i wouldn't go so far as to say it was awful (the first 30-45 mins were great and showed loads of potential), but i was really disappointed. i looked down at my watch, and the movie was two hours in, and barely anything had happened in the movie. i chose not two read much about it beforehand, but i assumed the movie would be about the Basterds ripping through the Nazis vigilante-style throughout the heft of the film, and there really ended up being their one introductory scene of that. tarantino introduced and gave the background on all those characters, yet they weren't even really used outside that scene. seemed to make all that backstory pointless. he took a bunch of different stories, and attempted to merge them together in a really sloppy way, imo. this goes near the bottom of tarantino's efforts for me.
I can definitely see where you're coming from here, and after the first watch (which was, after all, at midnight and I was kinda sauced) I might even go so far as to agree with you. However, there isn't one QT flick that doesn't get infinitely better with every viewing, so I'll wait to watch it a couple more times before I make my final verdict. Oh, and name one director with as many awesome first scenes as Tarantino... I sure can't. Jew Hunter FTW.
I really enjoyed it, but I honestly felt like it would have been better as a two-parter like Kill Bill. Felt like there needed to be way more "Basterds." Also, there was one technical thing that drove me crazy. In the subtitles, most of the time, "Merci" would read as "Merci," but sometimes it read as "Thank you." Same with "Oui" and "Yes." There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why it read "Merci" and "Oui" at times and then "Thank you" and "Yes" at others. Tarantino seems like a meticulous dude, so I just can't comprehend him overlooking something like that, which makes me think there was some intent behind it. It just seems completely arbitrary, though. Very minor and anal complaint, obviously. Anyway, I would definitely watch this again. It ties with Kill Bill under Pulp Fiction for me. Ironically, it was quite the feel-good movie. I went during the matinee yesterday, and this old grandma was seriously having the time of her life. It was great.
Completely enjoyed it; but Box Office Mojo shows $14.5 mil on Friday, I guess you double that for a weekend gross? Then it will presumably drop off in successive weeks, so with a $70 million budget I guess you just hope for good DVD sales. Really liked it: 2 1/2 hours, but in my opinion every scene was watchable.
weekend gross will be friday-sunday, so multiply by about 3. although i think it tends to be a little less than 3 because sunday is a little weaker than friday/saturday so you should get ~$35-40M (unless it had midnight showings that skewed the number, i assume it didn't). most movies tend to fall off about 50% each weekend after that and that usually gets you a total gross of 3 times the opening weekend, so maybe $110-120M. since people seem to be saying it's pretty good (has an 8.6 on imdb right now) it could hold up better and go past those numbers. like The Hangover made way more than 3x opening weekend because it barely fell off each week with such good word of mouth. and then you've got international money so it sounds like this movie should do fine at the box office.
Being that summer is pretty much over and some schools started last week, and most this week, I don't it gets over $100M. Maybe if it was like in June or something, and the weekdays were stronger. You never know, maybe the weekend dropoff won't be as bad. We'll see.
i noticed it also...i guarantee that it was intentional and he did it as an homage to the subtitling of old german films which that was also a frequent inconsistency in, or something of that nature. kind of like how in grindhouse he intentionally threw in some film reel scratching and skipping.
I made the decision to never go see a movie on a Friday or Saturday night.. I despise the demographic age groups who attend movies on the weekend.. For once I would like to attend a screening where it was just mature adults and no freaking teenagers at sight, is there anything possible like that?
i just came back from an 11 am showing. the theater was pretty much empty but there was enough to enjoy the movie without feeling you're totally isolated. as for the movie, it was worth the $5 dollars i spent to see it. this is the first movie i've seen at the theaters this year and it didn't disappoint. every chapter you felt the tension grow. i loved the "twist". the "jew hunter" basically stole every scene.
Great movie. I agree with a previous poster that it definitely could have been split into 2 movies and that we needed more footage of the basterds being basterds to the Nazis. The Bear Jew scene was freaking awesome. The Jew Hunter has gotten plenty of props in this thread and well deserved. Brad Pitt was freaking awesome. I have no idea why anyone can question the guys talent. He's a great actor who, for the most part, takes on great roles and makes them his own. I also noticed the inconsistencies in the subtitles but assumed it was on purpose. I will watch this a couple of more times once it comes out of DVD.
Another bust for Pitt as the headline star in a movie. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i91e05ffd5e045bf1badc73eee3940fce
Question Spoiler Was the waitress in the basement bar one of the daughters of the frenchmen in the first scene? I couldn't really tell. Also, I couldn't make out how the real Nazi officer knew for sure that the guy with the accent was a spy....something about ordering 3 whiskeys. Can someone explain that too? Thanks
This is the best film Tarantino has ever made... Great dialog, incredible raw action, casting was phenomenal, our screening had about 5 people in it and we all gave a standing ovation... I simply love the score to the movie, I had to buy it... The Bear Jew scene was one of the best experience ever in a theater, just plain raw!!!!
Spoiler I got this from Wikipedia. One of the German soldiers present strikes up a conversation with Hicox and notices that his accent is "odd". An SS officer who is in the tavern as well also notices that odd accent. When Hicox gives the wrong three fingered order for whiskies (without using his thumb, a traditional German gesture), the SS officer realizes their deception
You do realize this is Quentin Tarantino's biggest opening weekend ever, right? The movie also has a decent shot at becoming his biggest grossing movie ever and has been called an opening weekend success by just about every industry website. I'm not really quite sure why you're calling it a bust considering the fairly limited nature of Tarantino's fan base. I also find it odd how you back up your assertion that it was a bust by quoting an article that calls it a glorious opening. http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=11942
