Let me first say that the Jim and I are big Tarantino fans. I have been ever since Jules and Vincent talked in the car about Royale’s with Cheese. That sent me back to seeing Reservoir Dogs and my admiration of this fellow film “geek” was cemented. So, even though I am scared off by the concept of “slashie-slashie” (my term for any movies that have a lot of “knife play” where flesh is severed by a blade – which I really have difficulty with and cannot watch); I was not going to pass up on Inglourious Basterds even with the knowledge that one of the main characters wants his “Nazi Scalps”. So tonight, we went to see the new Tarantino flick and were not let down in the least. It was a wondrous piece of revisionist history brought to you by the king of whip-smart dialog and over-the-top violence. While I saw the movie in the heart of Knoxville (and one of the biggest laughs came from the fact that Brad Pitt’s character is from Maynardville – which is right up the road a piece – see I’ve lived in TN for too long); the acting is very good, especially the Nazi detective Landa. Pure and raw evil, with a huge helping of smarmy. In addition, Brad Pitt is enjoyable but his southern-accent Italian is just silly as hell. Eli Roth, as a side note has the darkest irises I’ve ever seen and lead him to have a blackness to his eyes that’s disturbing. While there is a lot of “slashie-slashie” because of things like scalping and carving, you have a pretty good idea when it’s about to happen, so you can avert your eyes. In the end, I highly recommend this for any fellow Tarantino-film lovers (because we’re all evil people you know), and anyone who wants to see a film about the Third Reich from an alternate perspective with a lot more bravado and blow-em-up style.
**** out of 4 stars.
