In German-occupied France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own...

I have to admit that I am a diehard Quentin Tarantino fan and that my reviews of his movies are normally quite biased. Tarantino has a love for cinema and an attention to detail that just bleeds on the screen and it’s partly why his films are so good and why some many people love his work. He also is not afraid to take chances evidenced by Inglourious Basterds. Lately the whole World War II film era has been beaten to death as numerous movies come out every year but Tarantino has fun with the era, almost making fun of it at times in a tongue in cheek kind of way. Inglourious Basterds is glib, funny and not afraid to take chances or even change history in a comical way to meet the whims of a great filmmaker like Tarantino.

I will admit while the movie is sheer entertainment for almost it’s entire two and half hour run time there is a moment where the movie does bog down for a bit and get trapped in the very Tarantino talking to much kind of way. The basement scene while necessary to the film goes on way to long and just seems to slow the movie down and makes the movie just short of perfection. I think if that scene had been cut in half and had Tarantino not felt so obliged to have his characters talk endlessly for twenty minutes I would have given the film five stars instead of the four and half I will be giving it. I don’t begrudge Tarantino the scene because it is like many moments in many of films it just seems to go on to long and take away from all the fun, excitement and sheer joy that had been happening and is about to happen in the movie.

Another thing I really like about Tarantino and his movies is he does not dumb them down or play politically correct games with his audiences. The language is like real lofe, the violence as brutal as if it was happening in front of you and he even doesn’t bother to tone down a Hitler that is over the top and oh so much fun. It the film feel real and even though he tweaks and prods history to his own desires the film still feels plausible and like it might just have happened even though you know it didn’t.

Tarantino is also not afraid to use big name actors and actors with real acting chops like Brad Pitt. Pitt is gleeful in the movie, he is funny and he is the perfect actor for the role. Instead of casting some unknown he casts the perfect actor to pull of the role despite his fame. That being said outside a few of the main actors Tarantino uses many unknowns as well and he knows when and where to weave them into their roles. Casting Hitler with some known actor would have been a complete and utter failure instead the part of Hitler player to joyous hilarity is done by a relative unknown in Martin Wuttke. So with a mix of known and famous actors like Eli Roth and Pitt along with unknowns like Wuttke Diane Kruger he finds the perfect balance to pull the movie off. Despite one scene that just went on for way too long Inglourious Basterds is so much fun and so much Tarantino like that it is a movie you will want to see time and time again.

Grade: A-