I've Seen INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

"Son, does this mustache make me look like Freddie Mercury?"

Inglorious Basterds is about a group of psycho American Jews recruited by the U.S. army to wreak havoc upon the German Nazis occupying France during World War II. It stars Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, and the absolutely lovely looking Melanie Laurent.

The "Bear Jew" was a big let down to the story line's hype. To me, the most interesting Basterd character was Til Schweiger's Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz. He became my favorite Basterd, yet his appearances were brief, at best, and Stiglitz's character development seemed unfinished. I'm not certain whether Brad Pitt's southern United States drawl for Lt. Aldo Raine was entirely authentic or extremely exaggerated, but I have to admit that Pitt's timing on his lines allowed for him to deliver some slightly comedic moments. The most fascinating characters were Christoph Waltz's Col. Lans "Jew Hunter" Handa and Melanie Laurent's Shosanna Dreyfus. You almost didn't need Brad Pitt or the Basterds in this film, because you nearly had a completely absorbing movie with just the aforementioned characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the calm, chilling tension Waltz allowed Handa to evoke whenever questioning suspects in his investigations. Christoph had the most powerful performance in the film, and perhaps the most memorable one I've seen so far this year.

Despite the length of this film, I couldn't help but feel that there was still a lot of scenes cut out of the movie just to allow theater goers to endure over 2 ½ hours of viewing. Although I do not consider this to be Tarantino's best work, Inglourious Basterds is definitely worth cinematic viewing on Cheap Tuesdays and is unquestioningly worth watching again on DVD when the extended director's cut is released.