Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino and his main cast

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Length: 2 hours 33 minutes

A glorious script, with a glorious cast and one hell of a glorious director delivers to you Inglorious Basterds. It’s Tarantino’s first try at war, and he’s pretty freaking good at it. I’m thinking he should be pretty proud of himself for a film he has been working on for almost 10 years. Inglorious Basterds isn’t much of a war movie, but more of a Jewish revenge fantasy. Now, let’s be clear. No one sat there saying “Yeah! Kill those Nazi’s!” but to be honest, it did give the audience a satisfactory justice. The film takes place in Nazi occupied France during the holocaust. It is divided into 5 very important chapters with different storylines that are all related and interwoven with each other eventually. The first chapter introduces the character of Colonel Hans Landa or as they call him “The Jew Hunter” played by the absolutely incredible, Austrian actor, Christoph Waltz. Waltz gave me goose bumps from head to toe, with his spine-chilling stare and truly eerie performance. Next, the second chapter introduces the infamous Inglorious Basterds. The Basterds are a diverse group of killing eccentrics hired by the American government to basically murder as many Nazis as possible. The team is lead by Lieutenant Aldo Raine played by Brad Pitt, who brings out the comic relief for this film. Although the film stars Pitt, I felt Melanie Laurent had much more screen time, who is in almost all 5 chapters. Laurent plays Shoshanna, a beautiful 20-year-old, French Jewish escapee. She owns a cinema under the false name of Emmanuelle Mimieux. One night after “Emmanuelle” is closing up the theatre, a young Nazi soldier named Frederick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) approaches her. She learns he has starred in a film about himself killing over a three hundred allied soldiers, Frederick is a hero to the Nazis. A few days later, Shoshanna is put into an interesting situation when the director of the film wants to premiere the film at her cinema. The fourth chapter is basically one long bar scene with Diane Kruger’s character Bridget Von Hammersmark, a famous German actress, who is secretly trying to help The Basterds. Although the holocaust obviously was a real, horrific event, the audience has to be prepared to not take this film too seriously.  If you do see this film – which I strongly recommend you do –, go in with an open mind, to let yourself be able to think ‘what could have happened’. Inglorious Basterds comes with everything a Quentin Tarantino film has, blood, gore, violence and many laughs. The fact that there is humor at all in this film might be offensive to some people, who might think the film is making fun of a serious situation. The movie doesn’t quite measure up to a lot of Tarantino’s work, but it’s definitely worth the watch. In my opinion, Inglorious Basterds is the best film of this disappointing summer. If you are looking for something to enjoy, this is it.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Director: Robert Schwentke
Writer: Jeremy Levin, Bruce Joel Rubin, Audrey Niffeneger (author)
Starring: Eric Bana, Rachel Mcadams
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

It is a very hard job to be the wife of traveler, but a harder job is turning a 500-page bestselling novel into a film. You might be a bit puzzled, but try and stay with me here. Henry(Eric Bana) met his wife Clare(Rachel Mcadams) when he was 20 years old. Clare met Henry when she was six years old. Henry suffers from a genetic disorder that causes him to inadvertently time travel. When Henry time travels, he travels to events that represent importance in his life – to not just his own memories, but Claire’s also. He’s also always naked when he travels because he can only take himself with him. Still with me? The film opens when Henry is a little boy in the car with his mother, just before her death. Then it shows a much older Henry traveling to the scene trying to prevent what is about to happen. After the horrific accident, the older, traveling Henry helps out his younger self by comforting him, while the younger version of him is crying. First off, it is very hard to translate such a complex novel to the big screen, so I tip my hat off to director Robert Schwentke and the screenwriters for trying. The novel, written by Audrey Niffeneger, was something you couldn’t just flip through. The reader had to take time to read it, not because it was long, but because it was a book that deserved to be fully enjoyed. So to try to make it into a two hour movie was definitely pushing it. Overlooking the clichéd writing, filmmakers didn’t do a very good job of capturing this eternal love story.That being said, it’s a very hard thing to do, but….not impossible if you look at past romance films. This is hard to put into words, but I’ll give it a try. In my opinion, both Eric Bana and Rachel Mcadams are very good actors. I also think the two share a great chemistry together. But, I didn’t believe that they were that in love with each other. I especially didn’t buy that Claire had been in love with Henry since she was six. They just seemed to me like a regular married couple. There was nothing about their romance that I found compelling. Again, I enjoy both their acting, but it was hard for me to accept . Watching the film didn’t confuse me, but other people who haven’t read the book might be very baffled, unfortunately. The Time Traveler’s Wife – no matter how great - wasn’t the type of book to be made into a film, as not many are, but especially this one. The film did not ruin my perception of the novel, as many films like My Sister’s Keeper have. The adaption was faithful to the book, and didn’t change much. The Time Traveler’s Wife was a disappointment, but could have been a lot worse.

