Mark Kermode Reviews Inglourious Basterds: Volume I 

'First, I'm going to be balanced. This food is on a plate, and it's warm. But there's nothing here to really draw me in. I don't buy into it, and I only said "mmm" twice. Ultimately, you do the set pieces - the peas, the mash- really well, but there's no coherence to it'. - Mark Kermode seconds before his wife punches him in the face over the dinner table.

Looks like I'm going to have to start moderating the comments on this video. I've ignored the anti-Semitism displayed here for too long. Apologies to anyone who may have been affected by the ignorance of some. Please stick to arguing about Kermode, Tarantino, or the merits of the film in terms of the filmmaking. Moving forward, any anti-Semitic remarks will be removed. Thank you for your understanding.

I like the way they are worried about kids hearing that word, and yet play a clip of the film talking about dismembering and disemboweling people and making sure they scalp them. I can imagine the conversation, "Mummy, what is disemboweling?"

The first scene with Waltz in the farm is one of the best scenes Ive seen in the last decade, yet the poignancy of the subplot with the Jewish girl is overshadowded by the rest of the film which despite being a homage of exploitation movies, is ironically all over the place. So more or less great scenes e.g. the standoff in the pub, interwoven by a lot comic book gore.

I don't think many people go into a QT film looking for a "disciplined" narrative.

calling that very first scene of IB "done very well" is an understatement - that scene blew me away like nothing has done in a long time

@eyeofaaron 100% right. Waltz was easily the best part of the film. A charismatic actor who effortlessly conveys charm and menace in equal measure.

I love Mark's gag about them spelling Inglourious wrong ha! And of course his reference to a older film with the same title is great too. Never knew that.

One of my favourite all time movies, a glorious movie

Actually, about two weeks ago I saw the word 'Bastard' on the front page of a mainstream British paper. The front-page headline was 'Child murdering bastard stabbed me 15 times'.....

Here in the US the whole title was shown in every bit of advertising. Weird it was censored in the UK.

What's annoying about Tarantino is there are always glimpses of how great he can be in them, they just don't make up that much of the film. This is basically just two or three really incredible scenes with a bunch of padding in between

Why do English People have such a problem with the world "Bastard"? In the US or other countires it was no issue whatsoever... and it wasn't just called "Inglourious" anywhere else either.. please explain..

@kieralinn The title was censored because Bastard is a swear-word over here. Back in the 70s The Sex Pistols were taken to court for using a swear-word in their album 'Never mind the Bollocks, here's the Sex Pistols'. I assume the studio wanted to avoid a similar law suit...

I love QT and I think this is one of his best

@damski66 So when's your review show?

He didn't discard The Dark Knight. He had problems with it but still admired and respected the film, and he didn't once review the production itself. Remember that he also loved Batman Begins so if anything he was predisposed to like Dark Knight. While he certainly has his biases, I feel that he has the ability to judge films for what they are. He likes HSM3 because it does exactly what it sets out to do: Entertain kids. Anyway I thought he hated The Deer Hunter because of its length.

Jules is the one who does vast majority of the work on the first hit (Kahuna burger kids), Vincent has Mia Wallace almost die on him, he takes cocainem, AND he gets himself killed because he leaves a machine gun on a kitchen counter when he's taking a shit. His character is clearly meant to be clumsy and not the sharpest. He's hired because he works with the cool professional Jules.

Is the word “bastard” worse in Wankerville?

I really liked it. Some typically great pieces of Tarantino dialogue ''oblige him'' was a great example. The script is great (i've read it rather than just watched the film) always good with dialogue. Some of it sags a bit but its a harmless piece of cinema and a refreshing twist to the normal WW/Holocaust films. Rightly nominated for Oscars but The Hurt Locker, Avatar and Up In The Air were better. Great opening scene and Waltz was breathtaking.

Couldn't agree more with this. It's the same with Trainspotting the book.

Now I can't wait for him to review Django Unchained.

