Inglorious Basterds was the movie of choice this weekend.

Back at the beginning of the summer, few people (myself included) pegged Quentin Tarantino’s World War II flick Inglorious Basterds as a breakout box-office hit.  Not only did Tarantino’s last film–the double feature Grindhouse–completely tank at the box office, but Brad Pitt’s track record has also been uneven of late, suggesting that his star power may have dimmed.  As it turns out, all the naysayers were wrong.  Basterds catapulted to the top of the charts this weekend, earning $37.6 million–Tarantino’s highest-grossing debut ever and Pitt’s best opening since Ocean’s Thirteen, where he was surrounded by dozens of other A-list stars.  If word of mouth continues to be positive, the movie has a strong shot at becoming the first Tarantino picture to cross the $100 mark since Pulp Fiction set that record way back in 1994.  Anyone wanna take bets on when we’ll be seeing More Inglorious Basterds?

Last week’s top-earner District 9 continued to draw crowds in its second weekend, boosting its total gross to $73.4 million.  Those GI Joe grunts are still capturing moviegoers’ dollars as well as The Rise of Cobra finished in the top three and stands at $120.5 million.  That may not be Transformers-style numbers, but its good enough to ensure that Paramount grants the Joes a second mission.

Tarantino’s Grindhouse partner Robert Rodriguez didn’t bounce back from that disaster quite as well.  The director’s kid-friendly feature Shorts opened to an anemic $6.6 million for a sixth-place finish.  That was good enough to put it ahead of the two other family movies currently in the marketplace–Jerry Bruckheimer’s G-Force and Miyazaki’s Ponyo–but far below Rodriguez’s successful Spy Kids series.  The weekend’s other new release, the teen comedy Post Grad, just barely finished in the Top Ten, grossing a measly $2.8 million on its way to DVD and cable TV.

The full Top Ten is below courtesy of the-numbers.com.  Next week, two horror movies sneak into theaters looking to take down the Basterds.  Will the victor by Michael Myers in Halloween II or the Grim Reaper from The Final Destination?  Place your bets now.

The Top Ten: August 21-23, 2009
1. Inglorious Basterds: $37.6
2. District 9: $18.9/$73.4
3. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra: $12.5/$120.5
4. The Time Traveler’s Wife: $10/$37.4
5. Julie & Julia: $9/$59.2
6. Shorts: $6.6
7. G-Force: $4.2/$107.3
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $3.5/$290.2
9. The Ugly Truth: $2.9/$82.8
10. Post Grad: $2.8

Reviews of Inglorious Basterds and Passing Strange

Inglorious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent
***

Ideally, Quentin Tarantino’s latest feature Inglorious Basterds should be seen twice, the first time to adjust to what it isn’t and the second to appreciate what it is. Part of the problem is that the film’s advertising campaign has sold it as if it were a spiritual sequel to Grindhouse—a gonzo, ultraviolent World War II tale of a band of renegade Jewish American soldiers led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) cutting a bloody swath through Europe in their quest to collect as many Nazi scalps as possible. In truth though, Inglorious Basterds is a slower, talkier affair that prizes the anticipation of bloodshed over the actual act of bloodshed. If I had to sum up the movie in typical Hollywood pitch-speak, I’d describe it as Once Upon a Time in the West meets My Dinner With Andre. Throughout its two-and-a-half hour runtime, the film juxtaposes Sergio Leone-style Mexican stand-offs (shot in gorgeous wide-screen by Tarantino’s Kill Bill cinematographer Bob Richardson) with intimate conversations conducted over drinks and/or a hearty meal.

The other thing moviegoers probably won’t be anticipating is that Brad Pitt and his squad of basterds aren’t the stars of the movie. Instead, they’re just one plot thread in a sprawling saga that also includes a young Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) who escapes a Nazi ambush and ends up operating a Parisian movie theater; a British film critic turned upstanding soldier (Michael Fassbender) who is tasked with a dangerous assignment; and, best of all, a German officer (the marvelous Austrian actor Christoph Waltz) who always seems to be one step ahead of everyone around him. In interviews, Tarantino has said that, at one point, he had planned for Basterds to be a multi-part miniseries and that’s apparent from the dense narrative, which would take too long to summarize in full here. Instead, I’ll just say that the A-plot involves a top-secret plan to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officials (including Hitler himself) at a movie premiere—a mission that eventually allows all the film’s characters to assemble in one place for the picture’s grand (and genuinely surprising) finale.

However annoying Tarantino may be as a media celebrity, he’s still one of the best shooters in the business right now. There are moments in Inglorious Basterds that rank amongst his most impressive work, most notably an extended sequence in a cellar pub in which a group of Allied officers disguised as Nazis meet their informant (Diane Kruger) while trying to avoid detection by the actual Nazis drinking and carousing one table away. Tautly directed and wittily written, this nearly 20-minute sequence is classic Tarantino. And even when the script or performances aren’t clicking, the director’s expert visual eye keeps the viewer hooked. Whether he’s directly referencing images from such cinematic classics as The Searchers or framing a luscious French pastry in a tight close up, Tarantino rarely goes for the obvious shot.

