My take: Inglorious Basterds (2009)

HD Goofnut · 12-16-2009, 09:34 PM

Title: Inglourious Baterds (2009)
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc/Two Disc Set
Video: 1080p/AVC MPEG-4
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, and French
Run time: 153 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Rating: R
Region Coding: Region Free
Player used for review: LG BH200

Cast/Crew Info:
Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus
Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa
Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz
Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox
Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
Daniel Brühl as Pvt Fredrick Zoller
Til Schweiger as Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz
Gedeon Burkhard as Cpl. Wilhelm Wicki
Jacky Ido as Marcel
B.J. Novak as Pfc. Smithson Utivich
Omar Doom as Pfc. Omar Ulmer
Directed by Quentin Tarantino

My take: (the breakdown)

When it comes to Tarantino I have always had mixed feelings about his movies. I enjoyed Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, but most of his other films were just rather meh to me. After watching Inglourious Basterds I have begun to have more faith in Tarantino as a director since this is undoubtedly some of his best work. The story follows that of Col. Hans Landa, an SS villain that has earned the nickname "Jew Hunter", Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of the squad knows as the "Basterds" to the Germans, and a French woman named Shosanna, who runs a small cinema in German occupied France. When Hitler and most of his High Command decide to attend the premiere of a film called Nation's Pride they figure it would be better for them to attend a smaller cinema in Paris, in this case Shosanna's. British Intelligence sets up an operation to blow up the cinema during the film with the help of the basterds, but Shoshanna has her own plan to kill Col. Landa and the rest of the Nazis for murdering her family four years earlier. The strangest thing is that I never felt that the movie was two and a half hours long because it was that entertaining. Filled with drama and suspense from beginning to end I highly recommend this as a purchase, but please remember this one is not for children due to violence.

I was absolutely blown away by the pristine quality of this Blu-ray image. Right from the start one can see just how sharp and blemish free the print is. Colors are properly saturated, but tend to be muted slightly. They do however come around during the last third of the movie when we see the vibrant reds and whites among the Germans. Flesh tones also appear to be extremely accurate. Grain is extremely minimal and I found it hard to detect at all during most scenes. Fine detail is absolutely extraordinary. If you pause the movie and different times you can pick out every insignia on a German uniform or count the number of hairs in Brad Pitt's mustache. It simply looks that good. I couldn't help but feel that this is one quite possibly one of the best transfers I have seen on Blu-ray.

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is just as impressive as the image quality. This is mostly a drama and therefore dialogue is the main star. It is always coherent and well prioritized throughout the film's entire run time. Surrounds are used when they are needed, which is during the film's more intense action scenes involving firearms or vehicles. Your sub will see quite a bit of action during the above mentioned action scenes as well. The musical score, which is beautiful in its own right, swells nicely across all channels creating a film like atmosphere. Again, like the video the audio is indeed reference quality material.

We are given a fairly extensive supplemental package with this Blu-ray release. We are given 11 minutes of deleted/extended scene, several making of features, a poster gallery, and several different version of the film's trailer. Most of the above features are presented in 1080, but there are a few that are in 480. There is also a digital copy included on a second disc.

Movie: 8/10
VQ: 10/10
AQ: 10/10
Supplements: 8/10
Final word: A Must Own

As always thanks for reading folks.

Razor05 · 12-18-2009, 09:05 AM

I agree totally with the PQ and AQ, but I found the movie abit too long. Again I expected alittle more action, and it dragged out in between. That's just me, I like the Kill Bill stuff.

gossamer · 12-18-2009, 07:03 PM

Not only was the length long but so were the amount of subtitles. More than half the movie is in German/French. Although I enjoyed the movie I found that aspect a bit annoying.

Oh and if Christoph Waltz doesn't get nominated there's something wrong with the Academy voters.

HD Goofnut · 12-18-2009, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gossamer

Not only was the length long but so were the amount of subtitles. More than half the movie is in German/French. Although I enjoyed the movie I found that aspect a bit annoying.

Oh and if Christoph Waltz doesn't get nominated there's something wrong with the Academy voters.

I didn't find the foreign languages bothersome because I actually like people to speak in their own language, which is represented by their character in the film. That's what made the difference in Midway being a good movie and Tora! Tora! Tora! being a vastly superior movie. Japanese speak Japanese not English, especially during WWII.

I agree that Waltz should at least receive a nomination nod.

Bluto · 12-20-2009, 08:19 AM

Horrible movie, but due to the eye candy production people will fawn over it.
Insulting garbage.

QT needs to grow up an make some quality stuff like he ued to.

HD Goofnut · 12-20-2009, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluto

Horrible movie, but due to the eye candy production people will fawn over it.
Insulting garbage.

QT needs to grow up an make some quality stuff like he ued to.

