MIdnight movie review: Inglorious Basterds

There is a remark toward the end of the movie where a character says: "This is my masterpiece." Maybe this line reflects how director and writer Quentin Tarantino feels right now or maybe it's an assessment that this is his best work thus far, whatever the case Tarantino pulls out all the stops creating an over the top and zany war-western-foreign-action-adventure-comedy-film that showcases what Tarantino does best and that if history was rewritten World War 2 and Hitler were defeated by a band of soldiers known as the BASTERDS.

Combining everything that Tarantino loves about the cinema he has created an exhilerating film going experience. Using his trademark non linear storytelling the film jump betweens two parallels story, the story of the basterds led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt sporting an over the top Southern accent) who commands a team of Jewish-American soldiers on a mission into Nazi-Occupied France to as he says "killing Nazis." But not only do they kill them they scalp them and imbed a swastika on the heads of those who live as a reminder to the world that they are evil.

The 2nd story is Tarantino's homage to the World cinema of the late '60s tells the story of french- Jewish girl named Shoshanna (Melanie Laurent) who escpaes the massacre killing on her family by Colonel Hans Lada (Christopher Waltz), Lada is known as the "Jew Hunter" for his cunning skills in finding Jews around. Shoshanna after escaping the bloodshed heads to Paris where she runs a cinema under a new identity. When the Nazi's decide to host the premiere of a new pro-Nazi war film, "Nation's Pride," Shosanna sees it as a opportunity to exact revenge on the Nazis.

Tarantino draws inspiration from the classic man-on-mission series of films such as "Great Escape," "Bridge on the River Kwai," "Guns of Navarone" and so forth creating a film that is as much as original as it is an homage to these type of movies. Tarantino knows this is not meant to be a history lesson so if your going to kill Hitler he figures, do it with style, substance, blood, guts and lots of bullets! But what really drives the movie are the eclectic characters that encompass the story:

Sgt. Donnie Donnowitz (The Bear Jew) played by Eli Roth is known all through out Europe for killing Nazi's with a baseball bat, hitting them as if he were the Sox in the World Series.

Hugo Stiglitz- A german soldier known for his violent temper and basic bad ass-ness.

Brigitte von Hammersmark- A german actress who happens to be a double agent who helps the basterds.

Archie Hichcox (Michael Fassenbender) (one of my favorite characters)- a British secret Agent and former film critic who has to put on the performance of a lifetime to make it pass a bar full of Nazi's

and it features cameo performances by Mike Myers as a British General, Harvey Keitel, and if you listen closely Samuel L. Jackson.

If the the history books had told the story of the Basterds, well it would make history class a whole hell lot of fun. So when you get a chance become a basterd and let Tarantino tell you his World War Two story.

p.s. for you "the Office Fans" B.J. Novak for the two lines he speaks does a funny job delivering them in the most deadpan way possible.