Bandslam

Director: Todd Graff
Writers: Todd Graff, Josh A. Cagan
Starring: Gaelan Connell, Alyson Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens
Release Date: August 14, 2009
Length: 2 hours 1 minute

If the only decent teen movie in a while comes with insipid Disney stars who want to show off that “they’re not just actors, they are some-what musicians too”, then we’ll take it. Although the title actors for Bandslam are Vanessa Hudgens and Aly Michalka, the film truly stars newcomer Gaelon Connell in the typically outcast, socially awkward, kind of loser role.  He’s not a breath of fresh air, but has some funny moments with Charlotte (Michalka) and his mom played by the lovable Lisa Kudrow. There is also a nice simple high school romance that is not completely overdone, though coming close with 1 or 2 cliché’s, between Will Burton (Connell) and Vanessa Hudgens’ character Sa5m (the 5 is silent). Bandslam was surprisingly well written by director Todd Graff and co-writer Josh A. Cagan. This film’s premise definitely had the potential to be dreadfully horrific but came out much better than expected.  It has to be said that Hudgens didn’t exactly help my enjoyment of this film. I guess the character of sa5m was supposed to be dark and mystifying but the whole audience could see she was trying way too hard with her nauseating fake deep voice. Another problem with Bandslam was that this innocent teen comedy had too many deep changes in the storyline that were supposed to make the film dramatic, but were then soon overlooked within the next 10 minutes. Will’s passion for music, the interesting character of Charlotte and the non-stopping clever and inventive script kept me intrigued long enough for me to thoroughly enjoy this movie.

Julie and Julia

Director: Nora Ephron
Writer: Nora Ephron
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams
Release Date: August 7, 2009
Length: 2 hours 3 minutes

These are two very different women. Both are married, both love cooking…but both live their lives in very different ways. Julia Child, cook extraordinaire, lived life like there was no tomorrow in France, in the 1950’s with her husband, and dreamed of becoming  a world-known cook – which she accomplished. And then there’s Julie Powell, living in Queens with her husband, working at a health insurance company,  in downtown Manhattan, in 2002 – just after 9/11.  From writer/director Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) comes a rich, lovable, film about love and the love of cooking. The script was based off of two autobiographies of the two main characters. Julie(Amy Adams) doesn’t really know where her life is headed. She certainly doesn’t want to be a cubicle worker forever, but time is ticking , as she is almost 30.  While eating one of her delicious dinners, Julie’s husband, Eric (Chris Messina) encourages her to start a blog about cooking. Then Julie has an idea to cook all of her idol, Julia Child’s recipes, from her book. Her blog is called the Julie/Julia project and the goal is to complete all 524 recipes in a year. That’s Julie, but I can tell you that the much more entertaining half of this movie stars Meryl Streep putting on another impeccable performance as Julia Child. She and her husband Paul Child (Stanley Tucci) have just moved to Paris, and as much time as Julia spends in the lovely city, she still gets bored. So while her husband is working, Julia takes cooking lessons where she learns how to cook. Soon she meets Simone and Juliette, 2 cooks who are writing a cookbook about French food for American  housewives. Meryl Streep’s performance as Julia Child, was of course, nothing less then perfect. It was definitely much more interesting to see Julia Child in 50’s Paris then it was to see Julie Powell in present-day Queens, but Amy Adams made it incredibly enjoyable to watch.  The film is a bit long for a comedy like this(about two hours), but it does not drag once, and is certainly never a bore. Julie and Julia is truly delectable.

G.I. Joe

Director: Stephen Sommers
Writers: Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, Paul Lovett
Starring: Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Dennis Quaid
Release Date: August 7, 2009
Length: 1 hour 58 minutes

   Sometimes seeing a ridiculous action movie can be the best pain reliever, because you’re laughing every 10 seconds – and not at the trying-to-be-funny, one-liners. Let’s just say I’m not going to sugarcoat it. G. I. Joe was supposedly meant to be an action movie, but it turned out to be one of the year’s best comedies. Their mission is to save the world, but, in order to save Paris from the bad guys, they need to kill half the city by running them over with their cars, trying to get over to the Eiffel tower – real heroic.  There were lines like “that redhead’s really starting to piss me off” that felt like the whole movie would be leading up to the delivery of that quote. And here’s the best part, the evil doctor (oh yes there is one)’s official name in the credits is ‘the doctor’ – real original name – that talks and looks like Darth Vader. This film was unintentionally hysterical. But it is truly depressing though when in this day and age, some villains still have some form of eye patch and an oxygen mask. I would have liked to think the world of filmmakers had gotten past that. But no, they haven’t. There would be lines, also that I guess were supposed to be funny, but before the actor even said the quote, you could tell that the line was coming and you were “supposed” to laugh – when no one in the audience did. Unfortunately this movie will make lots and lots of money, and not just because things blow up – ooh Fun! – But also because while everyone else is wearing what looks like 50 pounds worth of padding and protection, Sienna Miller is wearing one tight black leather bodysuit with a very plunging neckline. Oh don’t worry – her cleavage will protect her.  After everything I have written, you can’t really expect much more when the whole thing is based from toy action figures. If you’re looking for a laugh, by all means see this movie because it is highly recommended. Let’s all just pray there isn’t a sequel.