And what movie or game can you currently get that the UK can't? According to Wikipedia there is currently one movie banned in the UK due to excessive vulgarity, and it's a little seen obscure Japanese horror film. The UK's history of banned films in the past shows a list almost as short as the US's. As for games, can you name even one game of note currently banned in the UK?

I don't disagree that QT's movies tend to be a bunch of superb set pieces. But I don't see how that is a condemnation of them. To me, that sounds like a great time. Kermode seems to be making assumptions about the way a movie ought to be, but there is no way that a movie ought to be. This is not Aristotle where we have to follow some prescribed pattern.

Absolute class film, the cinema scene where they talk Italian was funny as fuck.

But he never said he loved Lars Von Trier. He made it clear that he doesn't trust his motives at all; he just happened to like that particular film of his. And what's wrong with liking High School Musical? It's not like he compared it to The Exorcist; he judged the film for what it is, an innocent movie for kids.

I keep having to explain this time and time again, but here goes. We are not touchy with swearing as opposed to the US. Where someone swears live on a TV network and it makes it into the tabloid newspapers the next day, in the UK the network apologises and then moves on. This radio show airs in the morning where toddlers could be listening. Americans parents would flip out if their child said damn.

I like Tarantino scenes but not sure about his movies (apart from Pulp)

they dont blur out the words in the U.S. i love the breaking bad as well and i watch it all the time they dont blur in america maybe they just blur it for the U.K because here we get everything they release on that show

agree. pulp fiction feels so mature and full of depth and gravitas compared to IB.

Volume 1?

@TulseLuper That's the beauty of it.

what do you like then?

I hate it when the good doctor gets it wrong.

Go straight to Part II video.

I really didn't like it but it's probably just me - I don't think I have it in me to enjoy war films for the most part. The only thing I liked was that the clip about scalping reminded me of the scene in Harold and Maude when Harold gets inraptured about the prospect of souvenirs when joins the army.

@SvenTviking Bang on. Couldn't agree more

@WAAAAAAAAAAAY but everyone always just assumes he just simply referencing other films. besides maybe using the same music or some sort of style of an exploitation film (ex. Slaughter), it doesn't mean he's an original, He most definitely deserved best screenplay.

Kermode just doesn't like QT, huh?

Think Inglorious Basterds is my favourite QT film.

This is a radio show

@thatmovieguy777 I think he used to be original but I also think "simply referencing other films" is what Tarantino has slid into after the apparent commercial failure of Jackie Brown. I agree that the screenplay for Inglourious Basterds was very good.....Having just looked at the nominations/winner for the original screenpay oscar for that year, it is pretty surprising he didn't win...

I believe inglorious is Tarantino best work

agred, all his reviews are based to a degree on the preconception he has, even in this one here, he goes on for half a minute about the title.

Mark: ....Inglourious Simon: ...'sterds. LOL!

To tell you truth it's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that there was a problem with it. I'm as surprised as you.

It was a Tarantino war film, and I think Tarantino got carried away on the fact that it was a TARANTINO war film. Great first half, great dialogue, ending was annoying shite. He could not control himself.

Director Quentin Tarantino delivers A very well acted, gruesome, stylish, well written, humourous & A very realistic war film. (86%) (4.5/5 stars) (positive)

that's intelligent and makes perfect sense!

inglorious basterds was entertaining as hell and really funny at some points

The only movie that had the balls to show Adolf Hitler getting shot to shit! Good film not his best but still better than silly Hollywood remakes and tame comic book adaptations. I think KILL BILL is his best work. QT makes movie going an experience people cheered and applaud at the end of this IB. Another thing this critic needs to get over QT's past work. The one thing I respect about QT is he never makes the same movie twice, his catalog of films are always different.

What if someone made the same kind of flick (a make belief ww2) about a group of germans best soldiers exterminating the forces of the resistance? It would never get released...

