Tarantino

So, a few days ago I went to the movies and saw Inglourious Basterds. The thing is, which on the internet, and basically among all connoisseurs of my age demographic a heresy, I don't particularly care for Tarantino or any of his movies, or at least those that I saw. I wouldn't go and see this one either if my significant pain in the arse other didn't talk me into it. So, let me speak of the movies that I saw from Tarantino so far.

From Dusk till dawn --- One of the worst movies I ever saw. Really, honestly, I can't tell you how much I hate this movie. All the likeable characters are there to suck Clooney's dick, the main female is an atrocious actress, and I just plain hated it. Sure, it's a matter of opinion, but I can't even begin to tell you how over rated this thing is to me.

Pulp Fiction --- This is like the Messiah of modern movies for some reason. For me, it was just a movie. Nothing special, and honestly, if I were to see it in the movies for the first time I would feel sort of disappointed. It's not bad, nothing with Samuel Jackson is, but it really wasn't in the least intriguing for me to call it a cult classic.

Jackie Brown --- Fell asleep some odd 15 minutes into it, never managed to watch it in one sitting. Not even said Jackson could save this movie.

Four Rooms --- alright, this wasn't as much of a bore fest, but it was again, just a movie, nothing special to it.

Kill Bill --- watched the first one, and for an action flick, similarly to Spider-Man 3, most of the times when I was supposed to be glued to the screen I spent writing sms messages on my cell phone. It was dull, it was boring and I didn't like it at all. Most famous masturbator in it or not, it's still awful. Never even saw the second part.

Reservoir dogs --- Now, from what I hear, this is usually the movie most people love from Tarantino. To be honest, I didn't watch this one except for bits and pieces, and thus I won't comment on it yet since I didn't get the full experience.

That's it more or less, I didn't watch gore fests such as Hostel or whatever other crap he directed/had his fingers in, but suffice to say, that most of his famous movies didn't sit well for me.

And then I watched the said Inglorious Basterds one. And to be frank, I really liked it. It reminded me of the game Godhand for a reason I can't really explain, except for maybe mixing a genre of western with something completely different. It was a bit on the gory side, which I am usually fine with, except the baseball bat scene, which I found disgusting, more then anything they put in horrors that I saw so far. I have an aversion of graphical appearance of people being bludgeoned to death ever since I watched Casino and the scene where Joe Pesci's brother gets every bit of his body well tenderized. I don't care about ripping one's nails-teeth or whatever Oldboy tried to disgust me with, but show me someone getting struck in the head with a bat, and that disgusting dull sound and that's all I need to feel repulsed.

However, that aside, I liked it. The acting of the main "villain" was one of the best performances I saw in a new movie, Brad Pitt was the weakest link really, the story had a mix of comedy and horror with it, showing the Nazi characters as almost sympathetic and the "heroes" as sadistic pigs, all in all, a pleasurable experience.

So who knows, maybe I'll give Tarantino a chance and watch the dogs and that reservoir they come from.

Comments 4

zippdementia Sep 22, 2009

I'm no Tarantino zealot, but the fact that you liked INglorious Basterds shows that there's hope for you, yet.

Suskie Sep 22, 2009

I must not be a Tarantino fan either because, looking over this list, I only like three of his movies. (One that you missed: He wrote True Romance, which had one fantastic scene but was otherwise forgettable. He also wrote and directed Death Proof, his half of Grindhouse, which was stupid and completely broke the entire grindhouse formula that Rodriguez spent the first half of the movie building on.))

I've heard plenty of people say the same thing you said about Pulp Fiction. Really, the movie is all about the screenplay. Tarantino has gained a reputation for his extremely casual dialog, how the characters in his movies more or less talk like real people would, and carry on conversations that sometimes have nothing to do with progressing the plot. Pulp Fiction is full of scenes like that, and you really need to have an appreciation for how natural it all feels to really get into the movie. (See also: The diner scene at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs.)

zippdementia Sep 23, 2009

Of his films, Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds are definitely the masterpieces. Reservoir Dogs is also genius but lacks the endearing quality of his later films (I mean, in Pulp Fiction you fall in love with the two murderous hitmen, but I don't think you can even LIKE anyone in RDogs).

Kill Bill holds a special place in my heart for its attention to detail and its success at matching genres, but it's overall a fairly weak set of films.

darketernal Blogger Sep 23, 2009

Like I said, the thing is, I just don't get the praise. The only good thing that I actually do like about Tarantino is that he often takes unknown or fairly unknown actors in his movies, thus giving them a chance to shine and make a name for themselves.