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"Inglourious Basterds"

I bought the DVD, never having seen the film, based purely upon my admiration of what Quentin Tarantino does.

Arguably, Tarantino pictures are a great deal like Bond pictures---at least in the sense that they exist in their own sort of isolated reality---so perhaps they're not completely answerable to all of the rules and demands of the film medium as a whole.  I've not seen his "Grindhouse" movie ('Death Proof?'), simply because the premise of aping B-grade drive-in pictures doesn't interest me...but other than that, I've been a fan of everything else he's done.  I'll freely acknowledge that (particularly here) he's got as many detractors as he has admirers, and I can well understand that 

All the above being said, I'm enough of a traditionalist in my tastes, particularly with regard to WWII pictures, that it took me a second viewing of IB before I felt confident in attempting to articulate an opinion.  Tarantino has said that he wrote the first two scenes (or "chapters") ten years ago.  As a writer, I can certainly see that, since he's read enough press about himself in the intervening ten years to feel emboldened to take the film he probably intended to write, ten years ago, and feed the material through a wood-chipper.  One can only wonder what the film might have looked like nine years ago...but now, it is what it is---and what it is, is demented...fantasical...over the top...and ultimately quite exhilarating.  Again, as with the Bonds (since I often lament that there is no real James Bond for this grim 21st Century), one might wish that such a thing as that which is depicted in Act 3 of IG could have actually happened.  Think of the lives that might have been saved...

Okay---that's as serious as this review deserves to be.  This is a WWII commando flick, by a film geek, for film geeks---with a disregard for actual history that mirrors Warner Bros. cartoon director Chuck Jones' disregard for the laws of physics.  I love what Tarantino does with chronological order, flashbacks, the occasional over-long scene, and the lingering shot.  His heavy use of title cards reflects some sort of need to send little love letters to his audience, the way kids pass notes in a classroom.  Tarantino refuses to grow up...and I dread the inevitable day when he will.

Incredible work from the cast: Melanie Laurent, as Shoshanna, the Jewish survivor of the massacre of her family at the hands of the reptilian Colonel Landa (the riveting Christoph Waltz), is not only lovely but deserving of consideration by Eon for a role in a Bond film.  Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raines is one of the most distinctive and great roles of his career ('Bon-JOR-no!').  Mike Myers, Rod Taylor and a host of unknown German and French actors give remarkable performances.  Yes, some of the shots are visceral and gratuitous.  No, this film isn't for everyone---maybe not even for all Tarantino fans.

But I loved it, and recommend it.  See it TWICE. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Last edited by Loeffelholz (1st Feb 2010 00:20)

Cheers, Barrry...

(trivia time), Maid Marian's steed was later adopted by some fellow named Roy Rogers.

New name, "Trigger!"

The original Rollerball had Maude Adams of Golden Gun and OP fame. It was said she and Caan actually had sex on film, which she was miffed about but it did the box office no harm.

Quo Vadis

I'm following Roman history by renting DVDs, for instance HBO's Rome mini-series, which deals with Caeser's seizing of Rome and civil war against Pompey (currently facing relegation if it can't get its money sorted out ), then I, Claudius which ends 50AD ish, now Quo Vadis which picks up with the story of Nero, played here by Peter Ustinov.

Ustinov is great, he chomps up the scenery. Much of it foreshadows I Claudius in that the villain's allies try to steer him on the right track of morality, only to find it can just as easily backfire and blow up in your face.

That said, I had a hard time getting into it as Rod Taylor, who plays a Centaurian general, is such a gee-whizz Mad Men generation American, it's hard to see him as a Roman. Though of course, we don't really know what accent the Romans had. Deborah Kerr is all tremulous and not especially sexy, in a way that foreshadows her role in Black Narcissus I suppose. It's odd how the sexual banter and Taylor's predatory maleness gets a bad rap in contrast to other movies, but accusing Quo Vadis of being Christian propoganda is a bit like the bloke who complains that Christmas would be better without the religious hymns... Still, all the romantic subplots seems a bit sappy and devoid of reason as if to imply that love should be better directed at God himself.
It gets better, esp if you listen to the commentary as some point. It turns out that John Huston was set to be the director but dropped out to do The Asphalt Jungle. He had it in mind to draw parallels with the Second World War, with Taylor as the American returning from three years away, and the Roman Empire being the Nazis, with a few Heil Hitler gestures towards the Emperor.

