Film: Glorious "Inglorious Basterds"

The Monocle Review (Pictured Left)

The Screaming,

Monocle, Fedora,

and Rubber Chicken

Review

(Pictured Right)

*****

First off, I want to apologize for the late update. I got caught up in a trip to Boston and the update managed to slip my mind.

Also, thank you for all the feedback you have given me. I am getting a lot of suggestions for books and movies, and I now have a fair list of titles I am preparing to review. Please continue to support the blog through your suggestions. Thank You.

*****

Synopsis:

“Inglorius Basterds” is a compilation of five intertwined stories. The first chapter begins with a French Jew named Shosanna being discovered, and then escaping from, a German SS Officer named Col. Hans Landa. The second chapter centers around Lt. Aldo Raine, an American officer who builds a commando team of eight Jewish American soldiers known as “The Basterds.” His unit travels around Germany hunting and killings Nazis. The third chapter returns to Shosanna, revolving around her life years later in the city where she is the owner of a movie theater trying to find another life. The fourth chapter returns to The Basterds where they are enlisted to take part in an operation to assassinate Hitler. The fifth and final chapter of the movie is when the plan to assassinate Hitler is enacting, which happens to be taking place at the theater which Shosanna owns.

*****

Plot:

In terms of a story, Shoshanna’s tale had much more substance than that of the titled Bastreds. It told the tale of a young woman struggling not only to survive, but to learn to live in an environment where she is perpetually surrounded by her oppressors, living in constant fear of discovery.

The Basterd’s story, unfortunately, could be summarized by, ‘Killing Nazis because they’re Nazis.” There was virtually no attempt made to add any deeper meaning to their fight other than simple entertainment through violence.

Characters:

The characters in this movie were almost exclusively one-dimensional. The face most of the characters wore upon their introduction and the face they kept at the end of the film were identical. The only character to even undergo a moderate change was Fredrick Zoeller, a German war hero who spent much of the movie pining after Shosanna, and even his was an abrupt, and change with no foreshadowing change rather than a legitimate development.

Visual / Audio Effects:

This was both a strong and weak suit of the movie. The graphic effects were convincing; although I cannot say they were altogether necessary. Much of the visual effects were of Nazis being brutally mutilated and massacred. Heads being scalped, scars being carved in bodies, and bullets entering flesh…all were shown in great detail

The music in the film was strong, catchy, and memorable. It was well composed and fit the scenes nicely. The soundtrack was one of my favorite aspects of this movie.

Overall:

Overall, there was not a lot of depth to this movie. One aspect I did highly enjoy, was that the dialogue of the movie was all spoken in the native language of the countries the movie took place in. Most of the film was spoken in either German or French – English was used quite sparingly outside of the parts featuring the Basterds. However, this was not alone to salvage the film, which was more concerned with action and being more historically inaccurate than “300” than it was with being a movie of any actual substance.

2 / 5 Stars

*****

Plot:

This movie is awesome. What’s it about? It’s about beating Nazis to death with a god-damn baseball bat, that’s what. It’s also about shooting Nazis, stabbing Nazis, burning Nazis, and blowing up Nazis. If there’s a way to kill a Nazi, they do it. It rocks.

Characters:

Lt. Raine is awesome. First off, whenever someone talks to him they say his title and military titles are badass. He is also the top-man in the Basterds; who are the ones who do the majority of the Nazi-killing in the movie. Hans Landa is probably the coolest Nazi you will ever see. He’s pretty much chill with everyone, and is clever as hell. If he weren’t a Nazi, he would toally be a badass.

Most of the characters in the movie are badasses, actually (except Hitler. He sucks.) But everyone pretty much does something awesome at some point.

Visual / Audio Effects:

This movie looked pretty good. There weren’t many explosions, or anything like that, but you got to see exactly how they killed all the Nazis. They also showed you when the Basterds were scalping the Nazis’ heads, and that was pretty cool.

The music was awesome. The main theme to the movie was catchy as hell – it was also one of those songs that will get stuck in your head; but you don’t mind that it’s stuck in your head. It’s awesome.

Overall:

This movie rocks. It’s got action, it’s hilarious (there are tons of jokes in this thing too,) and the ending is awesome. If you haven’t seen this, you should.

4.5 / 5 Stars

*****

ANSWER TO MONDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

Q: How long before Octipus overthrow humans as the dominant species on earth?

“The Mayan apocalypse is undoubtedly going to be caused by an octopus god (Cthulu).” – Dan

“I thought banana slugs were the dominant species on earth.” – M

SATURDAY QUESTION OF THE WEEK:

What country do you think will be coming out of the Olympics with the most Gold medals?

What other movies do you want to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!