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Inglourious Basterds – Review

Inglourious Basterds – Review

It’s been a long time coming, and here it finally is: my Inglourious Basterds review.

Very (in my opinion) minor spoilers throughout (though I don’t know your level of paranoia so don’t hold me responsible if you feel spoiled).

First, some comments about the extremely poor marketing made for this film.

The official description of the movie is something akin to “a bunch of American soldiers go on a rampage by scalping a few hundred Nazis in France during the WW2 Occupation.”
Newsflash: this is not at all what the movie is about.
I haven’t seen a title this misleading since Epic Movie.

Truth is, the film doesn’t really center on the self-proclaimed “Inglourious Basterds”, nor Brad Pitt really.
Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, and perhaps even Diane Kruger, have more screen-time than Pitt.

The trailer also kinda shows you almost all the action in the movie.
I think there was like 10ish minutes of Nazi-killing tops.
That out of a 2h40 movie (the version that will come out in theathers should be around 2h).

Basically, this film is a talkie. And I mean really.
It’s more Kill Bill: Volume 2 than Kill Bill: Volume 1 if you know what I’m talking about.
Expect lots of (I thought great) dialogue throughout.
Some ran a tad long, although I believe this problem will be fixed for the official release.
If you don’t like Tarantino dialogue, this movie isn’t for you.

If you don’t like subtitles, this movie isn’t for you either.
Indeed, I would guess about 70% or more of the film is not in English, rather in German or in French.

I’m sure some of you have read the leaked script from last year, so you might already know that the film is divided into 5 chapters:
1) Once Upon a Time… in Nazi-Occupied France
2) Inglorious Basterds
3) German Night in Paris
4) Operation Kino
5) Revenge of the Giant Face

There are descriptions of each chapter on the web if you’re interested, although the names are already pretty self-explanatory (except maybe the last one or three).

Again, the Basterds are overall a minor part of the plot, and serve more as some big Deus Ex Machina than anything else.
We get to meet them in the second chapter, but their reign of terror is already established.
One might expect the movie to be about how they had achieved such a scare-inducing presence amongst the Nazis, or show them arriving in France and all that.
Turns out, not at all.

On the other hand, what is strongly present is the amount of meta jokes in the movie.
At one point in the film (won’t say when), a French and a German are talking, and the German says: “I ask your permission to switch to English for the remainder of the conversation.”
Also, you’ve probably heard of the final line of the movie.
If not, I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice to say it has a very strong meta-quality to it and one might think echoes Tarantino’s stance on the movie.

There were some rumors going on around that a whole chapter (the third one) was going to be in “French New Wave Black and White” like Tarantino describes it in his script.
Not at all the case.
At one point there is a film-within-the-film (shot by Eli Roth) and therefore in black and white.
Problem is, there’s so much big deal made out of it, it turns out it’s barely shown.
Even worse, it’s not even an homage to the French New Wave but clearly more of an Italian Neorealism-type film.
If you’re going to make references to cinematic movements, learn what they are first.

My favorite chapter is probably “Once Upon a Time… in Nazi-Occupied France” (this time an homage to Spaghetti Westerns, hence the chapter’s name).
I think it epitomizes the movie in many ways.
Great acting (especially from Christoph Waltz), great dialogue, and great shots.

But beyond that, the movie just seems like a long mess leading to a bigger mess (this one literal).

The rushed editing doesn’t help either.
Tarantino and the Weinsteins were obviously trying to finish the damn thing for the festival.
I’m also hoping he changes the opening credits, which was just some basic text using fonts from his previous films (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, etc.).
As for the music, nothing ground-breaking there either.
I thought the soundtrack was, unlike his other movies, a pretty minor part of the film here and poorly used.

Keep in mind that the version I saw was the one shown at the Cannes Festival and had a 2h40 length.
I’m pretty sure most of these problems (the editing/feel of the movie, long scenes, the music, the opening credits) will be addressed with a 40 or so minutes cut before the official release.