1. Reservoir Dogs 2. Inglorious Basterds 3. Django Unchained 4. Pulp Fiction 5. Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 6. Jackie Brown 7. The Hateful Eight

Pitt was so cool in this movie

How is Marvin getting shot bad writing? I can understand if you feel uncomfortable with graphic violence that you found the scene insensitive, but it's definitely not bad writing.

why was the movie django banned in the U.K for over 30 years? as much as i hate i spit on your grave its always been available here but not until recently it has become legal to buy in the U.K. also how come you cant get the last house on the left without any cuts in the U.K even as of now? we have always had it in whatever cut we wanted. im not sure about cannibal holocoust but i think its still illegal for that movie in the U.K. but not here, these are just some examples.

@MokomaSusi The point is, I wouldn't go around labelling a filmmaker who gave a negative portrayal of Shiro Ishii as being a wet-sock liberal or a Chinese imperialist or whatever. The problem I had was people accusing the movie of being pro-zionist, and I don't see anything of the sort - I simply see a fairly merciless pisstake of a group of people who don't deserve any better treatment.

@squamish4244 Kermode knows his stuff. He may come across as abit full of himself sometimes, but he's a critic at the end of the day. Most of his reviews are spot on.

The opening scene, the strudel scene and the guessing game scene were all top notch, and to be fair, made up half of the movie more or less, but the other half was just OK. I can't help thinking that Brad Pitt was miscast in his role..... I suppose everybody really is a critic... Then again, I really enjoyed Eli Roth in this movie as well, so take from that what you will... :P

You don't wanna use up your quoter

I disliked Hellraiser AND Pulp Fiction. What do I win?.

i liked it, it looked good, it had some great diologue, and some great acting, it was funny and extremely violent in parts, kermode doesnt like tarantino movies which is fair enough i kinda get it, but i thought inglorious basterds is a good movie, and i liked the rewriting of history

That was the point.

I have to disagree with Kermode here. Very much so. I thought the entire film unfolded very well to a spectacular ending that was one of the most cathartic I've seen. It took someone like Tarantino, after 65 years, to make a movie where he said screw it to historical fact and the 'Hitler always escapes at the last minute' films and killed the bastard.

Kermode is wrong about so many things when it comes to his QT "reviews".. he picks apart the most insignificant b.s. In this case, he starts off by accusing QT of " not sticking to the title"? The film was ALWAYS called INGLORIOUS BASTERDS . Nowhere, at anytime , did the title "INGLORIOUS" appear on any promotional material in the U.S. He threw a fit during his"Death Proof" review, concerning the fact that the poster said "5th film by...." because Kermode felt that Dusk till Dawn and Four Rooms

What is the point in him making a film? he has admitted many times he could not make a good film but he can review them.

Should have been included bc he wrote D.T.D. and that QT just wanted to"forget about Four Rooms". Four Rooms was a collaboration w 3 other directors, so he directed 1/4 of that film. Kermode wants so badly to count F.D.T.D...ok, so what about True Romance? Then he goes on to have the nerve to say QT " can't write, he can't direct", then, before he did this review, he had to explain that his prob. W QT was that he was "too good to be making such bad films" and goes on about how great Reservoir Do

Just that "clip" bored me to death.

It must ve a very horrible experience to watch a movie with this man. Making faces and a bad mood all the time. Criticising everything from the chair, the coke, the popcorn, the size of the screen, the movie trailers and every aspect of the movie itself.

That just about sums up our country, really

He's got a point on Exploitation cinema. . .

@LucasW180 watch him talk about his opinion of tarantino, that i not the case at all

you can't say bastard on british radio?

Wasn't his greatest film in my opinion but its hard to top a classic like Pulp Fiction. I like im as a film maker tho.

What did Kermode expect Tarantino to do about posters? Saying he lacks conviction for that is petty as fuck.

