Inglourious Basterds (R, 2009)

Set in 1944, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS follows two parallel stories that quickly converge. In the first, an American group of Jewish soldiers called "The Basterds," led by hard-bitten Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), carries out terror attacks against German troops in occupied France. Meanwhile, in Paris, a theater owner (Melanie Laurent) is approached by a heroic soldier (Daniel Bruhl) to host the French premiere of his propaganda film; what he doesn't know is that she, hiding her Jewish roots to keep safe, is also part of the resistance. As the American Basterds, the French resistance, and the German high command converge on the theater, it's going to be a premiere everyone will remember ... if they survive.

Bizarre, bold, and bloody, there's no denying that Inglourious Basterds has all the vim, vigor, and excitement of Quentin Tarantino's other films. Detractors will call it an empty exercise in style over substance, and they won't be entirely wrong. But it's also a glorious exercise in style over substance -- a Valentine to the very acts of moviemaking and moviegoing, with the Nazi high command wiped out in spectacular fashion in a movie theater as the action playing out up on the screen begins to pale in comparison to what happens inside the theater.

Tarantino has said that the film is his fantasy of "how cinema can save the world," and while that's a naive sentiment, it's one that's played for action and laughs here. Pitt gives a blood-soaked comedic performance as the grunting, grim Raine, and he's matched by Christoph Walltz's Col. Hans Landa on the Nazi side. Featuring long, loopy conversations punctuated by brief bursts of bloody violence before culminating in a incendiary -- in every sense of the word -- finale, Inglourious Basterds ultimately has to be enjoyed as a piece of pure moviemaking energy. Fans waiting for Tarantino to make a film with the moral and artistic complexity of Jackie Brown or even Pulp Fiction will be disappointed, but those who know what they're in for won't be let down.