Ustinov was set to be Nero but bosses were wary because at 28 he was too young. He replied, okay, but don't leave it too long or I'll be too old - Nero died aged 32! There are other good tidbits on the commentary and I have to say the movie got more harrowing towards the end, with the lions entering the arena. This is epic enough, with 30,000 extras for some scenes! The burning of Rome is spectacle indeed.

Last edited by Napoleon Plural (5th Feb 2010 17:06)

I must admit that with all those Roman set-pieces and the witchy Poppaea, for the first half hour I was grumpily thinking, "Well, this could have been a great porn movie that intead's gone to waste..." arguably not in keeping with the Christian sentiment.

Perhaps wooden Taylor was picked in homage to the son of a carpenter.

It is an interesting backstory. Have you heard the commentary Alex? If not I recommend it. Though the Christian stuff now is a bit heavyhanded, at the time it was thought not to lay it on for fear of offending non-believers, though I guess they don't mean agnostics but Jews, who were prevalent in Hollywood and would be behind a lot of these Christian epics, ironically.

A lot of the actors have a backstory too. Peck was going to play the Taylor part, (Liz) Taylor was going to play the Kerr part (presumably, I think she might have been Petronious' floozy). Petronious was a role model for Gore Vidal thanks to his writings and he'd been

And Leo Genn had a leading role in WW2 helping the French Resistance, for which he was honoured. In many ways I enjoyed the commentary more than the film.

District 9.  Now, this is 2009's best science fiction film, not the entertaining but vastly overrated Avatar.  By setting the film in South Africa, the racial parallel is automatically made more complicated: you see the aliens (who may not be all that innocent) on the receiving end of abuses from human races who themselves have been abused.  It simply makes you wonder what everyone's limits really are.  The special effects are awesome, and one element came as a complete surprise: this movie is funny.  This gets the Hardyboy Seal of Approval.

High School Confidential (1958)

This movie, aimed at the newly christened and still rising Rock & Roll movement, starts off with a bang. Under the title credits a flat bed truck arrives, carrying Jerry Lee Lewis whilst he belts out "High School Hop" to a gathering of admirers. Once the song is over, we're introduced to Tony Baker, (Russ Tamblyn, West Side Story), a newly arrived student who has a serious problem with authority figures. From day one Tony aims his sights on becoming head of the "Wheelers & Dealers" gang. Currently run by John Drew Barrymoore. (father of Drew)

Ok. So what we have here is a teen film that begins as an exploition Rock & Roll drive in programmer , then shifts gears into a response to the rising teen drug problem.  It's filled with a mixure of both early and late 50s slang. (Beatnik & R&R)

Jackie Coogan (Uncle Festur from the Adams family), is "Mr. A", who deals in heroin and is a most unscrupulous b@stard. Addicting girls and then cutting their supply. Unless they agree to work in his "escort service" that is.

There's a rather eye raising incestous angle. Tony has an Aunt whose amorous advances he's constantly fending off. I'm not sure why this part was included but since it's 50s pin up girl Mamie Van Doren in a torpedo sweater I'm not complaining.

Michael Landon has a small role as the leader of a nicer gang called the "Rangers". Their stock in trade is automobiles and not "Reefers"

Watch it for the "Daddio" and "Crazy" slang. For the vintage hot rod dragging, and for Mamie Van Doren!

Son of Frankenstein

This means not the son of the Monster of course, but that of Baron Frankenstein, the scientist - this is a misconception among many truly stupid people. 

Loeffs advised me to watch this ahead of Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks spoof that duly turned up on my doormat this morning.

