So I went to see Inglorious Basterds over the weekend with a few friends and had the GREAT displeasure of sitting behind 6 French Canadians that talked loudly from the time the lights dimmed until the credits rolled. More on that later.
Inglorious Basterds is Tarantino’s 7th stint as director (counting Kill Bill 1 and 2 as one film) and is arguably his best since Pulp Fiction. This film is not for everyone as it is not action oriented. It is extremely story centered and as such relies on dialogue to progress the story and most of that is subtitled. So again, not everyone is going to really get into this one. I hope I am wrong, but generally American’s don’t like to read their movies. Another thing to be aware of is this is NOT a typical war movie. It is Quentin’s nod to Spaghetti Westerns via WWII imagery. That being said, this is one phenomenal piece of cinematic brilliance. Tarantino has a way of telling a story that quite literally draws you in.
Basterds opens with a man chopping wood on a lush green French country side, his little farmhouse in the back drop. The camera pulls back and reveals a few Gestapo driving up the path to the house. In that moment, from the steady chopping of the wood to the long drive up the road, Tarantino injects so much tension and it just continues to build through the entire 1st chapter and culminates in typical Tarantino fashion. The problem I had personally with this movie as with most of Quentin’s (i.e Kill Bill and 4 Rooms) is that Tarantino builds and develops this WWII universe and only let’s us live in it for a short period of time. I want to see more of the Basterds kicking ass, I want to know more about Shosanna (Melanie Laurent).
Now for the quote of the movie. I was told later it was when I leaned forward and very loudly asked, “What is the French word for “Shut the fuck up?” To all the people out there that take the time to read these little snippets of movie review I want to say thank you. I also want to impart a little cinema etiquette to you. If you are ever at the theatre and people are bothering you with their loud talking, feel free to speak up. After all they are already talking so it’s not like you are ruining the movie for them. You paid a lot of money to enjoy yourself. Plus, total strangers may actually cheer you afterwards.
…anything. In fact it fails to do anything but blow stuff up and basically take what is arguably one of Marvel’s best characters and totally screw him up. Yeah, great it was entertaining in the fact that we get to see Wolverine destroying things and fighting. And Gambit was a nice touch, but all in all this movie should have been titled “Marvel Orgins: Adamantium” since there was more attention paid to how the metal was discovered and how it was grafted to Logan’s skeleton than anything else.
“In the comics series the character grows into manhood on a mining colony in Northern Alberta, adopting the name "Logan".[17] Logan leaves the colony and lives for a time in the wilderness among wolves, until returning to civilization, residing with the Blackfoot Indians. Following the death of his Blackfoot paramour, Silver Fox, he is ushered into a Canadian military unit. Logan then spends some time in Madripoor, before settling in Japan, where he marries and has a son.” (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comics)) Which is how I remember it.
I am going to leave this post with a quote from Roger Ebert and Harry Knowles (both of which totally agree with me. HA HA) : “At least, you hope, he has an interesting vulnerability? I’m sure X-Men scholars can tell you what it is, although since he has the gift of instant healing, it’s hard to pinpoint. When a man can leap from an exploding truck, cling to an attacking helicopter, slice the rotor blades, ride it to the ground, leap free and walk away (in that ancient cliche where there’s a fiery explosion behind him but he doesn’t seem to notice it), here’s what I think: Why should I care about this guy? He feels no pain and nothing can kill him, so therefore he’s essentially a story device for action sequences.” –Roger Ebert (click the name to read his review)
“This is an action figure movie. A slurpee cup flick, where it’s far more important to just have the characters do something eye-popping, not actually human. Oh sure, these are not humans, they’re mutants… and apparently the mutant power they all have is the ability to make me not give a shit. BUT, I do give a shit, because I’ve been reading comics since I learned to read. “ –Harry Knowles (click the name to read his review)