For all its stylistic pleasures though, Inglorious Basterds is a curiously empty moviegoing experience, lacking much in the way of compelling drama or rich characterizations (Waltz’s wonderful work aside).  Or maybe I’m just saying that because I’ve spent the past decade hoping that Tarantino would make a movie as involving as his 1997 picture Jackie Brown. That film married his endless visual inventiveness with characters that seemed like actual human beings instead of Tarantino avatars. In the years since Jackie Brown though, the director has retreated further and further into his own headspace, producing movies like Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Death Proof, which are essentially feature-length pastiches of his own cinematic obsessions. (The one exception to this trend is Kill Bill Vol. 2, a darker and more emotionally complex than the first installment.) Inglorious Basterds is a meatier movie mash-up than his recent run of flicks, but it’s still first and foremost a platform for Tarantino to indulge his very particular whims.  That’s his prerogative of course and the result is rarely dull, but I’m ready to see Tarantino make another movie that forces him to reach beyond his DVD library.

Verdict: See It

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Also In Theaters:

Passing Strange
Directed by Spike Lee
Starring Stew, Daniel Breaker, de’Adre Aziza
****
If you, like me, passed up the opportunity to catch this Tony-award winning rock musical during its Broadway run, don’t make the same mistake with Spike Lee’s vibrant film adaptation. Actually, “adaptation” isn’t really the right word to describe the movie, since Lee’s Passing Strange is a filmed version of the stage play, with no cinematic enhancements apart from a few behind-the-scenes glimpses of the cast during intermission. This approach my bother some viewers, but personally I was thrilled that the director kept the focus where it belongs—on the production’s sparse, but compelling stagecraft and the musicianship of the ace house band, led by the musical’s co-writer and star, Stew. Based loosely on Stew’s own life, the play tells the story of an L.A. youth who leaves his middle-class life for a bohemian existence in Europe in the hope of finding that elusive thing he calls “the real.” Covering the on-stage action with multiple cameras, Lee immediately gets the audience grooving on Stew’s terrific score and also lays out the play’s narrative in a clear way. The only thing that the film version can’t do, of course, is give you the experience of being in that Broadway theater while the band rocks out and the crowd stomps and sings along. And believe me, Passing Strange is going to want to make you get up and dance.
Verdict: See It
Click here to read GIANT’s exclusive Q&A with Stew

Art & Copy
Directed by Doug Pray
***
The general public has become so used to being bombarded by advertisements during their daily lives, few people have ever stopped to think about how the world has gotten this way. Doug Pray’s timely documentary introduces viewers to some of the men and women that revolutionized the ad game in the ’70s and ’80s, turning TV commercials and print campaigns from simple pitches into full-blown events. If any of the people interviewed feel a twinge of guilt for turning the world into one big billboard, they don’t express it here. But they do have quite a lot to say about how they dreamed up the ideas for their most successful campaigns, as well as what distinguishes good ads from bad ads. Art & Copy is the very definition of a niche documentary—other advertisers and Mad Men fans would seem to be its target demo—but for audiences that fit into its niche, this is an informative, entertaining film.
Verdict: Rent It

Five Minutes of Heaven
Directed by Oliver Hirschiegel
Starring Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt
***

In the January box-office smash Taken, Liam Neeson proved he still had the stuff to be an A-list action hero. Now, Five Minutes of Heaven re-establishes him as one cinema’s very best dramatic actors. Written by playwright Guy Hibbert and directed by German filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel, Heaven casts Neeson as a former member of a Northern Ireland paramilitary group. As a young man, he volunteered to carry out a hit for the organization, shooting his victim in plain view of the man’s younger brother. Decade later, this now-grown man (played by James Nesbitt) agrees to meet the now-repentant Neeson for a local television documentary, but as the time for their interview draws nearer, both men experience serious doubts. The performances are the main reason to seek out this low-key character study, which gives both Neeson and Nesbitt lots of juicy material to play. Even when the script runs out of steam in the final act, the two leads are able to keep the audience engaged and hopeful that something positive can still result from a youthful mistake.
Verdict: Rent It

Gotta Dance
Directed by Dori Bernstein
**
Can we call for a moratorium on feel-good documentaries about grandmas and grandpas doing activities that are normally considered to be the domain of younger folks? Following in the footsteps of last year’s Young @ Heart, which profiled a senior citizens choral group that shook their groove thang to rock songs, Gotta Dance follows the founding members of the New Jersey Nets’ all-seniors cheerleading squad, a publicity stunt that briefly distracted the team’s otherwise dismal season. After the initial novelty of seeing the elderly dancers master Britney Spears-style moves wears off, there’s not a lot left to this wafer-thin slice of life.
Verdict: Skip It

It’s been two decades in the making, but here’s the first glimpse at Quentin Tarantino’s World War II movie.

