Inglourious Basterds

A tantalizing mix of extreme violence and wicked humor in which Jews are shown fighting Nazis without mercy, Inglourious Basterds offers a new twist on the World War II film, breaking out of genre conventions to deliver something very different. Quentin Tarantino, who has explored such cinematic genres as martial arts, crime thrillers, blaxploitation flicks, and grindhouse movies, reinvents the WWII action drama with this visceral movie, a vast reimagining of Enzo G. Castellari's 1978 film Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato. Brad Pitt gives a strong performance as Lt. Aldo Raine, American leader of a rogue gang of Nazi hunters, known as the Basterds, who enjoy scalping their victims, but Christoph Waltz steals the show as SS Standartenführer Hans "the Jew Hunter" Landa, a cruel, cunning, and unsettlingly cordial Nazi ready to do whatever it takes to reach his own devious ends. Tarantino is not afraid to play with historical fact, so viewers never know exactly what's coming as he switches among multiple plotlines and a large cast of characters, bringing it all together in a thoroughly satisfying and unique finale unlike that of any other WWII film.