Inglourious Basterds, one of the best films of 2009 finally comes to the Blu-ray format and I’m glad to say this is one gorgeous looking transfer; I put this in and just went, wow. The colors man, the colors are just so vibrant and alive. The transfer is 1080p, 2.40:1 and includes DTS-HD Master audio that sounds great. Do you really need 5.1 surround when the entire movie is basically people talking?
Update – There are actually two iPhone apps for Inglourious Basters. One that’s in German and another one called Pocket Blue that let’s you do some pretty nifty stuff like easily transfer special features from your Blu-ray disk to the iPhone. You can get Pocket Blu here.
Movie
Whenever I review a Quentin Tarantino film I feel like I have to establish where I am on the Tarantino curve. So before we begin, I love Pulp Fiction (who doesn’t?), love Kill Bill, hate Kill Bill 2, don’t like Jackie Brown, loathe the dialogue in Grindhouse and think Reservoir Dogs is just ok – I’ll watch it anytime it’s on TV but it’s just an OK film for me. In this body of work comes Tarantino’s latest Inglourious Basterds.
I’m of two minds this, on the one hand the film is pure Tarantino “cliché,” there’s the dialogue – I’ve never understood why everyone thinks it’s always the best – personally I find his judicious use of the N word obnoxious and offensive, I was waiting to see how he works it in here and he does. Of course you get the black title slate that separates each act, the fantastic use of music, the directing style it all screams Tarantino. But there’s a been there done that feeling to watching Basterds – if you judge it purely based on Tarantino’s body of work.
On the other hand, in this year of bland, boring, visionless studio films by hacks like McG and Brett Ratner, Ingourious Basterds is a fun, inventive breath of fresh air that I just wanted to keep breathing in and hold as if my life depended on it. There are many things you can say about Basterds but bland isn’t one of them.
Features
- The features in this package are kind of slim and standard
- The Blu-ray has 3 Extended and Alternate scenes,
- Nation’s Pride Full Version (7Min) ((SD)
- Roundtable discussion with Quentin, Brad and critic Elvis Mitchell, who I don’t like (30 Min) (HD)
- The Making of Nations Pride (4 min) (HD) – This is a fake featurette about the making of Nature’s Pride
- A Tribute to the original Inglourious Basterds (7 Min) ((SD)
- A Conversation with Rod Taylor (7 Min) (HD)
- Poster Galleries
- Trailers
- BD-Live
- Comments
Is this the best film of the year? In a very weak year, I’ll have to say yes. It’s one of the only films this year that year that I gave a solid A to. I’ve always liked Universal Home Video’s menu navigation; it’s clean, uncluttered and easy to get around in. The features are just about the right length – they really don’t go into the actual making of this movie and there are no audio commentary tracks. The iPhone app turned out to be disappointing because it’s in German! Inglourious Basterds comes to Blu-ray/DVD December 15, 2009.
Grades
- Movie – A
- Picture Quality – A
- Audio – A
- Menu Navigation/Presentation – A
- Features – B
Final Overall Grade – A
EM Review
by Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 12.06.09