New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Quentin Tarantino.
Cast: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Mike Myers, Cloris Leachman, Michael Fassbender, Christian Berkel, Maggie Cheung
Description: In Nazi-occupied France, German officer Colonel Hans Landa interrogates a farmer suspected of harbouring Jewish families. Dozens perish in the subsequent bloodbath but one young woman, Shosanna, escapes and reinvents herself as a cinema owner in Paris, where she plots revenge. Meanwhile, British Lieutenant Archie Hicox and a renegade gang of Jewish American renegades plot twin assaults on the Third Reich.
Country: US. 2009. 152mins
Brothers in arms: Eli Roth (left) plays a member of the Jewish death squad commanded by Brad Pitt
You don't expect depth from Quentin Tarantino, even though Jackie Brown nearly made it in the grown-up stakes.
But at his best, in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, you do expect film-making that hits you with its sheer virtuosity.
This, his sixth movie, starts well as a soft-spoken and dangerously svelte SS colonel (Christoph Waltz) visits a farmhouse in the Nazi-occupied France of 1941 and quizzes the occupant about a Jewish family hiding somewhere in the area.
The German suspects the French farmer of lying and so it proves.
Having his men tear up the house, the colonel finds and kills the family. Only a young woman (Melanie Laurent) somehow manages to escape - and thereby hangs a large part of the tale.
It is not for nothing that we have a chapter heading labelled Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France because the long opening sequence looks a bit like a western set in Europe.
It is at least dignified by Waltz, the best male actor in the film, who keeps just this side of caricature and parody with his infinitely cruel politesse.
Thereafter, we are treated to a fundamentally silly piece of fiction and far too few occasions when Tarantino manages to produce the kind of spectacular cinematic moment combining character, script and editing that first signalled him out as a virtuoso director.
Instead, we get a tall tale about a US lieutenant (Brad Pitt, feigning a blue- collar toughie) leading an ill-assorted Jewish-American guerrilla unit whose task it is to murder Nazis, preferably with baseball bats or simply by scalping them.
Not a pretty sight but then you have to look away at some point in most QT epics.
Adolf Hitler, ludicrously played by Martin Wuttke as a wild-eyed hysteric, is not best pleased either.
Meanwhile, the girl who escaped in the first sequence now runs a cinema in Paris where Goebbels is going to showcase his latest propaganda film.
The plan is to liaise with the Basterds and the German actress who spies for the Brits (Diane Kruger) to blow up the theatre with all the Nazi bigwigs in it, including Goebbels and Hitler.
It's a tale of derring-do that Tarantino orchestrates while paying his usual gleeful homage to an array of mostly bad commercial films, including one by Enzo Castellari called Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato, from which he has filched the English title in a misspelt version.
But, alas, the plonking chapter headings and the self-congratulatory, overlong sequences make the whole thing a pain to sit through.
It's as if Tarantino is so pleased about making a film no one else would even have been allowed to start that he has decided to put in everything that ought to have been left on the cutting-room floor.
The acting is variable too, with the Europeans (mostly German) much the most notable.
They almost make you feel sorry for them as the Basterds smash them down.
Pitt is fairly dire and, along with the other Basterds, gives the impression of being just as ghastly as the Nazis.
You may gather that I don't much like this bloody Boy's Own adventure.
But there's a caveat, and that is that if you judge Inglourious Basterds by the rest of this summer's action-fed releases it comes off better than most.
Tarantino's film-making at least has a certain bald energy about it and a confidence that will allow those who go along with the story to have plenty of simple fun.
Credibility, however, is not the name of this particular game. One supposes, it was never intended to be.
To ask Tarantino finally to grow up might be fatal, emasculating the very talent that appeals to some.
Perhaps the reason his many fans swear by him is that he will never mature.
But, if so, where are the film-making moments here to hit you like a clap of thunder?
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It wasn't a 'hugely fun' film. Apart from Christoph Waltz and the opening scene in the farmer's house (with Christoph Waltz of course), it wasn't anything special.
- Sean, Cardiff
A comic masterpiece brilliantly directed and acted:
Saw this film in the US where it seems to be more appreciated
Loved every minute (except perhaps the scalping) and laughed out loud countless times.
- Bb, London
pitiful rubbish, can only have come from America,how in gods name did this alleged director get somebody stupid enough to waste money on this drivel mores to the point what cretin wrote it
- Brian, barry Britain
I loved every minute of this film. As an aspiring writer and a history buff, particularly Germany between the two World Wars, what a thrill to see a bit of revenge, albeit fiction. The scene where Shoshanna's image goes up in flames while Adolf Hitler is machine-gunned down, will be an image that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Thank you, Mr. Tarantino!
- Georgina, New York USA
The Closest Q.T has got to Pulp since Pulp. Some of the dialog is simply fantastic, however, just when your mouth arcs into the sinister grin that most Tarantino fans adopt whilst watching his older movies his style becomes just that little bit too self indulgent for the average movie-goer.
- Martyn Walker, Brentwood, Essex
@ Baz: and all the swill wafting up from the UK "film" industry is the exception, eh?
- Slap Maxwell, Orlando, Fl
A load of old codswallop!
- Nikkinoonar, UK
A ridiculous plot, but some terrific acting, (Waltz, Kruger and Fassbender in particular. As for the question, "where are the film making moments to hit you like a clap of thunder?", surely the scene in the village tavern must rank among the best from any film this year?
- Neil Williamson, Kent, UK
Tarantino is very immature and has always had a strong taste for senseless violence. His movies are pointless and here he has co-opted WWII for another exploitation movie. The odd thing is, he doesn't seem to understand that his copying of bad movies makes him create trashy movies.
- John, London
A load of American rubbish.
- Baz, London UK
This film kept me interested and involved from start to finish. It's got humour, action, intrigue and excitement.
OK being Jewish and watching a film about Nazis being brutally murdered does have a natural in-built enjoyment factor for me. My g/f calls it Jewish porn! But that aside, this is a hugely enjoyable comedic romp and to give it a critical review because it doesn't meet your need for sombre and morose film making is unfair. Yes, this is a Boys Own adventure. It's funny and great entertainment. No it's not going to win an Oscar for best picture, but that's wasn't the intention from what I can see. Take of your critical glasses for a mo and just enjoy a hugely fun film.
- Justin Silver, London, England
And he can't even spell properly, either.
- Wilhelm Vieux, N London
Afternoon:
15°c
