Until “Inglourious Basterds,” ultra-violence never seemed so funny or fist pumping –all it took was Quentin Tarantino’s pithy dialogue and Nazi’s being blasted to pieces to get the audience into a cheering uproar.
In his latest revenge flick, the writer/director presents a spaghetti western turned violently humorous, World War II fantasy that manages to produce laugh out loud hysterics with gallons of bloody carnage.
Opening classically with a deafeningly quiet, cuticle tearing confrontation, the film’s volume turns up to 11 as a team of Jewish American soldiers, under the command of Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), are given a mission to hunt and brutalize Nazis while, simultaneously, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), an escaped Jewish girl turned theatre owner, plans her ultimate revenge, creating an ending where both storylines converge to create one uproarious bloodbath.
While “Basterds” doesn’t quite reach the echelon of Tarantino’s masterpiece “Pulp Fiction,” he smashes any lingering feelings of disgust from his last installment, the deplorable yawn fest, “Death Proof.” The film triumphs with its perfect mixture of suspenseful banter and hammer dropping action.
Tarantino is also helped by terrific turns from Laurent, Diane Kruger as German actor/spy, Bridget von Hammersmark, and “Hostel” director turned “Bear Jew” Eli Roth.
Brad Pitt looks like a kid throwing off his school clothes and running outside to play as he gleefully dusts off his
But amidst the scalpings, throat slashings, baseball bat skull smashings, and swastika skin carvings, Austrian born actor Christoph Waltz steals the show as the devilish Jew Hunter, Col. Hans Landa, a Nazi detective so evil he manages to create more fear than Tarantino’s Hitler and Joseph Goebbels combined.
Overall, Tarantino hits this film out of the park as well as his “Bear Jew” cracks Nazi skulls with his Teddy Ballgame death swing. Of course there are gimmicky scenes such as Samuel L. Jackson’s random voice overs, but such deviations are quintessential Tarantino, something fans have loved to loathe over the years.
“Inglourious Basterds” is the perfect bookend to the summer that “Star Trek” started.
In the words of Lt. Raine…R-Vee-Der-Chee.
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