Last night I watched Quentin Tarantino's latest film Inglorious Basterds . I was both bored out of my mind, and excited on the edge of my seat. A few years ago I watched an episode of Iconoclasts, where Tarantino described his style as jerking the audience off. Throughout the years, I have watched him take this technique to the extreme. He likes to excite the audience and just before they "orgasm", he takes them back into a very serious/boring scene. This means that Tarantino has begun to just stretch up to 20 minutes of completely boring scenes into his movies. During these times, you know that THE MOMENT is coming. I usually like this kind of suspense, but his lasts so long, I find myself leaving the room to get myself a snack, yelling to Allan, "Just tell me if something good happens". Even worse than this is Tarantino's constant self-referencing within his own movies, the fact that he constantly referencing movies in general. In a movie like this, most (or at least myself) will not even know ANY of the references.
The actors were absolutely terrific in this film. Brad Pitt was not just an American he was THE American. He did not even have to speak to be hilarious. Personally, I love the moments where characters are introduced. He excelled at these. He also spread them through out the movie. Mélanie Laurent, a french actress, played the female lead. She was absolutely fabulous as a subservient yet feisty woman, who was able to show wonderful subtleties and varieties of expressions and moods. She was obviously Tarantino's replacement for the ugly/pretty Uma Thurman. I was personally, smitten with her odd and lovely face. I was overwhelmed by Christoph Waltz's performance as the main villain. He is an Austrian, and reviewing his history, until this, he has strictly starred in German movies. You not only hated this character, because of the vile things that he did. You hated the way that he ate food. You would not want this man to touch you with one finger. I could not ask for more.
Despite all this complaining, I ended up loving this movie. Every time I watch a Tarantino movie, I think he's not going to be able to redeem his boring parts until he does. And when he does, they are absolutely fantastic. I would not have wanted to watch this movie in the theater, because we found ourselves rewinding parts just to re-watch them probably at least 15 times. The violence and gore was perfect and did not disappoint. The dialogue was witty and written carefully and thoughtfully. Towards the end I had my fists clenched near my face in sheer suspense. I was completely emotionally invested in these characters.
I would absolutely recommend this movie to anyone who is not offended by subtitles or violence. The end of this movie absolutely gave me a cinematic orgasm.
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