Inglourious Basterds

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Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Inglourious Basterds (2009), is a rather confusing film when compared to the director's earlier output. Rewriting world history completely is not the peculiar thing, it's Tarantino's restrained and occassionally unfunny approach that is rather distracting. Apart from the juvenile gags and offbeat soundtrack you wouldn't necessarily realise this to be a film from the director who brought us Pulp Fiction.

The idea of a bunch of Americans slaying Hitler might sound like a great premise for a Tarantino film, but it surprisingly falls flat. Apart from Hans Landa, the characters are quite one-dimensional. Now this wouldn't really be a problem since Tarantino usually handles them well, but none of them really get to shine in this film since they aren't really funny. Luckily Landa has a lot of screentime to make the film enjoyable - and the cast is good enough to make the film solid.

The form is distracting because, well, it isn't heavy-handedly present like in the director's earlier films. The more "restrained" and conventional approach would be fine if Tarantino was serious - he's not. This clinical approach makes the film awkward on many occasions because the jokes fall flat without Tarantino's tongue-in-cheek camerawork and editing. Using Morricone's compositions is a weird idea for a film set in the 40's and the result is a bit puzzling. While it works once in a while, the soundtrack as a whole is not convincing. Now add a few totally random/sloppy cuts and you have a form that doesn't exactly serve the film's purpose.

Inglourious Basterds could have been yet another success for Tarantino, but the execution stumbles a little. However, Christoph Waltz' towering performance almost single-handedly redeems the film.

Score: 6 out of 10

Kill Bill (Volumes 1 and 2)

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Quentin Tarantino's two-part action masterpiece Kill Bill (2003 & 2004) is probably one of the most famous cinematic efforst of the noughties. It is a wild story of a woman taking revenge on a group of assassins who put her into coma and took her baby. Whereas the first film is an outrageous, tongue-in-cheek combination of Japanese pop cultural references, the sequel mixes that pattern with spaghetti westerns and somewhat serious drama.

The plot itself is rather simple as the main character, The Bride, eliminates each assassin one by one before going after Bill, the biggest bad guy of them all. The films are ridiculously full of references to other films and cultures. The weird mixture of yakuza, samurai myth and God knows what else can be found in the Crazy 88's, a group of sword-wielding gangsters The Bride slaughters in a famous action scene. The epic setpieces are entertaining on their own and this one in particular is one of the finest achievements of the genre. And the best part is the climax of the whole setpiece: an elegant duel in a Japanese garden covered in snow. There is also an entirely animated sequence for the origin story of one of the assassins, O-Ren Ishii, which fits surprisingly well into the film.

The sequel is a bit rougher in tone although it manages to be funny at the same time. Although occasionally it is indeed a bit confusing as the balance between actual drama and silly entertainment does not work smoothly. However it's not a drastic hindrance when the film still features great action scenes (none of them rival the Crazy 88's sequence, though) and an interesting flashback storyline.

The form is a triumph in both parts. Tarantino's slick use of music is refined here - although the 2nd Volume pales a bit in comparison to the 1st one. That does not mean it is bad at all. The editing switches between intensive/kinetic and relaxed to create a funnily "charistmatic" tone at all times. Charismatic in the way that it makes the film easily entertaining and never lets the viewer fall into boredom.

Above all, Kill Bill is top quality entertainment that never pretends to be anything else - even I was easily sucked into its violent and simple-minded world.

Scores:

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003): 10 out of 10

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004): 8 out of 10

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Jackie Brown

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Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997) is the director's first slip-up. Essentially it is a long movie about a complex con a stewardess pulls off, but it is presented without a punch. A Tarantino film lacking the punch is an utter failure. It's almost as if he tried to hide his unsatisfying dialogue and boring characters under a superficially complex plot. Not even actors like Samuel L. Jackson can bring the characters to life - there is something wrong with the writing.

Even the form falters a little here. It certainly has decent camerawork and good editing, but Tarantino's soundtrack is hit-and-miss - too random this time that it doesn't even fit to the mood at all on some occasions.

And all of this mediocrity goes on for 150 minutes so it's not really tolerable either.

Score: 5 out of 10

Pulp Fiction

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Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) is often considered the director's best achievement. Four storylines of violence and salvation (most characters are seen in more than one storyline) are combined to one hell of a film. Tarantino's snarky dialogue dominates the two and half an hour running time and some of the film's quirky scenes have become legendary for Tarantino's fans.

Tarantino's writing is really compact and interesting this time. In comparison to Reservoir Dogs the scenes never feel like they go on for too long - although Butch's storyline is initially less impressive than the other ones. There's a huge cast of interesting characters, such as Jules - Samuel L. Jackson's Bible-reciting hitman who faces a miracle - and the Wolf - Harvey Keitel's cool gentleman whose specialty is to solve any sort of problems.

Pulp Fiction's form is also more refined and it is not distracting. Instead it is more successfully intertwined with the content. However, I'm not still a big fan of stylished camerawork for the sake of appearing as "cool". And naturally the soundtrack is marvellous.

Pulp Fiction is certainly the American epitome of coolness and snarkiness, but I don't find it nearly as impressive as the fanboys do.

Score: 9 out of 10

Reservoir Dogs

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Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut Reservoir Dogs (1992) features the director's famous trademarks - even though they are still a bit unrefined. Essentially the film is about a group of criminals planning to rob a jewelry store, but the catch is that the heist fails in a terribly bloody way. The movie explores the consequences of the heist as the criminals begin arguing while trying to figure out just why the heist failed.

Tarantino is clever by leaving the heist itself offscreen and he depends on the ambitious narrative to deliver the emotional impact on the viewers (if that doesn't work then the screenplay would have been screwed). Tarantino is known for his masterful dialogue, but Reservoir Dogs doesn't completely deliver in this department. While it might work perfectly sometimes (such as the opening scene) there are times when it's stretched too much or simply too offbeat (dialogue between Orange and White). 

The camera work is also a bit unbalanced. When there's running, shooting or pointing guns involved in the scene Tarantino performs rather well, but during the dialogue-heavy scenes there are a few oddities that are so clearly made for the sake of being stylish. That's offputting. The use of music might feel a bit forced in Reservoir Dogs, but it works rather well in any case.

There are numerous flaws in Reservoir Dogs, but they are rather minor in the end. It is a fascinating crime film that deserves its cult status - even if it is quite overrated due to a mass of enthusiastic teenagers.

Score: 8 out of 10