Inglorious Basterds

To say that Quentin Tarantino makes eccentric films is an understatement. There's the stylish 80s looking film Pulp Fiction and the ninjaeqsue violence ridden Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2.

Inglorious Basterds was an ambitious project which supposedly had to star Leo di Caprio, Brad Pritt, Adam Sandler, and Nastassja Kinski. Unfortunately due to major scheduling conflicts we are only left with Mr. Jolie himself. This des not turn out that bad mainly because the smorgasbord of well knwon stars could have turned the attention from the story telling and the style oft he film.

The movie despite being set in World War II depicts more of a 60s western movie - a band of bandits (the Allies) unite on a common mission (to scalp as many Nazis as they can) and carry them out in a grotesque and at the same time weirdly funny way. The scalping of the heads reminded me of Legends of the Fall. The bat weilding Nazi hater who pummelled a guy to the ground brought back memories of Danny de Vitos death in Casino. And the marking of the schwastika on the head of freed captives (to tell the story of the basterds and spread fear) well had no flashbacking effect but still had the effect.

This movie has Tarantino's stamp all over. There were no intentionally funny lines but I had some grins here and there specially with the film within a film film, the guns under the table stand-off and the way Brad Pitt cooly addressed his men in the film early on, mainly due to too many Fight Club rewatchings. Even Hitler himself is sort of a caricature, world's apart from the Hitler in Valkyrie whom I found near accurate, but still this movie's Hitler makes me grin (maybe mostly due to the failed resemblance other than the stache).

The movie suceeds in creating a movie that transposts you to another time, and ask was this really made in 2009? And that is a good question by the way.