Yes, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS excites me very much.

Am I wrong, or am I sensing a massive Tarantino backlash afoot? I've seen some very dismissive things written about his upcoming release Inglourious Basterds, and I have to say: I don't get it (could it be leftover hate from the not-well-received Grindhouse?). Sorry, naysayers, but Tarantino is one of our greatest, most vivacious filmmakers. I mean, every Tarantino movie is an absolute must-see. This one, with Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Samm Levine, Til Schwieger, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Cloris Leachman, Maggie Cheung and Mike Myers, looks to me like what should be a hit. But, since it looks good, and since Tarantino hasn't had a smash hit since Pulp Fiction in 1994--and since it's a World War II movie--I fear that it'll probably bomb at the box office. I've never seen the original Italian-made 70s film The Inglorious Bastards (directed by Enzo Castellari and starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson and Ian Bannen) but I'm sure I'll catch that correctly-spelled title soon. But with this little bit of typically snazzy Tarantino talk, I'm sold on this being one of the most tantalizing 2009 offerings out there:

My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I need me eight soldiers. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. We're gonna be doing one thing and one thing only... killing Nazis. Members of the national socialist party conquered Europe with murder, torture, intimation, and terror. And that's exactly what we're gonna do to them. We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty they will know who we are. They will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, disfigured bodies of their brothers that we leave behind us. The Germans will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, at our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans will be sickened by us. The Germans will talk about us and the Germans will fear us. Nazis ain't got no humanity! They need to be destroyed! Each and every man under my command owns me one hundred Nazi scalps... and I want my scalps!

Film #112: Henry V (1989)

Kenneth Branaugh had been acting on stage, TV and screen--all mostly in Britain--just a little over five years before he captured the public eye with his masterful 1989 directorial debut Henry V. It ended up netting him two Oscar nominations, for Best Actor and Best Director (the film only ended up winning one award for its costumes). This energetic helping of Shakespearean political intrigue has Branaugh in the title role as the very unlikely, newly-crowned King of England, whose lusty manner and unfaltering bravery help to forge an alliance with the hostile French throne, thereby cementing his transition from blue-blooded drunk to crafty monarch.

From its opening moments with Derek Jacobi impressing as a modern-day-dressed Chorus, Henry V establishes a refreshing, intimate quality--a good humor, even. Few Bard adaptations can match it in its accessibility. Particularly of note is the unforgettable, gritty slow-motion battle on the fields of Agincourt, preceded by Branaugh's impassioned delivery of the famed "St. Crispin's Day" speech. Afterwards, you can look forward to King Henry's smashing attempts to woo France's obstinate, non-English-speaking Princess Katherine (played by Emma Thompson, who was then married to Branaugh). British acting legends Brian Blessed, Paul Scofield, Christian Bale, Robbie Coltrane, and Ian Holm also star here in Branaugh's best film outing (though his versions of Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing come close).

Film #111: The Great Santini

Love me some Robert Duvall. He eats up the screen here, and got his first Best Actor Oscar nomination, in 1979, for his title role. He plays the gruff, unmanagable, unBEATable Lt. Bull Meecham, a 50s-era Air Force warrior-without-a-war whose stern belief in discipline is unfairly extended to his genteel Southern family (led by syrup-voiced mother Blythe Danner), Michael O'Keefe co-stars as Ben, the "Great Santini's" sensitive and, thus, long-suffering son (the original novel Lewis John Carlino's screenplay was based upon was penned by Georgia-born Prince of Tides writer Pat Conroy, who based his work on his life growing up as an artist in a military family).

The film holds a singular place in cinema history. Originally titled The Ace and dumped into 1979 movie theaters, it performed poorly. It immediately was sold to HBO and when it began to get massive ratings, it was pulled, re-edited, and then re-released (to good box-office showings) into theaters as The Great Santini. One would think its appearance on HBO would have deemed its Oscar chances nil (even today, the Academy Award rules state that, to be eligible for an Oscar, movies must not have appeared on TV first). But, somehow (I guess because of its re-edit), The Great Santini ended up getting nods not only for Duvall, but also for the beleaguered O'Keefe as Best Supporting Actor (an angry Duvall bouncing a basketball off O'Keefe's head during a "friendly" family game stands as one of the film's most memorable images). No other movie that has been shown previously on TV has ever reached the Oscars, as far as I know (even Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage was disqualified for being shown in a longer form on Swedish TV). The Great Santini also sports notable performances from Stan Shaw (as the doomed Toomer), David Keith, Lisa Jane Persky, Julie Ann Haddock, and Paul Mantee. Catch it, sports fans!