Butcher & Singer…
Butcher & Singer - Burger, originally uploaded by unbreaded.
This burger was really really good; perfectly cooked and extremely juicy. I just wish it came with more caramelized onions. Mine only had like three big sized onions. Piling it on would have lead to perfection. During the summer the burger was only six bucks, easily the best burger I’ve ever had fewer than ten bucks. Even at its regular price of sixteen bucks it would be well worth it.
Also had the onion soup (not pictured), which was just so so and for ten bucks overpriced.
Inglourious Basterds…
I’m undecided on Tarantino. Reservoir Dogs, great. Kill Bill Part 1, also great. Kill Bill Part 2, little boring but still good. Pulp Fiction, good. From Dusk Till Dawn, fun and enjoyable. All those films and so much indecision, it’s almost illogical. His films are always stylized with his signature conversations, but for all his hype he never feels ground breaking to me. Maybe a little bit retro in that he pays homage to whatever genre he is making, or maybe too much retro since I’m sure many of his references go right over people’s heads. Too self indulgent at times? Or cocky enough to say “Fuck the audience; I’m doing what I want here.”
And that brings us to Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s war action genre flick. Which is a lot deeper than the advertisements would lead you to believe. It’s not just a gratuitous version of the Dirty Dozen; way more depth and less Pitt than one would think. Brad Pitt really shares the bill with Mélanie Laurent who plays a young Jewish woman living a secret life in Nazi occupied France, in comparison to Pitt who plays the leader of a all Jewish gorilla commando team hell bent on scalping Nazis and shoving a big one up Hitler’s ass.
And stick one to Hitler is what this film is about, the Revenge of the Jews. I guess the Weinsteins’ felt that Middle America would want nothing to with Jew on Nazi violence, because the chosen people completely absent from the American advertisements. But whatever, killing Nazis is always pure gold, it’s the main reason why so many first person shooters are WWII based. And Kill Nazis they do. Oh how they do. It’s bloody, over the top, and unapologetic.
Pitt is great as the commando leader and I’m sure that people will be quoting his lines for years to come. But the real star of this film is Laurent. Her story line is the one that I really cared about. You know how it’s going to end up a third of the way through, but it doesn’t matter you still root for her regardless. And how Pitt and Laurent’s story line entwine is a nice little twist considering the genre.
But as good as all the above is, the film has its share of problems. A good number of the scenes seem to go on and on, you fight a constant battle between boredom and engagement. At 153 minutes parts will so engage you that you will think the film is a third that length, while others will make you swear it’s the second reincarnate of Return of the King. Which is a shame because it really pulls you out of the viewing experience.
Inglourious Basterds is vintage Tarantino for better or worse.
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