Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

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Inglourious Basterds (2009)


Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds is a prime example of an auteur's stamp on his movie. If you like Quentin you'll probably like this movie. If you don't like him, well then be prepared for a Quentinesque film.

Inglourious Basterds
is an 'alternative history' movie with a pulp comic book feel. Some of the scenes are ultra violent, with closeups of human scalping and brutality. Brad Pitt is good at delivering a believable southern accent without going over the top. To bad Christoph Waltz, who does play a mean Nazi with gusto, couldn't lose his British accent.

The filming technique looks great and Tarantino makes good use of wide angle lenses, but he over does the extreme facial close ups. An overly distracting soundtrack, made of an ecliptic collection of music styles...ranging from David Bowie to old Spaghetti Western Spanish Guitar, is used during the film, no doubt an homage to the 1978 Italian film of the same name.

Quentin obliviously thinks his audience is inattentive as text labels for the name of key Nazis are inserted into the film with an arrow pointing at the correct actor...just in case we weren't paying attention to who the Nazis were. Even more annoying is a rather lengthy voice over narrative, explaining to the viewer just how flammable old film nitrate stock is. It matters not that the characters have already discussed the flammability of nitrate film in laying out their attentions to burn down a building with top ranking Nazis in it.

The director repeats this behavior by showing us an unnecessary flash back of the lead actress, a Jewish girl, escaping the Nazis. But wait a minute the entire 1st act already showed us that very scene.

Inglourious Basterds had a great look and a good working script but Quentin killed it in post production. Turning the film into kitsch.




You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I watched Inglourious Basterds for the Movie Tournament recently, but all I really remember about it is that I didn't like it.

But I'm not a fan of Quentin Tarantino, and as always, I seem to be in the minority again.



See, occasionally, HK knows what he's talking about. TBF, I disliked it more than you because I found it dull and completely lacking in the dialogue department and I thought Christoph Waltz gave a horrible performance. Love 90's Tarantino, even the mess of a script that is From Dusk Till Dawn manages to work, mostly due to the performaces and the sheer audacity of the genre change which you go with because you're having fun However, with the exception of Death Proof, everything else has failed for me and, were I not such a fan of exploitation films, I doubt that would've worked for me, either.
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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I don't see how you can rate Monuments Men higher than Inglourious Basterds, but what do I know?
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Basterds was a little disappointing for me but I still think it was well above average. Even a lesser Tarantino movie has great moments with interesting characters and at least some terrific dialogue.



Oh Citizen, I don't even know what to say. Basterds had me hooked from the opening scene which I find to be one of the most intense I have ever seen. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course. Just remember if you agree with HK you will be on the wrong side of the argument more often than not.
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I've said it a million times. The script is better than the movie.



I've said it a million times. The script is better than the movie.
Factually incorrect statements don't need to be repeated Swan, especially that many times.



Have you read the script? It adds backstory to the characters.

I'm not dissing the movie. I like the movie.



I don't see how you can rate Monuments Men higher than Inglourious Basterds, but what do I know?
Mark that's a fair question.

I really don't like to rate movies as it's such a personal decision. But to answer you:

I found Monuments Men lacking in character and plot but I didn't have a grievance with it.

Inglourious Basterds made me mad at the waste of good film footage ruined by cheesy music score and cheesy word labels popping on the screen. But mostly I found the retelling of what I was just told, maddening. It was a dumbing down of the movie. I think us movie watchers are smarter than Quentin believes we are.



Have you read the script? It adds backstory to the characters.

I'm not dissing the movie. I like the movie.
No, I don't think I have ever just read a script. I am not sure how much I would enjoy that. Also, I know just horsing around.



No, I don't think I have ever just read a script. I am not sure how much I would enjoy that. Also, I know just horsing around.
No worries. It's a good script. If you ever get into scripts, check it out.



See, occasionally, HK knows what he's talking about.
You called it right with your comic book comment. And see, I paid homage to you by using 'comic' in my review.

Basterds had me hooked from the opening scene which I find to be one of the most intense I have ever seen.
I would agree with you. I never found it boring or slow. In fact if the post production stuff had been handled differently I would have really liked it. Well except for the rewriting history of WWII. Not sure where I stand with that.

I think the script was tight for the most part. No complaints there.



I never really thought of the things you talked about as dumbing down. Of all your points that may be the one I could get on board with. As for rewriting history, I have never got that argument. Tarantino is not presenting history. He is presenting a fantasy set during WWII. I always love Tarantino's music choices. It is one of those things I would not want every director to do but it always works as part of his aesthetic.



A good example of over explaining or 'dumbing down' to the audience is in Act 1. The Gestapo officer, Col. Landa is speaking French with the farmer. So the director wants to switch to English for the audiences sake. Which is common and understandable.

Most directors would have used a one or two line transition to make sense of why they start speaking English. An example might be like: " Oh, but my French is poor, may we converse in English?"

But Quentin took the long way around, he must have taken a couple minutes of dialogue just to say, 'let's speak English.'

In itself it would be no big deal but he repeated the over explaining to a number of times. Especially with the VO explanation of the nitrate film.

But don't get me wrong. I didn't say it was a lame movie, in fact I said those who like Tarantino's style should like it. He nailed it, for what he wanted to do. But for me that's not what I wanted to see.



Swiss Family Robinson


Walt Disney Production...1960
Ken Annakin...Director

Starring: John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet Munro, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran

Shooting Location: Tobago, Caribbean


Swiss Family Robinson is the quintessential Disney movie made during the years when Walt Disney himself headed production. Walt was very enthusiastic about making this film and ear marked a large budget for this expensive extravagance.

Most of the film was shot on location on the Caribbean island of Tobago. Not an easy task in 1960 as the island had little infrastructure and most everything had to be imported for the crew. Some of the most elaborate sets ever built by Disney are in this film. Including a full scale build up of a wrecked sailing ship, built on the islands reef. And a very cool, multi layer tree house, built in one very big tree. The tree house was latter recreated as an attraction at Disney Land.

The Disney version of the classic 1812 novel bears little resembles to the book. Walt Disney started production in a unique way, by asking a question of the writers, 'What neat stuff should be on a tropical island?' The writers came up with pirates, wild animals, a tree house, a swamp with a large snake, sibling rivalry, a pretty girl and family togetherness. They then story boarded the movie and finally wrote the script from the story boards.

George Lucas loved Swiss Family Robinson so much that he named a famous Star Wars character after the director.

So was the movie any good...Yes! It's interesting with many different adventures happening to the castaways, good characters played by skilled actors. All done in a G rated family fun, Disney style.




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Absolutely loved Swiss Family when I was a kid. I have seen it so much I don't know that I will ever revisit it. It would be interesting to see how adult me feels about it though because I no longer consider it a favorite.