Movie Reviews (Part 2)

Inglourious Basterds-  I don't know why this movie got such a bad rap when it came out.  I was really expecting this one to be a "John, you can just finish it without me," kind of movie.  A friend mentioned that it wasn't a drinking movie, meaning it would be hard to follow if you didn't have all your faculties about you.  Not to mention that it is 2.5 hours long.  My attention span is iffy at best when I am completely sober and is exponentially worse when I have been drinking.  As it is, I usually have to have another activity going at the same time John and I watch movies/DVDs/tv shows.  This is usually some type of craft or if my sewing pile has become so large that it threatens to topple off the shelf in my closet and smother me when I am selecting a t-shirt to wear...I might deign to sew.  


As it was, I think I was cutting out pictures of cats (that I then feed into my Xyron sticker makers, to make, what else? but cat stickers!)  This product is genius, by the way.  I grew up in the 80's when collecting stickers and displaying them in your sticker book was all the rage and this is heaven incarnate to my inner sticker-collecting child.  


So, there I am, cutting out stickers and John and I have had our customary evening cocktails with dinner and I am just not up to also dividing my attention span a third direction to reading the subtitles.  We decided to finish the movie on Sunday afternoon.  I don't have a problem with subtitles at all and I thought it lent the movie a bit of authenticity that was really nice.  (Of course, as much authenticity as a work of simulation and fiction can have.)  Back to why the movie was not better received by the masses.  John's theory was that WWII and especially the issue of Hitler and the Jews might be a taboo subject that wasn't ready to be made fun of yet.  On the contrary, I think the film does a really good job of making the Nazi's look like bumbling fools.  I believe as a society, the only way to get over such travesties in our collective history is to parody them and learn to laugh at that which is most raw and tender.  


One bone John and I had to pick with the film was Brad Pitt's character's accent.  It was pure Texas hill country and definitely not East Tennessee, where Pitt's character is from.  You would think being from Knoxville (where John and I hail from) Tarantino would do a better job of casting that part or getting Pitt the training to get it right.  I think Pitt did a great job of the part overall and it didn't grate on my nerves so much that I couldn't lose myself in the fantasy of the movie.  


Again Tarantino managed to create a wonderful strong female lead in Melanie Laurent's character, Shosanna Dreyfus.  Bully for you, Quentin.  I love to see a chick kick some ass.