Every year, like anyone, I have a lot of movies that I anticipate. Everyone’s must see list is different, but there’s always a single movie that stands above the pack for everyone that is the single most anticipated movie of the year. Sometimes you get lucky and you anticipated correctly and the movie you craved to see for a year finally came out and it was fantastic. Sometimes you find yourself disappointed, whether that means it was a bad movie and you can’t believe you expected so much out of it, or it was just an ok movie, but your wild expectations were not met so you find yourself disappointed. Last year this movie was The Dark Knight and obviously my insanely high expectations were actually exceeded. This year I am anticipating a lot of movies, (Sherlock Holmes, The Wolfman, Nine, Shutter Island, etc.), but there is a single movie that stands above the pack as always and that movie is none other than Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
I was certainly anticipating The Dark Knight more before it came out, but Inglourious Basterds has come closer than I would have ever dreamed. It’s the story of a a group of Jewish-American soldiers looking to take revenge against the Third Reich in German occupied France. With also another plot thrown in about a cinema worker, who years ago watched her family slaughtered at the hands of the Ruthless Nazi Colonel, Hans Landa. This is Quentin Tarantino’s sixth movie and he’s been working on the script for years. He was actually talking about shooting it before Kill Bill was even started. It’s his biggest cast of talking characters ever and filled with some big name actors one of whom being the one and only Brad Pitt, sporting a fantastic Southern accent.
Brad Pitt’s performance looks to be fantastic from the trailers, but his isn’t the performance I’m anticipating the most. It’s Christoph Waltz, whom I’ve been truly expecting a lot out of and I’ve never even seen him in a movie before. This year at the Cannes Film Festival he was the winner of The Best Actor award for his role as Hans Landa in this film. He’s the main antagonist of the feature and I just can’t wait to see what he dishes out. All I’ve seen from his performance is a few very short clips from the trailers. He looks to be spectacular, but I’m sure I haven’t seen anything yet.
There are so many reasons why I just cannot wait for its release on August 21st, from its intriguing plot, to its many fascinating characters, but there’s one reason the stands above the rest. Quentin Tarantino has never let me down. Jackie Brown was a fantastic movie, I absolutely loved Reservoir Dogs and Death Proof, and Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction were nothing short of masterpieces. I seriously doubt Tarantino can shoot out a bad movie on his sixth try especially when its got this much going for it. I said it for The Dark Knight and I’m going to say it again for Inglourious Basterds. When 3 am roles around on August 21st I’m going to drvie home sit down and write an honest review for what I hope to be the greatest movie of 2009.
P.S. Happy Dark Knight Day!