Wow…so it looks like Inglorious Basterds is gonna be a real movie.  How about that?  For the longest time, it looked like it would stay on the shelf alongside Chinese Democracy and Watchmen as things that would never ever see the light of day.  But now that Axl’s albums is in stores and Watchmen is a month away from release, I guess ol’ Quentin finally decided to stop messing around and get this sucker made.  Based on this minute-and-a-half long clip, it looks like Inglorious Basterds will offer the same mixture of over-the-top violence and offbeat comedy that defines every Tarantino picture.  And holy crap-is that Ryan from The Office playing one of these Nazi-hunting soldiers?  Who knew he’d have to go all the way back to World War II-era Germany to get away from Kelly Kapoor?

2008 is in the history books, so here are the flicks and TV shows that have us looking forward to the year ahead.

9. The Tonight Show Starring Conan O’Brien (June)
It took sixteen years, but that red-headed goofball who pals around with a masturbating bear and an insult comic dog finally becomes NBC’s main man in late night.  Victory would be sweeter if former host Jay Leno had departed the airwaves for good instead of simply moving to the 10pm slot, but look for Conan to make the Tonight Show timely and relevant for the first time in more than a decade.

8. The Brothers Bloom (May 15)
Originally set to be released last October, Rian Johnson’s quirky con-man comedy—which features a career best performance by Oscar winner Rachel Weisz and an awesome supporting turn by Japanese starlet Rinko Kikuchi—reaches theaters at last.  Because a smallish distributor is releasing the flick you might have to look hard to find it, but you won’t feel ripped off after its over.

7. Shutter Island (October 2)
Martin Scorsese follows up his Oscar-winning crime drama The Departed with a ’50s-era action flick starring Leo DiCaprio (yes, again) as a U.S. marshal searching for an escaped mental patient on the titular secluded island.  Although it sounds closer to Cape Fear than Taxi Driver, every Scorsese picture is a must-see.



6. The Return of Geek TV
I can’t remember the last time I was this excited to see ABC’s Lost return to the airwaves.  The two-hour premiere kicks off on January 21 and the advance word is that the show is better than ever.  And with only one more year to go before its final batch of episodes, you know we’re in store for some major, major revelations.  I have seen the first episode of Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated new show Dollhouse (debuting February 13 on Fox) and I’m happy to say the Buffy creator is off to a strong start with his latest venture.  Between these two shows and the return of Battlestar Galactica (see below), geeks will have three good reasons to say inside glued to the TV during the cold winter months.

5. Watchmen (March 6)
While I’m not completely on board with all of Zack Snyder’s choices for the big-screen version of Alan Moore’s brilliant, groundbreaking, swoon-inducing graphic novel (for the love of God, stop with the slow-mo Zack!), I already know that I’ll be seeing it at least three times in theaters.  Of course, thanks to recent legal issues, we might have to wait a little longer to see Watchmen brought to life, but don’t freak out too much fanboys: this movie will get released.  It’s just going to cost Warner Brothers a heck of a lot of money.

4. Mad Men Season Three (Summer)
Instead of bailing out Detroit, why doesn’t the Fed give $700 million to Matthew Weiner so he can produce weekly episodes of Mad Men for all of 2009?  Because this year long wait to see the continuing adventures of ad man Don Draper is just not cool.

3. Avatar (December 18)
It’s been more than 10 years since James “King of the World” Cameron directed a feature film.  In that time, he’s released multiple versions of Titanic on DVD, helped get buddy Arnold Schwarzenegger elected governor of California and played himself on Entourage.  Some might call this creative loafing, but Cameron insists he was just waiting until CGI-technology caught up with his grand ideas for his next movie, Avatar, a top-secret sci-fi epic about a futuristic female warrior (played by Zoe Saldana).  Will the final product be worth the long wait?  You got me—all I know is, I’m buying my advanced tickets now.

2. The End of Battlestar Galactica (March)
Okay, so Battlestar Galactica as a franchise won’t be signing off for good two months from now.  There’s still a direct-to-DVD movie due out later this year and a prequel series Caprica launches in the fall.  There’s also a comic-book series and endless amounts of fan fiction all over the web.  But the show that launched this cult phenomenon is going away in March and television will be the poorer for it.  Memo to creator Ronald Moore: If Adama turns out to be a Cylon, I’m tossing my TV out the window.

