The Inglorious Bastards (1981)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

One of my all time favorites.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

In a nut shell...I tried to watch this when it came out, fell asleep after 15 minutes of it (the dairy farm bit).Its taken me this long to watch it. So it is a Tarantino film, bloody, gory but in a serious comical way. This film is great if you have time to read (unless your fluent in both French and German. Great story, I do not know if it is true to life, but you would hope so. A brilliant story and a great ending. Not as good as Django Unchained.Serious note, the best actor would be Christoph Waltz...he made his character real. Brad Pitt was in the film but I would say as a cameo...plus could not understand a flipping word he said. Melanie Laurent amazing too. We can not see such talent until its out in our face and I have seen some of it.

Anything that Tarantino references or talks about seems to either immediately become the coolest thing on earth or the most overrated, terrible thing on earth, depending on who you're talking to and what their opinion is of the man himself and thus the 1978 film of (roughly) the same name as his recent film is doing the rounds and available to buy. Conscious that Tarantino sometimes likes obscure trash almost for the sake of liking obscure trash, I didn't let the cult hype (if that's not a contradiction in terms) get over me and I came to the film with an open mind.What I found was certainly not a bad film when you meet it on its own terms but neither is it anything particular clever or good. After the success of The Dirty Dozen, there were quite a few films that did similar things or had similar themes in the genre, and Inglorious happens to be one of them. As such it doesn't really have much to make it stand out from the genre pack and indeed it has the problems you would expect it to have. The most obvious is the lack of resources. The locations are good and there appears to be no end of men to jump off buildings or clutch their chest and fall down, but the film has a rather empty feel that you get with open shots and a lack of post-production-enhanced atmosphere. Similarly the film doesn't really have a lot of meat on it in terms of character or script – both being solid enough for the genre but the characters are pretty stock while the tone and jokes just lack the sharpness and delivery I would have liked.All this said, the film does do a good job as a genre film because it delivers lots of explosions, heroic death, Nazi stooges, tomato ketchup blood, tough characters and off-colour humour. All of this is in place and is of course affected by the constraints of the film (for example the action is a tad "A-Team" at times and does have typical model work). The cast are similarly low-rent on the whole and nobody really impresses or makes a mark here. Williamson perhaps is the bigger "name" looking back and he does do OK with quite a fun character that is a tough presence. Svenson is the main player but just doesn't look the part in the same way and indeed this is the problem with most of the Bastards, they mostly look like they are playing a part in a film rather than engaging me into their story. Hooten, Pergolani and Basehart are so-so mostly while the rest of the cast are there to be shot and fall over (which they do in typical fashion).Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato may have had a bump over the last decade for its association with Tarantino but this does not make it a film that should stand out on its own merits – and indeed, it doesn't. However, despite my criticism of it, it does still operate as a solid genre film and in this arena the weaknesses can sort of be forgiven and the flaws accepted as part of the genre fun. Nothing special but still a solid genre film.

This film may be from 1978, but it looks at least 10-15 years older than that. You will see an awful lot of German soldiers hurling their weapons in the air as if they were made of plastic and jumping as high as possible while waving their arms. This means they have either been gunned down or blown up by bombs. A single stab wound, a punch or a kick to the face, or a tap to the small of the back with a barrel of a gun causes immediate death or unconsciousness to the fragile enemy Germans. Sometimes the Germans are so in shock at seeing the Americans that they just stand there, waiting to get shot or punched. It's pretty funny, really. The fire scenes are totally unrealistic and look like someone set some toys on fire. I watched the UNCUT EDITION and assume the exploding blood packs used toward the end of the movie were not seen in the original. Take away the blood packs and you got a family film.The storyline wasn't bad except the part about the German POW who escaped (meaning he didn't like being a POW) and is again captured but sides with the Americans... and the pickpocket who had been in jail so long that his hair had grown hippie length but always had a close shave.The acting itself was solid and very believable. Other than that, Quel maledetto treno blindato is pretty much like a cartoon. It is an excellent time killer on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I viewed this movie because the QT movie of the same title came out in 2009. I enjoyed the drama of this movie, the plot twists, and action. I was raised in the era of Clint Eastwood's Italian westerns and while this was a low budget Italian made film, it contains some of the elements that makes those movies so great.Slightly like the Dirty Dozen this movie remains true to history and looks deep into human nature. There is a lot of good action scenes and the acting is great for the style. There are better action war films to watch but few that will remain a classic like this one.While I did not enjoy the 2009 movie by QT, I must thank him for directing my attention to this title. Enzo Girolami Castellari is by far a much better director from viewing both movies of the same title. My advice is to rent both and come to your own conclusions.