Garbage? I felt like this was up there with the Kill Bill films.

Bluto · 12-20-2009, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Garbage? I felt like this was up there with the Kill Bill films.

You think so? I agree as far as the gore and violence, but the anti American and anti German context was garbage.
That is why I think people will love this film for its eye popping vividness but not realize they are watching a movie that is offensive to everyone except Jews.

Maybe I am being hard on the movie.

GLOW · 12-23-2009, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluto

You think so? I agree as far as the gore and violence, but the anti American and anti German context was garbage.
That is why I think people will love this film for its eye popping vividness but not realize they are watching a movie that is offensive to everyone except Jews.

Maybe I am being hard on the movie.

Who does this movie offend and please give reasons so we know where you're coming from. I can see how it would be considered offensive to Germans since not every German soldier believed in the Nazi party and not every German was a Nazi, but I didn't see any anti- American, French, etc sentiments. Were you offended because it's not historically accurate?

sigill · 01-03-2010, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluto

Horrible movie, but due to the eye candy production people will fawn over it.
Insulting garbage.

QT needs to grow up an make some quality stuff like he ued to.

You really think so, i don't know where you get the insulting bit from. It is a film based around World War 2 so inevitably there are going to be some scenes that are anti german but that is just the facts of the war. The movie was very popular in Germany so evidently they didn't all find it offensive. As for anti American i don't see that at all.As Glow said maybe you didn't like the historical innacuracies but at the end of the day making movies is an entertainment business. I thought it was superb, definatly my best film of 2009. Its up there with Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bills as Tarantinos best work.

MOD · 01-04-2010, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sigill

You really think so, i don't know where you get the insulting bit from. It is a film based around World War 2 so inevitably there are going to be some scenes that are anti german but that is just the facts of the war. The movie was very popular in Germany so evidently they didn't all find it offensive. As for anti American i don't see that at all.As Glow said maybe you didn't like the historical innacuracies but at the end of the day making movies is an entertainment business. I thought it was superb, definatly my best film of 2009. Its up there with Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bills as Tarantinos best work.

Sigill, I'm in total agreement with you, it was entertainment solely for entertainment purposes and there were a lot of Tongue-in-cheek references and portrayals. But in the end it was QT being QT wild, funny and irreverent as usual, with no intent to be historical accurate or politically motivated. Just good entertainment. QT may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he certainly produces good movies.

CaptainRon19 · 01-05-2010, 10:28 PM

This film is in my top 10 after having seen it in theaters and having recently bought it for my dad on blu-ray for Christmas.

Christoph Waltz deserves the award for supporting. He was incredible in this film. Absolutely incredible.

Anywho, I don't mind the subtitles as some have stated above, but that is mainly because I watch a lot of foreign cinema and its become a regular thing, also because I speak German so I could understand a lot of the dialogue, but it is also nice to hear other languages as well such as the French in the film.

Heck my dad speaks 4 languages and can understand 5 and he maintains its from growing up in Europe and watching movies in different languages without subtitles, so for anyone eager to learn foreign languages, Inglourious Basterds is not a bad place to start.

Nevada_MO_Guy · 01-06-2010, 11:38 PM

Finally got a copy from the local movie place. Long story short this movie did not play in my player.

I have the latest update available and when trying to play the disk a message would come up saying that the disk is an "unknown format".

Had to take it back and trade down to DVD.

That said, this movie was very entertaining. Funny and brutal with a little sad thrown in.

Ruffrob · 01-10-2010, 10:37 AM

Excellent movie,I totally agree with everyone about Christoph Waltz. The primary scene with him and the father of the daughters at the kitchen table built up a great deal of tension. You knew something was gonna happen,and it teased you while the SS officer was extremely anal about himself and his job. QT's films have a habit of having extended dialogue scenes ,but they always seem to justify themselves afterward,and this one is no exception. It's just about as wild as Pulp Fiction....

Nevada_MO_Guy · 01-10-2010, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruffrob

QT's films have a habit of having extended dialogue scenes ,but they always seem to justify themselves afterward,and this one is no exception.

True, and the German/French/English twist made you more involved with the movie because you had to read the sub-titles then put that into context with the way the actors were talking.

Chris Gerhard · 02-06-2010, 02:17 AM

I loved this movie, finally watched it last night. It was a blind buy shortly after release but I was sure my girlfriend wouldn't like it and it waited in the pile for a time. She did watch it with me and it was only fair in her view. I am never offended by works of fiction but I can see how some could be offended by the portrayal of the Germans and Americans. You might have gotten a hint by the name of the title that the group would not be presented as traditional heroes. I generally like Tarantino films really well and this is among my Tarantino favorites.