I had read the first chapter before seeing the movie so I kinda knew that the film wasn’t going to really be centered on the Inglourious Basterds.
Ergo, I wasn’t disappointed on that part.
Also, I love Tarantino’s dialogues.

Just don’t expect to see a 2-hour Nazi-scalping film.

I’m looking forward to the more laid-back (and final) version of Inglourious Basterds coming out mid-August.

Star Trek – Review

Star Trek – Review

Well, I got to see last Sunday night the new Star Trek movie that comes out in a week and a half.
It was good, entertaining, but I don’t see why people are what all the fuss is about really.

The movie had a short message before it by J.J. Abrams, nothing major was said in it so don’t worry.

I should point out that I’m no Trek fan per se.

For the past few months, I have been watching TOS (The Original Series) episodes as well as a couple of the first movies. I also, just before seeing the new movie, watched a few TNG (The Next Generation) episodes as well as the Nemesis movie to prepare myself for the prequel 4-part comic that came out before Star Trek.
Anyway, given that I knew virtually nothing about Trek a year ago, I wanted to prepare and familiarize myself a bit with the Trek ‘verse.

For the Trek newbies out there, don’t worry, I should very soon make a post about stuff you should know/may want to watch to prepare for the new movie.

I must warn you guys right now: Massive spoilers ahead about the new Star Trek movie (with pics).
So if you want to stay un-spoiled, don’t look!

Now, back to the actual movie.

First, like with Watchmen, the soundtrack choice was somewhat confusing and lame.
Remember this scene from the trailer:


Now add the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage on it and you get the idea.

There’s also a similar weird music choice later in the movie.
I won’t say where just to keep your surprised laugh when you see/hear it.

Speaking of, the product placement was also pretty ridiculous.
A futuristic Nokia dashboard inside a vintage Corvette? Really?

Michael Giacchino’s score however, as always, was epic.

Regarding the actors:
They all seemed to fare fine by trying to emulate their predecessors’ way of speaking.
Quinto pulls off a great Spock while Chris Pine manages to channel the Shatner/Kirk energy.
Anton Yelchin’s russian accent however felt really forced, so I was taken a bit aback by his performance after having seen him play a few years ago Byrd Huff in Huff as well as Zack Mazursky in Alpha Dog.

Also, I really felt the focus of the movie was on Kirk and Spock and certainly not on the rest of the Enterprise crew.
Pegg has 150 seconds of screen time (give or take a few), including this scene:


Cho has a cool action sequence.


And Yelchin saves the day.


Although they all have their moments to shine, they are all really background characters in this movie at best.

Speaking of pointless characters, let’s talk about Spock’s mother for a second here.
Winona Ryder playing the mom was a poor choice. She looks so young she could be Spock’s sister.
Also, her role seems to be more in the realm of a cameo appearance than anything else.
She dies pretty quickly (more on that in a minute), so why hire her for so little time?

As for the movie’s visuals:
Remember how Snyder over-uses his pseudo-cool slow motion shots?
Well lens flares are the new slow-mo shots, only with JJ.
If you’ve seen Fringe you know what I’m talking about: those blue-ish flares that blind you.
Well JJ loves those so much that he uses them almost every scene in the Trek movie.


Abrams even admitted recently that they were “ridiculous”:

I know there are certain shots where even I watch and think, “Oh that’s ridiculous, that was too many.”

Funny how, looking back, the various trailers are incredibly spoilery.
You can pretty much guess everything that happens in the movie based on the two trailers.
Hell, all the pics here are coming from the trailers.

Now, let’s talk about the really major stuff that bothers me.
I’m of course talking about this:


If you can’t guess the planet, it’s Vulcan.

Yup, Vulcan implodes, for good, killing almost every single Vulcan in the process.
Only 10,000 or so of them are left in the entire universe says Spock.
Talk about drastic changes to the franchise…

First, Spock’s mother dies, then his entire race.
Yeah, they’re really throwing the rule book out the window.

