DVD Collectors Online

Inglourious Basterds, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:Inglourious Basterds
Year: 2009
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Rating: R
Length: 153 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:Plot:
Brad Pitt takes no prisoners in Quentin Tarentino's high-octane WWII revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds. As war rages in Europe, a Nazi-scalping squad of American soldiers, known to their enemy as "The Basterds," is on a daring mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Bursting with "action, hair-trigger suspense and a machine-gun spray of killer dialogue" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), Inglourious Basterds is "another Tarantino masterpiece" (Jake hamilton, CBS TV)!

Extras:



Oh me, oh my!

I resolved to deviate slightly from my method of selecting movies to watch by making every 10th movie one I get to choose without the assistance of a random number generator in an effort to get in some movies I really want to see without having to wait on chance to choose it for me. There was no indecision or debate... I went straight for Inglourious Basterds.

Before I begin my review, let me preface it by saying this was the third movie I had watched today, a fact made quite obvious by the dirty looks my wife was giving me for residing on my hump for almost the entire day. I started to feel bad and guilty about it... until about 10 minutes into Basterds and then those feelings quickly went away! 

I've had mixed reactions to Tarantino's previous movies... I liked Reservoir Dogs, REALLY liked Pulp Fiction  but was somewhat lukewarm to the Kill Bill movies. I've yet to watch Jackie Brown or his Grindhouse entry. I admit to buying into the hype of Basterds and given the WWII theme I was wired up to watch it and was hoping it lived up to the hype.

What a movie! Even though I expected it would be great it still exceeded all my expectations. Leave it to Tarantino to rewrite history! You expect all the shocks and surprises from one of Quentin's films and yet when they happen they still reach up and grab you by the balls (if you have them).  Sure there was sheer moments of complete implausibility born out of convenience to the plot but who gives a shit. Nobody was ever going to confuse this with a WWII documentary or think it was based on 'true events'.

Christoph Waltz... where did this guy come from?!?!  Like most people I had never heard of him till now but seemingly everyone knows him! Hans Landa was scary at first but as the movie progresses you begin to respect and admire his evil style and coy manipulations.  Well done! I also liked Til Schweiger in his limited screen time as German turncoat Hugo Stiglitz. Such a cool name... Stiglitz! Kind of rolls off the tongue...     I actually thought Brad Pitt was the weak link in this movie. Some mustard with that ham?  Yeeesh! Entirely too over the top. The scene where he is trying to pass himself off as an Italian at the movie premiere was completely absurd and even if it was meant to be it was still too much.

Some scenes and moments in this film will never be forgotten. The branding to the German soldiers who were lucky enough to survive the Basterds... the Jew Bear hitting a home run... the clever wordplay of Landa in the opening scene which revealed the hidden Jews without his men having to so much as lift a finger to search for them. All terrific!

If you haven't watched this already, do yourself a favor... go buy it, or at the very least pay the couple of bucks to rent it.

I can't confirm this as I didn't see his name in the credits, but when Landa handed the radio back to Raine the OSS Commander who was giving Raine his instructions sure as hell sounds like Harvey Kietel. I played it back 3 times and I'll eat my hat if that's not him.  I did catch the Samuel L. Jackson narration and I'm sure upon subsequent viewings there are more Tarantino alumni and references to be found.

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on July 7th, 2010)

The Dead Zone, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Dead Zone: Special Collector's Edition
Year: 1983
Director: David Cronenberg
Rating: R
Length: 104 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, French: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Christopher Walken
Brooke Adams
Tom Skerritt
Herbert Lom
Anthony Zerbe
Colleen Dewhurst

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Bonus Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
I haven't watched this one in a while. I must admit... I enjoy the TV series more then the movie. But that is not to take away from the movie. I did enjoy it very much. Though some of the scenes did seem just a tad slow for my taste. It is still a movie well worth the time it takes to watch it. I found I enjoyed the first half of the movie just a little more then the second half. But over-all it is one I would recommend.



(From The Movies From Within My Lifetime on March 31st, 2011)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Gavin & Stacey - Series One

Episode One
Meet Gavin And Stacey. They've spoken on the phone for six months but never actually met until Stacey travels from Wales to London to meet Gavin. Gavin turns up with Smithy who is skeptical about the whole thing and Stacey's mate Nessa who couldn't care either way, to be honest, and is more concerned about a night out.



Gavin is an ordinary boy from Essex, Stacey is an ordinary girl from Barry, South Wales. Although they've spoken on the phone every day at work for months, they've never actually met... until now. But when Gavin and Stacey finally meet and their ordinary worlds collide, we see, through their friends, their family and their differences, that there's no such thing as ordinary after all.
Gavin and Stacey is the hit BBC show starring Alison Steadman, Rob Brydon, Larry Lamb, Joanna Page, Mathew Horne, Melanie Walters, James Corden and Ruth Jones.

A brilliant comedy show I am no stranger to, having watched haphazard series one episodes on TV.
Having watched the 1st pilot episode, I immediately watched the next 2, that is how good this is.
Everything about this just gets it right. The writing is fresh, original and damnright hilarious. The actors have been chosen perfectly, and no doubt scripts written to enhance the characters they portray so wonderfully. You (in UK) can relate to so many of the characters, I used to have a m8 just like Smithy in every way, and know many couples like Gavs parents!
It is the type of show that you talk about the next day, talking about the funniest instances and some really classic lines, especially from Ruth Jones. It leaves a smile on your face, and no higher compliment to a comedy can be paid.
I hope this works for other countries, would love to hear if other nationalities 'get this' comedy style.
Highly, highly recommended.
 

As a taster, one-off charity special sketch of Smithy with England football team 



(From My PILOT Marathon on September 23rd, 2009)