This is only the third of the ten Best Picture Oscar nominees I have seen so far, "Up" and "District 9" are the others and I own all three on Blu-ray. I would say this one has no chance to win and neither do the other two I have seen for that matter.

Chris

12-16-2009, 09:34 PM	#1
HD Goofnut The Official HDF Reviewer Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Mississippi, U.S.A. Your resident Dune, Star Wars, and war film expert Posts: 8,145	My take: Inglourious Basterds (2009) Title: Inglourious Baterds (2009) BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc/Two Disc Set Video: 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Subtitles: English, Spanish, and French Run time: 153 minutes Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment Rating: R Region Coding: Region Free Player used for review: LG BH200 Cast/Crew Info: Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz Michael Fassbender as Lt. Archie Hicox Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark Daniel Brühl as Pvt Fredrick Zoller Til Schweiger as Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz Gedeon Burkhard as Cpl. Wilhelm Wicki Jacky Ido as Marcel B.J. Novak as Pfc. Smithson Utivich Omar Doom as Pfc. Omar Ulmer Directed by Quentin Tarantino My take: (the breakdown) When it comes to Tarantino I have always had mixed feelings about his movies. I enjoyed Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, but most of his other films were just rather meh to me. After watching Inglourious Basterds I have begun to have more faith in Tarantino as a director since this is undoubtedly some of his best work. The story follows that of Col. Hans Landa, an SS villain that has earned the nickname "Jew Hunter", Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of the squad knows as the "Basterds" to the Germans, and a French woman named Shosanna, who runs a small cinema in German occupied France. When Hitler and most of his High Command decide to attend the premiere of a film called Nation's Pride they figure it would be better for them to attend a smaller cinema in Paris, in this case Shosanna's. British Intelligence sets up an operation to blow up the cinema during the film with the help of the basterds, but Shoshanna has her own plan to kill Col. Landa and the rest of the Nazis for murdering her family four years earlier. The strangest thing is that I never felt that the movie was two and a half hours long because it was that entertaining. Filled with drama and suspense from beginning to end I highly recommend this as a purchase, but please remember this one is not for children due to violence. I was absolutely blown away by the pristine quality of this Blu-ray image. Right from the start one can see just how sharp and blemish free the print is. Colors are properly saturated, but tend to be muted slightly. They do however come around during the last third of the movie when we see the vibrant reds and whites among the Germans. Flesh tones also appear to be extremely accurate. Grain is extremely minimal and I found it hard to detect at all during most scenes. Fine detail is absolutely extraordinary. If you pause the movie and different times you can pick out every insignia on a German uniform or count the number of hairs in Brad Pitt's mustache. It simply looks that good. I couldn't help but feel that this is one quite possibly one of the best transfers I have seen on Blu-ray. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is just as impressive as the image quality. This is mostly a drama and therefore dialogue is the main star. It is always coherent and well prioritized throughout the film's entire run time. Surrounds are used when they are needed, which is during the film's more intense action scenes involving firearms or vehicles. Your sub will see quite a bit of action during the above mentioned action scenes as well. The musical score, which is beautiful in its own right, swells nicely across all channels creating a film like atmosphere. Again, like the video the audio is indeed reference quality material. We are given a fairly extensive supplemental package with this Blu-ray release. We are given 11 minutes of deleted/extended scene, several making of features, a poster gallery, and several different version of the film's trailer. Most of the above features are presented in 1080, but there are a few that are in 480. There is also a digital copy included on a second disc. Movie: 8/10 VQ: 10/10 AQ: 10/10 Supplements: 8/10 Final word: A Must Own As always thanks for reading folks. __________________ Living Room Sharp LC-46SB57UN 46" 120Hz 1080p LCD (24fps)-Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Receiver-Onkyo SKS-HT540 7.1-Phillips OTA HD Antenna-Nintendo Wii-LG BH200 Super Blu-Toshiba HD-A20 Bedroom Sanyo DP46848 46" 60Hz 1080p LCD-Terk OTA HD Antenna-Magnavox NB500MG9 Office HP G60 Laptop-HP 2159m 21.5" 60Hz 1080p LCD-Logitech X-540 5.1-Sony 40 GB PS3-ASUS SBC-06D1S-U External BD Drive-Toshiba HD-A2 My Movie Collection 417~139 Latest BD Review: *Ip Man* Last edited by HD Goofnut; 12-16-2009 at 10:10 PM.