April • Case 39 (Par.) – 4/10
• Dragonball (Fox) – 4/10
• Old Dogs (BV) – 4/10
• Crank 2 (LGF) – 4/17 May • The Hannah Montana Movie (BV) – 5/1
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) – 5/1
• Star Trek (Par.) – 5/8
• Angels & Demons (Sony) – 5/15
• Bruno (Uni.) – 5/15
• Night at the Museum II: Escape from the Smithsonian (Fox) – 5/22
• Terminator Salvation (WB) – 5/22
• Up (BV) – 5/29 June • The Fast and the Furious 4 (Uni.) – 6/5
• The A-Team (Fox) – 6/12 (PUSH 2010)
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (BV) – 6/19 (PUSH 2010)
• Year One (Sony) – 6/19
• Transformers 2 (P/DW) – 6/26 July
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Fox) – 7/1
• 2012 (Sony) – 7/10
• Land of the Lost (Uni.) – 7/17
• G-Force (BV) – 7/24 (*This is not Science Ninja Team Gatchaman aka Battle of the Planets)
• Piranha 3D (W/Dim.) – 7/24
• Planet 51 (NL) – 7/24
• The Taking of Pelham 123 (Sony) – 7/31 August • G.I. Joe (Par.) – 8/7
• District 9 (SGem) – 8/14
• Rob Zombie’s Tyrannosaurus Rex (W/Dim.) – 8/28 September
• Hotel Transylvania (Sony) – 9/25
• The Proposal (BV) – 9/25 October • Shutter Island (Par.) – 10/2
• Toy Story (3D) (BV) – 10/2
• Where the Wild Things Are (WB) – 10/16 November • A Christmas Carol (2009) (BV) – 11/6
• The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox) – 11/6
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Fox) – 11/13
• Surrogates (BV) – 11/20 December • Avatar (Fox) – 12/18
So going back to my very first post on this blog. I did in fact purchase the HUGE box set of Blade Runner to go along with my original box set. I think this picture will give you a great idea of what all is included. I also have the original box set and it has a few things this one lacked.
With the old box set you got: “Director’s Cut” DVD of the film; 8 original lobby card prints; exclusive limited edition image from the movie and 35mm film frame; original 27″ x 40″ movie poster; original shooting draft script. The best part of that was the actual 35mm film frame. The new set finally gives me the original release with the voice over that everyone seems to hate. I like the “Director’s Cut” because it’s grittier reality, but I have always liked those Film Noir type movies where we get to hear the detective’s thought process. Plus I saw the original in the theatre when I was 12 and it will always make me think of my child hood. I guess it’s the equivalent of Star Wars before Han started shooting first. It’s still Star Wars but it’s just not the same.
Remember when Keanu Reeves received that Fed-Ex package with the phone in the Matrix? The otherworldly voice of Morpheus on the other end telling our reluctant hero Mr. Anderson exactly what to do and when to do it. That was really cool back in 1999 right, for exactly 3 minutes. Well apparently D.J. Caruso and his writers (John Glenn, Travis Adam Wright, Hillary Seitz and Dan McDermott) thought it would be awesome to stretch that scene out for 118 minutes. I know it sounds preposterous but that is exactly how Eagle Eye feels. Don’t believe me?
Here is a picture of Mr. Anderson’s interrogation scene.
and here is a picture of Jerry Damon Shaw(a.k.a Shia LeBeouf) I think Shia is wearing Keanu’s exact shirt in an effort to really nail the “Feel of the scene.
I would go on to compare Agent Smith to Agent Morgan but I think you get the picture. I could do like all the other movie review site and give you a scene by scene breakdown, but I respect your time to much. And seriously who reads all that stuff anyway? I will save you some time and give you the bullet points.
Clueless Hero with nothing to lose? CHECK
Upwardly mobile single mom with cute adolescent offspring? CHECK
Weak Ass Plot? CHECK
2 hours free time and a couple million dollars to throw away? CHECK and CHECK
BOMB? CHECK and I ain’t just talking about the explosive here.
Overall this movie was laughable. All that being said it was very entertaining from the standpoint of I like to see things get blown up and tore down and there really is ton of action to be seen, but you’d do well to wait for the DVD on this one.
I give it a 2 out of 5. Think of the original Matrix as a solid 4.8.
