XQUIZIT for October starting with XQUIZIT 22 will resume again on Monday, Oct 5th. Pictionary 12 submissions open till 9pm today - click here! Answers, points awarded and winners of September will be put up on Friday before we go and enjoy the long weekend!

We realize this review is a weee bit late. OK, very very late. But there were some fairly unforeseen developments in the lives of the (comically underpaid) writing staff here at the Utter-Crap-o-Meter. These included, among other things, bouts of depression, alcohol dependence, independence (followed by more dependence) and then a 2-week trip to Italy (which involved massive alcohol dependence). We hope our readers will understand.

For our readers in India, though, we think the timing is perfect.

The archetype of the evil movie villain has had some pretty well defined characteristics. Barring some necessary (and mostly endearing) variations, nearly all memorable movie bad guys have had commonalities. There’s the sneer, the devil-may-care attitude, the deep-seated insecurities, the maniacal screeching (and/or throaty Vader-esque growl) and so on. Hindi movie buffs will often recall with fondness, the madness and humor in Ajit’s dire threats, or the cold swagger and demonic laughter of “Gabbarrrrr…” or the insane ramblings of Tinnu Anand or Danny (There, there, Gunda fans, wipe those tears of nostalgia now). Hollywood has its share of evil stereotypes as well (Darth Vader, any one of the Bond villains, and more recently, the Joker).

Which is why its so exciting when a movie like Basterds comes along and utterly shakes up the standard construction of evil. Tarantino has moulded several (wildly) popular characters during his illustrious career, but, at least in this writer’s opinion, none quite like Col. Hans Landa. Played by Christopher Waltz, who was a complete unknown to me before the movie, Landa is a German SD intelligence officer who has been charged with finding and eliminating as many Jews as possible from France. He is fluent in many languages, extremely charming, an incurable romantic.

And yet, he is also one of the most sinister screen characters I have ever seen. Ever. Even when he says something as innocuous as “Please”, I found myself clutching to the armrests, waiting for something morbidly climactic to happen, and then breathing a slight sigh of relief when the moment passed, only to repeat the whole thing all over again. Indeed, it is interesting that in a movie supposedly about World War II, Hitler is not the most dangerous man on screen.

This is of course, one of the central premises of the movie itself. Without giving too much away, the movie is about a group of Jewish Allied soldiers (the Inglourious Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)) whose mission is to cause untold havoc on Nazi forces. Tarantino plays with the history, first a little, then a bit more and by the end of it all, one is so caught up in the fun of it all that all thought of historical accuracy is thrown out with the stale popcorn.

The story is (maybe a bit unusually for Tarantino) linear, which is probably the only real depar-ture from his style. All the other Tarantino markers are in place: the chapter-wise arrangement, the maverick humor, exaggerated (yet believable) characters and so on. The performances are good from all of them, although one could say that not a single one the characters was more memorable than Col. Landa. And this includes the pretty boy Pitt.

If you already love Tarantino, you will probably like the movie and the subtle differences between this and his earlier ones. If you don’t, and/or haven’t watched any of his other ones, well, you will fall in love with his irreverent style of filmmaking and the great storyline. We here at the Utter-Crap-o-Meter thouroughly enjoyed it, and are now ready to award the first ever 1 turd out of 10 on the Crap Scale.

Poop Quality: Fresh, nutty and solid.

Crap Rating:  

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