I felt that the narrator was just a cheap and blatant way to spoon feed the audience information. He doesn't even talk that much in the film or consistently so it felt like a disclaimer. The characters were good but Tarantino played it safe by simplifying the nazi characters and not challenging them by making the nazis somewhat sympathetic or human at least and questioning whether the inglourious basterds were justified to do what they do. It is not even taken into consideration that some nazis were regular people forced into war against their will. Tarantino's perspective is very black and white. The Germans weren't even that racist I think. When hitler was at the Olympics he shook the hand of a famous black athlete and congratulated him so when Christopher waltz demands that marcel shall not run the projector it is a bit of an overkill. It seems like Tarantino didn't think hitler was evil enough so he showed him laughing maniacally at people dying on film which is more offensive. He's hitler for god's sake, of course he's evil. There's no reason to force that on the audience. If the film was more complex I would have really liked it as it had the potential to be a lot more than it was. I hope tarantino's next film is something in the vein of jackie brown as his latest work is watered down bullshit.

the bullet could have hit the car seat and the blood splattered everywhere because that's the way the force of a bullet works, and even if you take that out the point of that moment was NOT to be scientifically accurate and the film is not about realism. The point of that moment was to bring about the next scene, get them into ridiculous clothes and lead them to the diner which we saw at the start of the film. Also Vincent, throughout the film, is depicted as a clumsy hitman...

lol in the words of another superhero film maker, "Why so serious?"

Mark hates Tarantino for some reason, and I''m here for it.

What the hell are you talking about? There's nothing political about Inglourious Basterds. It's a film about other films. It exists only in Tarantino's head and has nothing to do with the real world whatsoever.

@andymc24 Or, maybe they just didn't like the film, and are happy to finally find a critic who doesn't worship Tarantino.

HE LOBBIED TO DO A BOND FLICK! Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown are his best films. Kill Bill is basically a superhero movie that didn't have a comic book attached to it. That's my point!

I found the movie very funny and entertaining, but where did the guy who made Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs go off to? It's quite strange to see 'Directed By Quentin Tarantino' at the end of the movie. He's more than capable of making a movie as good as Pulp and Dogs, maybe a movie even BETTER than those two, but he's Just. Not. Doing. It.

why the hell is the word "bastard" not okay to say on the air? that's ridiculous

The answer lies in his diction, the shit marks in his pantaloons, effendi.

I thought IB was a really stupid film.QT increasingly seems to be indulging a blood fetish. That is not why I thought that this was stupid.

No one has a problem with it. We British are actually pretty tame with bad language, you just have to wait until the 9pm watershed (Google it) and you can swear all you want uncensored, with barely any restraints. F-word, c-word every word imaginable. A lot more tame as opposed to US TV (excluding HBO) where swearing has to be bleeped out. This radio show airs in the morning where kids are listening, you wouldn't want your 6-year old using words like that would you?

I thought this film was totally brilliant ❤

A minute and a half, just discussing the title of the film........ Bye now.

Any fool can be a critic

People must realise that it is impossible for Kermode to be objective with this film because Tarantino is casually an "hommage" film maker who borrows heavily, a borderline plagiarist, and a lot of what he does was already seen before by Kermode in the thousands of films he has seen and analysed.

Is that necessarily a bad thing? IIRC Oasis got a bad rep for basically sounding like the Beatles early on - well as the saying goes "if you are going to steal then steal from the best!" Personally I love the Beatles and at least the first 3 or 4 Oasis albums were great as well, barely a weak song on the whole album. Tarantino is exactly the same, his roots, his inspirations, his homages are obvious but the films are generally good IMHO.

Ingorious basterds is my favourite tarantino movie.... there i said it

Actually, Pitt's character is NOT Jewish.

When kermode writes and directs a masterpiece I'll review it

@69crafty Well, I'll take you word for it it's just on some others I checked out here he's bitching about this or that. And others he likes. So of course film is subjective. But Inglourious Basterds got 88% on RT, everyone I know loved it and it broke Hollywood convention with the 'Hitler cannot die' rule in every other fictional storyline WWII movie. Maybe he just has it out for Tarantino.

Inglorious Basterds is easily Tarantino's worst. It has its moments, Brad Pitt and Christopher Waltz stealing the show, but everything else is painfully dull. This is coming from someone that enjoyed Death Proof, I like all of his other films.

Tarantino himself wanted to do a bond flick. What makes Tarantino the maker of 'Deathproof' and juvenile revenge flicks so special he's too good to make a superhero or bond flick? How pretentious!

its very entertaining :D first time i think i disagreed with mark kermode

This is radio, and presumably during certain times you can't. Big deal.