, everyone in the theatre gave a standing ovation if that means anything.

Not sure how long this is going to be up, but enjoy...