[MINI REVIEW + DIRECTOR FIGHT] Inglourious Basterds

[pinback]

Inglourious Basterds begins in brilliant Tarantino style, with a long, drawn out, very quiet scene where the dialogue carries the show, the tension building throughout, until you can't barely take it anymore, and it explodes in a blast of horrific violence. At this point, I'm giving it four (****) stars.

But then the movie does a weird thing, for a Tarantino movie: It does the same thing, over and over again. For two and a half hours.

Each individual scene, if it had started the movie, would be golden. Always, a scene of implied danger and paranoia, and always, the witty (largely subtitled) banter continues, and the danger piles up with every word, and the tension mounts and mounts, until WHAMMO!

But they're not all the first scene. They all come in a row. And at some point, even though you're enjoying the scene, you realize you've been watching people build tension through dialogue for nigh-on two hours now, and is anything ever really gonna happen?

It does, finally, in a great climactic scene, and overall, I have to say I was entertained and intrigued throughout, but damn, it just didn't quite snap for me, as a whole. I'd call this movie Tarantino's "Benjamin Button" -- As with Fincher, even when he missteps, it's interesting. But yeah. Can't... can't give this one full marks quite yet.

THREE (***) STARS.

Now, it's time for DIRECTOR FIGHT.

Tarantino himself has said that Paul Thomas Anderson is his biggest filmmaking bud, and they sort of have an implied competition between them to outdo the other. Each now has made five films (I'm combining the Kill Bills, as God intended). Let's see WHO IS WINNING:

ROUND 1
Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs
Anderson: Hard Eight/Sydney

Hard Eight was great, a quiet first step into the director's Hall of Fame for PTA. But Dogs was a bombastic, hilarious, super-cool, awesome launch into it, and I watched it a million times, and is an all-time classic.

WINNER: TARANTINO

ROUND 2
Tarantino: Pulp Fiction
Anderson: Boogie Nights

Both came into their own with these sophomore efforts, and although Pulp Fiction got more cred for getting the Oscar nomination, both have become classics to the same extent. To pick one is to be unfair to the other.

WINNER: NONE

ROUND 3
Tarantino: Jackie Brown
Anderson: Magnolia

I liked Jackie Brown. You don't hear much about Jackie Brown, though. Of course, you don't hear much about Magnolia either, except for me constantly trying to explain to you that it's the greatest movie ever made.

WINNER: PTA

ROUND 4
Tarantino: Kill Bill
Anderson: Punch-Drunk Love

Here's where I have to try really hard to keep my personal bias from coming into the picture. I think PDL is an unbelievably, perfect, awesome movie. I think Kill Bill is less perfect, but also unbelievably awesome, and huge, and entertaining from the first frame to the last. So while I know if I could only get to see one of them for the rest of my life, I'd go PDL, I can tell which way the wind blows.

WINNER: TARANTINO

ROUND 5
Tarantino: Inglourious Basterds
Anderson: There Will Be Blood

I was rooting for another neck-and-neck contest, but at about the 1 hour 45 mark of Basterds, I would have killed for Daniel Plainview to have rumbled onscreen and beat Hitler to death with a fucking bowling pin.

WINNER: PTA

FINAL SCORE: TARANTINO: 2.5, ANDERSON: 2.5

This is a fun battle, I do hope it continues for years and years.

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It's been pointed out to me that I forgot about Death Proof, which doesn't totally count I think, in the same way the Kick the Can part of Twilight Zone The Movie doesn't really count towards Spielberg's score.

But okay, let's be complete here:

ROUND X
Tarantino: Death Proof
Anderson: ...

Alright, here we've got a decision to make. What else do we have from PTA's ouevre to put up against Death Proof?

The natural choice would be A Prairie Home Companion, which technically is a Robert Altman film, but Altman was dying while he was making the fucking thing, so he brought in PTA, his protege, to man the director's chair while he was busy kicking the goddamn bucket. So APHC is almost sorta half of a PTA movie, which would be fitting, since Death Proof was originally half of what you paid to see if you went to Grindhouse.