I saw Juno when it first came out, but just never got around to writing up anything about it. Now I regret not taking the time to at least throw something down. I really liked this movie. The story touches on some pretty strong subject matter and handles it with wit and a sort of naive adolescent charm that works.
I think the main thing I like about this movie is the writing. The past several movies I have seen have just left me wanting. Cloverfield was absolute garbage, Vantage Point was gimmicky with a shred of a story thrown in for flavor.
This is Diablo Cody’s first stint at screenwriting and she is following it up quickly with a series for Showtime based on a Speilberg idea(and it sounds pretty interesting). She also wrote Girley Style and Jennifer’s Body which she sold to Universal and Atomic respectively.
The DVD for Juno just recently hit the streets and I picked up the 2 Disc set (I mean really, why else buy a DVD but for all the little extras.)
I need to add more to this but it’s 3 in the morning in my world and I need to get some damn sleep.
This Movie is just a little over a week away now and I must say I am finally anticipating going to the theater
again. Yeah I want to see Harold and Kumar2. Yeah I want to see Ben Stein: Expelled. Hell, I even want to see Ellen Page’s new flick (but that’s different story). The past several movies I have seen have been flat and devoid of any real content (except Juno and again that’s a different story). But I digress.
The main reason I want to see this movie is because Robert Downey Jr. is in it and he is one of my favorite thespians. I think he’s one of the most under-rated actors around and he is always catching flak for being an addict. The last movies I saw him in were A Scanner Darkly(which I recommend, but be forewarned it’srotoscoped) and Zodiac. I wanted to see Charlie Bartlett but just never got motivated enough to go see it.
So it looks to be promising, I just hope they haven’t killed it with all the hype….but we shall see. May 2nd, 2008
….but we all wish they would. Like a bad case of acid reflux Sly just keeps coming back, and like reflux it’s aggravating and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. WHY?!??!?!?!?! Why dig up these fossils? Has Hollywood completely run out of ideas?
Did Sly think that Rambo could withstand the same resurrection Rocky did? First of all Rocky won an Oscar and was a hell of a lot more developed as a character than the monosyllabic John J. Don’t misunderstand me here, I loved First Blood. Hell, I still watch it occasionally. But what makes First Blood work is that the writer’s understood one vital thing and kept Sly’s dialogue to less than 100 words in a two hour time span. It worked; it was beautiful. Right up until the end when he starts blubbering about fast cars and shoe shines, but before he can get to far into it Colonel Troutman comes in and saves him again. Where was Colonel Troutman in Rambo 4? At home thanking God in heaven above that he wasn’t being laughed at.
The whole premise of the movie is just flawed. A group of missionaries come to Burma and try to hire Rambo to take them to a camp up river. Rambo says no. That should have been the end of the movie. Thank you can I have my $7.50, oh to hell with it keep the money I just want my time back. BUT NO…….The girl who is with these missionaries throws out some trite speech about duty and Rambo says "NO, go home" (I should have listened). Then we cut to Rambo asleep which was the best part of the movie IMHO….no no not because here was finally some believable acting, but because of the flash back to better movies, I mean earlier times in Rambo’s life. Then he wakes up and goes outside and the female missionary is waiting in the rain. She spits out a cliche, then Rambo in an attempt to one up her spits out another cheesy cliche and the battle of shitty acting ensues and finally Sly agrees to escort the group. It’s all completely ridiculous. The first mortar to hit the camp is probably one of the better parts of the movie after that it just goes downhill.
If you must see this film then you will want to get used to this picture, it’s seriously like 20 to 30 minutes of the movie. If you want to feel like you are actually in the movie with Rambo invite a friend over to sing some stupid songs while you ask the picture of Stallone "What the fuck are you looking at, boatman?" in an english accent.
All that being said the movie is entertaining for the simple fact that it is mindless violence, but do your self a favor. Download it off the interWebs….I mean wait for it to hit DvD which shouldn’t be too long of a wait.
If you must see this film then you will want to get used to this picture, it’s seriously like 20 to 30 minutes of the movie. If you want to feel like you are actually in the movie with Rambo invite a friend over to sing some stupid songs while you ask the picture of Stallone "What the fuck are you looking at, boatman?" in an english accent. 
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