The Vulcans going almost extinct and only having 10,000ish of their own left reminded me of another show: Battlestar Galactica.
Future-Spock helping the last Vulcans is also kind of ridiculous in my book, but whatever.

Ultimately, since the movie is an alternate timeline, they can do what they want.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with their new take on the franchise.
What I’m mostly annoyed about however is the fact that all the new Trek movies from now on will be a prolongation of this new timeline.
There is already a sequel on its way, and I’m thinking we might get a trilogy at least, if not 6 movies (like Spider-Man)!
One might even wonder if there’s going to be a new show.
Anyway, looks like it’s gonna have to be Bad Robot/JJ’s way, or the highway.

They said they wanted to introduce Trek to a new generation, but the truth is that the new generation that will first and foremost watch this movie won’t bother seeing all the other movies and shows that came prior to it since those have now become pointless and obsolete due to the drastic changes.

Crossing off everything that comes after James T. Kirk’s birth basically nullifies what came prior to this movie.
i.e.: every single Star Trek movie or show (except Enterprise).

Looks like I hated this movie right?
Actually, wrong.
I enjoyed this movie, it was fairly entertaining (which Bad Robot prods often are).
I also find interesting the fact that this is more or less the only Bad Robot production where there are no major questions/mysteries left at the end.

If you’re looking for a somewhat mindless entertaining movie, then go for it.
I still don’t get why everyone is jizzing their pants over it though.

The Cabin in the Woods (Script) – Review

The Cabin in the Woods (Script) – Review

I just finished reading Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods, described by Wheddon himself as “the horror movie to end all horror movies”.

I don’t know to what extent I agree with that statement and basically to what extent I enjoyed the script/movie.

I wasn’t under-whelmed, but I wasn’t over-whelmed either.

The characters are definitely well-written, well introduced (so is the story for that matter), and the dialogue is sharp and witty.

I loved the white-collar characters of Richard Sitterson and Steve Hadley played respectively by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.
Definitely great casting choices.

I highly doubt that IMDb has the correct names associated with the actors. Fran Kranz is most likely not going to play Curt, unless he becomes your stereotypical football player overnight (could still happen though).

It should be noted there are no “twist” to the movie, at least not the way one might think.
This is not The Sixth Sense where at the end you have some epic revelation that changes the scope of the movie and makes you re-evaluate every scene prior.

The only twist here is the genre-twist, and it is pretty straight-forward.
You kind of get what is going on behind the scenes in the first 30 or so pages.

It is therefore not really a spoiler when describing Cabin as The Evil Dead/The Hills Have Eyes meets The Truman Show.

There’s a superior level to that whole “Truman Show” part though which I won’t spoil.

I was actually expecting more regarding said twist/superior level, like a final reveal that changes my whole perception of the story, but that unfortunately didn’t happen.
It looked more like that Neo/Architect scene at the end of The Matrix Reloaded than anything for that matter (without the plot twists).

I don’t really know how to take the end, if I like it or not.
It certainly is reminiscent of other Goddard endings though, so I won’t comment further.

There are also a few open questions and some inconsistencies regarding the rules set-out by the movie/story itself, so that was weird.
Overall, suspension of disbelief is required but no more than for your average Buffy or Angel episode.

Suffice it to say that the movie will definitely be R-Rated as some of the deaths are grueling at best.

Brendon Connelly over at Slash Films says the end is a range of horror movie clichés, but I disagree here as I didn’t see much reference, if at all.
Having a zombie in a movie doesn’t mean it’s a reference to any of those movies. So the same goes for the end of Cabin.
The cabin deaths on the other hand, I can see how they could be considered references (for some at least).

I also disagree with him on how he compares Cabin to Scream, saying that the former tries to be like the latter: pioneer a new line of horror films.
I didn’t get at all that feeling.
If anything, it’s a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The final product will most likely be a fun 90-minute ride, like Cloverfield was, but there certainly isn’t a revolution of genre here.