12-18-2009, 09:05 AM	#2
Razor05 HD = 65 beautiful inches Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 3,835	I agree totally with the PQ and AQ, but I found the movie abit too long. Again I expected alittle more action, and it dragged out in between. That's just me, I like the Kill Bill stuff. __________________ Panasonic TH-65PZ850U Sony KDL37XBR6 Panasonic TH-37PX50U Cambridge Audio Azur 640R & 740C Paradigm Studio 60's, 20's, CC-590 & Seismic 12 Panasonic DMP-BD35 Toshiba HD-XA2 & A35 Motorola VIP1200 Monster HTFS1000, PB2100 Audio Authority 1154a MW2 LE & Halo3 LE Xbox 360 + HD-DVD GT: Razor59 Sony PS3 slim GT:Razor_59 Sony PSP - 180 - 55

12-18-2009, 07:03 PM	#3
gossamer 50 is the new 42 Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Da Boogie-down Bronx Posts: 570	Not only was the length long but so were the amount of subtitles. More than half the movie is in German/French. Although I enjoyed the movie I found that aspect a bit annoying. Oh and if Christoph Waltz doesn't get nominated there's something wrong with the Academy voters. __________________ Living Room: Panasonic TH-50PZ700U Plasma Scientific-Atlanta SA8300HD DVR Sony PlayStation 3 80GB Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Toshiba SD-4700 SD DVD Apple Mac mini, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo Onkyo TX-SR706 Receiver Paradigm Cinema 110 Speaker System Pioneer CLD-3070 LaserDisc Player Quasar VHQ760 VCR Bedroom: Panasonic TC26LX50 26-inch LCD Scientific-Atlanta SA8300HD DVR Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-ray Panasonic DMRES15 DVD Recorder JVC HR-S8000U S-VHS

12-20-2009, 08:19 AM	#5
Bluto My belly button smells Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: New York Posts: 140	Horrible movie, but due to the eye candy production people will fawn over it. Insulting garbage. QT needs to grow up an make some quality stuff like he ued to. __________________ Still waiting for Smell-o-Visontm

01-06-2010, 11:38 PM	#12
Nevada_MO_Guy Missouri_HD_Guy Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Missouri Age: 42 Posts: 1,092	Finally got a copy from the local movie place. Long story short this movie did not play in my player. I have the latest update available and when trying to play the disk a message would come up saying that the disk is an "unknown format". Had to take it back and trade down to DVD. That said, this movie was very entertaining. Funny and brutal with a little sad thrown in. __________________ Sony KDS-60A2000 bulb hours ..... Yamaha RX-V1800 ..... Dish ViP 622 DuoDVR temps .... Toshiba HD-D1 ..... Philips BDP7200 ..... Mirage OMNISAT v2 FS .... Mirage OMNISAT v2 CC ..... Mirage OMNISAT v2 .... Mirage OMNI S12 (19Hz) ..... (2) Sony SA-W3000 (20Hz) ....Home Depot

01-05-2010, 10:28 PM	#11
CaptainRon19 My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 9	This film is in my top 10 after having seen it in theaters and having recently bought it for my dad on blu-ray for Christmas. Christoph Waltz deserves the award for supporting. He was incredible in this film. Absolutely incredible. Anywho, I don't mind the subtitles as some have stated above, but that is mainly because I watch a lot of foreign cinema and its become a regular thing, also because I speak German so I could understand a lot of the dialogue, but it is also nice to hear other languages as well such as the French in the film. Heck my dad speaks 4 languages and can understand 5 and he maintains its from growing up in Europe and watching movies in different languages without subtitles, so for anyone eager to learn foreign languages, Inglourious Basterds is not a bad place to start.

01-10-2010, 10:37 AM	#13
Ruffrob High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 280	Excellent movie,I totally agree with everyone about Christoph Waltz. The primary scene with him and the father of the daughters at the kitchen table built up a great deal of tension. You knew something was gonna happen,and it teased you while the SS officer was extremely anal about himself and his job. QT's films have a habit of having extended dialogue scenes ,but they always seem to justify themselves afterward,and this one is no exception. It's just about as wild as Pulp Fiction.... __________________ Sony 55inch HDTV Sony PlayStationThree 120 Slim Toshiba HDDVD A2 CerwinVega V15 PwdSub LG GGW H20L HD DVD Reader/Blu-Ray Burner Pioneer BDR205 Blu Ray Burner

02-06-2010, 02:17 AM	#15
Chris Gerhard High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 9,411	I loved this movie, finally watched it last night. It was a blind buy shortly after release but I was sure my girlfriend wouldn't like it and it waited in the pile for a time. She did watch it with me and it was only fair in her view. I am never offended by works of fiction but I can see how some could be offended by the portrayal of the Germans and Americans. You might have gotten a hint by the name of the title that the group would not be presented as traditional heroes. I generally like Tarantino films really well and this is among my Tarantino favorites. This is only the third of the ten Best Picture Oscar nominees I have seen so far, "Up" and "District 9" are the others and I own all three on Blu-ray. I would say this one has no chance to win and neither do the other two I have seen for that matter. Chris