Inglourious Basterds (2009)

July 25, 2010 · Posted in Reviews , , , , , , , · 1 Comment 

You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business.

Inglourious Basterds Movie Poster

Inglourious Basterds

Not quite the farcical, knockabout slapstick comedy fest the Japanese adverts led me to believe (I’ve included the trailer at the end of the review).

There are admittedly a couple of funny lines and some black comedic drama but more action drama than Abbot & Costello I think.

This movie is an alternative version of the “end” (I assume) of the second world war as seen through the imagination of Quentin Tarantino.

Starring a mutachioed Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa (for which he won a well deserved Ocar), and Eli Roth as Sgt Donny Donowitz amongst others. It involves a group of Jewish soldiers, nicknamed The Basterds by the Germans, sent to France to basically kill Nazis.

There’s also a second plot parallel to this involving a Jewish girl, Shosanna Dreyfuss played by Melanie Laurent with a traumatic background linked to the evil Nazi Hans Landa.
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Dirty Dancing

July 15, 2010 · Posted in Reviews , , · Comment 

Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

Dirty Dancing Movie PosterFinally, after 23 years, I got around to watching the 1987 Patrick Swayze movie, Dirty Dancing.

I’d always avoided it because I had no interest in watching a chick flick about a 16 year old girl falling in love with a dance instructor at a Butlins style American holiday camp..

But after a stream of guys films, The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Parker, Chinatown and All the Presidents Men, it was time to give my wife a break, and watch a girly romance film.

I was actually pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t the cheezy, falling in parentally disapproving love, 80s predictable romp I was expecting. Well, alright it is, but in a fairly ok, kind of way.

The film is set in the 1950s and sees younger daughter “Baby” (Jennifer Grey) go with her family to a rich holiday resort in the woods by a lake somewhere in the US for a couple of weeks during the summer, where she discovers the staff party – the staff who consist entirely of professional trained dancers it seems. Is this where the students from Fame go for their summer jobs? – and most importantly she meets the good looking but arrogant Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze), who predictably she falls for but he doesn’t like her as she’s a rich, spoilt daddys girl.
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Chinatown

July 3, 2010 · Posted in Reviews , , , , , · Comment 

Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.

Chinatown Movie PosterThis is the classic Roman Polanski directed Jack Nicholson movie from 1974.
Set in Los Angeles in 1937 the (fairly complicated) plot involves infidelity, murder, possibly corrupt police and city officials all revolving around the citys water supply.

Jack Nicholson plays JJ ‘Jake’ Gittes a seemingly succesful private detective (he has two people on his payroll aswell as a secretary) who is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to follow her husband Hollis who she believes is having an affair.

After photographing Hollis Mulwray (who, importantly, is chief engineer of the LA water supply) in the arms of a young woman, Jake thinks his job is done.
However the photos appear the next day in the newspapers, a big scandal ensues, shortly after which Mr Mulwray is found dead and the “real” Mrs Mulwray (the ever gorgeous Faye Dunaway) appears in Jake’s office demanding some sort of explanation.

Gittes soon finds himself in a complex web of political, social and moral corruption.
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