1. Inglorious Bastards (August 21)
Holy crap, Quentin Tarantino has finally done it!  He’s made the World War II movie he’s been talking about since Pulp Fiction came out.  And somehow he convinced Brad Pitt to star in the damn thing.  So Quentin, does this mean we’re going to be seeing The Brothers Vega in 2010?  Travolta and Madsen aren’t getting any younger…

GIANT: Have you always wanted to be an actress?

Pretty much. I started by playing Michael Darling in Peter Pan when I was in second grade.

How’d that go?

Oh, my god. It was the highlight of my life up until then. I got to wear those one-piece pajamas with the feet. Mine was blue, and it had Winnie the Pooh on it.

How did you get cast as a boy?

I really don’t know. I was a big tomboy. I wanted to be one of the Lost Boys for reasons I don’t know. Then I wound up getting the part of Michael Darling. I guess we had more girls than boys, and Peter Pan is, like, all boys.

Where are your people from?

They’re Chickasaw from Northern Mississippi. That’s my dad’s side.

What about your mom?

My mom is from Connecticut. I grew up in Boston.

Talk about Hell Ride and your character in that film.

The movie’s about this biker gang. I play [Cherokee Kissum] the former lover of Larry Bishop’s character, and I get killed by their rival gang a long time ago. They are trying to avenge my death. She’s the emotional driving force of the plot. She’s all in flashbacks, which tell that story of why the characters are doing what they’re doing.

This film is very much like Grindhouse. And there’s so much tits and ass in the film. Are you comfortable with that?

Cherokee Kissum is the only female role besides maybe one other in the film that I would have been comfortable playing. She isn’t just tits and ass. She wasn’t a conquest. She was very important to these people. They respected her. It was important to tell her story because otherwise the movie wouldn’t work.

Who is your character on ER this season?

Kaya Montoya. She’s a medical student. Also, she’s Native American. When she comes in, people underestimate her. She actually has a lot of experience.

You get some great character names.

That’s because I’m an Indian. But Cherokee Kissum is the best name ever. I will never have a better name than that.

Do you get a romance?

I have no idea. They’re so secretive. They don’t tell you anything.

Do you get to make out with John Stamos?

Everyone asks that. He’s involved with Linda Cardellini’s character. So there needs to be some time for that to unravel.

How weird is it to come onto a long-running show for its final season?

There are people who are on that set who have been there every day for pretty much fifteen years. And they can tell you anything that happened, any day, any year. They’re walking almanacs. I’ve never felt so much pressure acting ever before. It’s so demanding saying words with more syllables. You don’t know what they are, and you don’t know what they mean, but you’re cutting someone open at the same time. You’ve gotta act and emote and do something besides just saying your lines properly.

How much do you have to learn?

Everybody I’m sure takes a different amount on themselves about what they actually want to learn about what they’re doing. You could just read your lines. Literally. But it’s such an incredible opportunity having all these doctors on set. It’s just such a great opportunity to ask questions and learn about the human anatomy. The hardest scene that I’ve had was this procedure called preperitoneal packing. You had to cut the woman open at her stomach and literally take these big pieces of gauze and stuff them all the way down into her stomach, up to your elbows. That’s sort of what it looks like. There’s blood everywhere, and you’re saying these incredible lines like, “Super-pubic incision” and “Keep the peritoneal intact.”

What are you doing on the set to make it look real?

You’re totally freaking out. It’s total mayhem. You go through a series of rehearsals, which is actually really helpful. A doctor explains what every word means, what every [tool] you’re using does, how you hold it, where you put it just so you have a sense of what you’re doing, so it makes sense in your head. He does that with each actor one on one. Then all the actors in the scene come in, and he checks you together. That’s like choreography. You pass things to people, and it all happens so fast, and everyone has to be exactly on it. Then you get the words down, and there’s two more rehearsals for the director and for the crew. It’s a very gradual, building-blocks process. Then once you’ve gone through all that, it’s just do or die. Just totally cross your fingers and go. You can’t think about what you’re going to do. You just do it.

Do you get more than one shot at it?

Yeah, but the show moves so fast. One of the hardest things too is lots of times you’ll get a lot of blood on you, so in between the setups it’s so nuts. The setup people and props people are taking everything that’s bloody off and putting new ones on so you can start again. The doctors come up to you saying, “You emphasized the fourth syllable of this seven-syllable word. You should actually be emphasizing the second.” The director comes over saying, “I think you need to pay a little more attention to some aspect of someone else’s performance.” Then the cinematographer is coming over saying, “You gotta stand like two inches to the right and tilt your head up.” It’s overwhelming.

What do you personally keep in mind so that it looks like you know what you’re doing?

You have to go for it in a way that you usually aren’t conscious of having to do with acting. It’s so daunting if you think about all the stuff you have to remember and the things you have to do in a short time. And you don’t get many takes. But you just have to have confidence. You have to believe that you know it all and that you belong there and that you can do this. Because if you second-guess yourself, you’re dead.