Inglourious Basterds (reviewed by Sebastian Ng)

Tarantino doesn't do stories, he does scenes. He has a penchant for dialogue, and is brilliant at having his characters talk through an entire lengthy scene about tangentially relevant stuff that somehow manages to maintain our interest or, even better, amuse us or hold us in tight suspense. Using these two elements to his advantage, Tarantino offers us perhaps his most entertaining film ever.

I didn't really like the manner with which Tarantino offs my two favourite actors from the film - that fellow from Irish arthouse film Hunger and that broad who sings the soprano in Joyeux Noël - but giving credit where it is due, Tarantino's tale of gleeful violence and cathartic vengeance towards the Nazis is highly unpredictable without being too clever for its own good, and definitely leaves you wondering what's gonna happen next and genuinely eager to find out.

I also loved how all of the European characters were capable of conversing in two or three (or four!) different languages. Not so much the Americans.

To be honest, I don't know how local audiences will take to it. If it's a war film they're expecting - sorry mate, no battle scenes here. In fact, Inglourious Basterds can be more accurately described as a black comedy. As with all Tarantino works, there are numerous and constant references to cinema and film history ... as well as the history of WWII. (Characters often take time off to discuss films and directors of the era; entire scenes were built around that.) For example, it helps to know who Leni Riefenstahl is. It helps to know what the OSS is (it's the precursor to the CIA); why "1944 ... June" is significant; who are Goebbels and Goering and Bormann; and if you know the work of a film projectionist, all the better. They're not essential, in the sense that you'll get the plot without knowing all these references and in-jokes; but, like I said, Tarantino doesn't do stories. It's those little moments that make the scene, and the scenes are the point.

Well, at least the extended joke about King Kong won't be lost to local audiences ... though again, the characters were really referring to the 1933 version.

Mercifully, censorship is down to a minimum; there weren't too many f-bombs to begin with (and some are in French and German and therefore hidden).

How Good I Think The Movie Is: 8.5/10
How Much I Liked It: 7.5/10

Cast Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger Director Quentin Tarantino Runtime 153 mins Opens 22 October

Sebastian Ng studied filmmaking at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood, majoring in Directing and Sound Design but spent most of his time watching movies, and attending film festivals and meet-the-filmmaker sessions. Having returned to Malaysia in 2008, he currently works as a digital production coordinator for Rhythm & Hues Studios (Malaysia). He continues to fuel his passion for film by writing reviews and other ramblings for his blog, Cinematic Concerns.