Son of... has a reputation as being the worst of them so far, but it's not bad at all. It has eerie Fritz Lang-style sets: all angled walls and dark shadows. Indeed, the director is namechecked in the film as subordinate characters have names Fritz and Lang.

It starts off promisingly but snags appear. Basil Rathbone plays the son and he's always good value, but why is he only now returning to claim his heritage? Maybe he's at that time of life, with a wife and kid, and wants to settle down. But he travels by 1930s-style car from the station to the castle; now if the first two were set in Victorian times, surely the time line is out of whack? Worst of all, his scientist father's actions in bringing a corpse to life are well known; well if that's the case, he would be celebrated and feted and other scientist would have carried on his life's work, as science waits for no man. Such an amazing discovery would not have been just overlooked.

It would have been better to have it so his father was regarded widely as a fraudster, a con man and medical quack who conned the gullible village locals and murdered them himself, making his son's efforts in the medical world impossible. That would explain Rathbone's retreat to his home town in sour defeat, along with he realisation, upon stumbling across his father's notes, that this is a chance to redeem his reputation and go from zero to hero in one fell swoop.

As it is, Rathbone's conviction to take on his father's work seems to come out of nowhere and the first 45 minutes is quite predictable and tedious. It picks up when the Monster arrives, and gets very good, mainly thanks to the social tension between Frankenstein and the suspicious local inspector and also his creepy (in)subordinate Ygor. Ultimately I enjoyed this more than the second one, though it lacks the eerie, bucolic Hansel and Gretyl menace.

Last edited by Napoleon Plural (12th Feb 2010 16:25)

Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

1974 spoof of the Boris Karloff flicks from 40 years earlier. It does indeed lean heavily on Son of Frankenstein, in particular the suspicions of the locals and the German police inspector with the metal arm. Marty Feldman is great in it, a better Ygor than the official ones imo. The lead is Gene Wilder, but for some reason I didn't find him or the film quite as funny as I ought bearing in mind you can put Laurel and Hardy in a haunted house and I'm all yours. Wilder is better as a rueful, sidelong, nervous observor than the main driving force of a movie as he is here, just my opinion mind. Brooks has the look of the movie down to a t but the scene I liked best overall may be the spoof from Bride of... when the Monster meets the blind hermit and comes a cropper.

That said, the Monster didn't look like Karloff's Monster really, was that for copywrite reasons I wonder?

I'm looking forward to that one- an interesting point is that in the original there is not one shot of the moon (fairly critical in the story though it is...)

Blazing Saddles...

What a fun film to watch! I had seen it as a kid and didn't REALLY get any of the jokes like I do now as an adult. I think my favorite part is when Madeline Kahn (as Lila Von Schtupp) comes out in this fabulous lingerie garb and sings "Tired". A true comedianne!

District 9

Producer Peter Jackson and Director Neill Blomcamp give us a fresh take on the aliens have come to earth storyline, having the aliens initially accepted by human society then relegated to slum rats that the local town people want removed.  Using something of a documentary style, the story is told through the various scientists, news reporters, and civilians involved with the aliens.  The key character in the film is Wikus Van De Merwe played by Sharlto Copley, WIkus is a Government employee charged with heading up the movement of the aliens from their temporary shanty town in Johannesburg to a new location outside the city.  While inspecting an alien home he has an unfortunate incident and his view of the aliens will never be the same.

I know this film was well reviewed and has many fans, but I was underwhelmed.  I don't think the film is as original as some have stated, as various parts of this film reminded of other films such as Transformers, Starship Troopers, and Aliens.  The storyline of a group of people, in this case aliens, being forced to live in a segregated area has many parallels to events that have occurred throughout history, but because we never learn much about the aliens, other than to see them jumping up and down and running, until the final third act, I had no feelings for the aliens.  The civilians were also in some ways cartoon like, we really get little backgrounds story on them, instead we are given stereo-typical tough no nonsense mercenaries that enjoy killing too much and government bureaucrats that want the alien problem to go away.  I also thought the look of the film, because it is told as something of a documentary, took away from the film.

Although I know most folks liked it, I can't recommend.

Mama look a boo-boo!