That seems fitting.

But no. Fuck it.

Tarantino: Death Proof
Anderson:

Jonsey thinks Death Proof is the worst movie of all time. Jonsey would likely say that the Mattress Man commercial is NOT the worst movie of all time, so on the Jonsey scale, this is an easy call. However, things are a little more complicated in Pinback Land. On the one hand, you have Kurt Russell skating through about fifteen different film styles, including one really boring one where those bitches sit around and talk about nothing for a half hour. On the other hand, you have Hoffman bouncing onto the fucking pavement.

I can't decide.

WINNER: NONE

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This is a fascinating thread. I'd like to watch Inglorious Basterds (sp) but I said that I wouldn't watch any QT for 10 years, after Death Proof. I can't remember when that was released. I did start the time from the day it hit the theater, not the day I saw it. That was nice of me. I'm, after all, a liker.

But yeah, worst movies I've ever seen:

1) Death Proof
2) The Japanese version of ... whatever the fuck the Japanese ghost movie is where the baby ghost has a grudge.

[Tdarcos]

Jonsey thinks Death Proof is the worst movie of all time.

Personally as far as the ones I've seen I'd say The Groove Tube for pure gross-out effect; I actually liked Death Proof, although my sister walked out of the living room after about 30 seconds of Grindhouse, it was too sick for her. I don't remember which half she walked out on, it might have been Planet Terror.

I've heard that the general consensus - I haven't watched either - would award worst film to Ishtar or Showgirls, or possibly Guccione's Caligula, with Roger Ebert saying, "It is not good art, and it's not even good enough to be bad porn."

[Tdarcos]

This is a fascinating thread. I'd like to watch Inglorious Basterds (sp)

He heard some people say, "There he is!" excitedly. It did not sound like the anger of a mob, but Supervisor 246 never takes chances, he always leaves his Immunity from Assault privilege enabled except when alone with people he trusts. Someone walks up to him. "246, you have got to see this," and points over toward a different row. He walks over to where a man is holding a sign that reads "SUPERVISOR 246 IS A RACIST SKINHEAD BASTERD WHO DESERVES TO BE STRUNG UP BY HIS BALLS."

246 walks up to the man and looks at him as if he is angry. In a rather harsh tone he says to the man, "Young man, what is your name?"

"Ralph 30445"

He looks at Ralph for a few minutes, studying him and his sign. Apparently doing a slow burn, or so it seems, he finally says, again in a harsh tone, "Ralph, give me your sign, now, please."

The man smiles. "No. What you going to do about it?"

"If you do not give me your sign I'll hire people to stand on every square near you holding a sign pointing at you that says ‘That man, Ralph 30445, is an incompetent fool who does not know what he is doing, ask me why.' and they'll be able to tell people exactly why if they can't figure it out. Now hand me your sign, now, please."

While this is happening, a man with a video camera was recording the whole thing. Ralph decides to hand 246 his sign.

246's tone returns to normal. "Thank you, Ralph. I see you have a marker there. Would you hand it to me, please?" The man does so.

246 makes some marks on the sign, and hands it back to the man. "Here's your sign and your marker back, thank you. Next time, spell the word ‘bastard' correctly as I have done on your sign and people won't think you're stupid, okay?"

The man stands there, clearly not happy that 246 wasn't upset. "But, I thought it was spelled right, and I figured you'd get mad and tear up this sign."

"Well, First I intend to have a serious talking to Quentin Tarantino when he shows up here. "
- Paul Robinson's, "Instrument of God"

[Flack]

But yeah, worst movies I've ever seen:

I assume you mean "worst movies that other people think were good" or "worst movies that I didn't think would be bad"? Because I have at least 500 movies that are indisputably worse than those.

Death Proof might seem bad until you've sat through Nekromantik or Zombie Women of Satan or Werewolf in a Women's Prison a few times. Then you'll be praising Death Proof.