This review was originally published on August 21, and has been edited to include a discussion of the Blu-ray, released December 15.

I’ve been dying for Inglourious Basterds to reach its official release date, so I could finally talk with you about this movie.

When reading a review, everyone always wants to skip right to the point: Is it any good? Should I spend my hard-earned money to go see it?

Well, let’s cut to the chase then with a nice, small hint: Not only will Inglourious Basterds make my Top 5 Best Films list at the end of this year, but I’m already looking forward to buying the DVD whenever it comes out, so I can revel in the brutal playground of director Tarantino’s semi-historical revenge flick over and over again! So, yes–go see it.

There’s pretty much not a casual filmgoer or cinemaphile on the face of the planet who doesn’t know who Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2) is, or hasn’t seen at least one of his films. Some people expect a Tarantino flick to be nothing more than a tart of spicy dialogue dipped into a warm cup of violence with a bloody cherry on top. But that’s not Inglourious. Being that the film is set in World War II, some will expect it to be a non-stop shoot-’em-up action flick with characters spouting well-worn cliched lines such as “Let’s get those Ratzis!” while lobbing grenades over a distant hill at the enemy. That is also not what Basterds is all about. (more…)