Inglorious Basterds/My Oscar Nominee

Yes Inglorious Basterds came out this summer. Yes I am behind on this one. Yes it is such a good film that I think it still deserves a review. No its likelihood as a great film is not the only reason that I am revisiting this gem.

Basterds came out on DVD today and as my roommate loves having great cinema pancaked into tiny laser readable discs we now own it, thus giving me a chance to confirm something. Usually when I watch a film I try to look at everything, from the cinematography to the directing, even down to the sound design. However awhile back I said I wanted to mix things up, and I think its time I do that (yes that time is at 2:30AM on a Wednesday, WHAT?).

Christoph Waltz deserves the Oscar for best supporting role.

Who? The guy who plays Colonel Landa "the Jew Hunter" in Basterds. I dare you to watch this film and not be amazed by this man. Now watching Christian Bale act out an American accent is one thing(He hales from Wales), but the Waltz acts out 3 different languages and more than one accent, top that. Normally when I watch a foreign language film, which I think for the most part Inglorious can be described as, I just read the captions and I am over it. This guy, oh this dude-and-a-half, nah he makes me actually watch and listen, and this suckers in GERMAN & FRENCH. He is able to make me believe the delivery even when I don't speak a lick of the language he is belting. I caught myself smiling during the first scene, which is perhaps one of the tensest moments of the film, and here I am with the dumbest smile on my face, a grin that only occurs when yours truly is amazed. This character moves me, and its not the words coming out of his mouth, its the way he spits it.

Well Mr. Waltz, my hat comes off to you, this was indeed one of the best performances I have ever seen on the silver screen. In fact his acting is so fun to watch it is a shame that one has to read the captions, I am hoping someone out there with a better grasp of French and German will watch this and comment on my blog about how believable he is in the native tongues, I guarantee he is amazing, Champs Stamp of Approval.

Well it's time for this little blogger to say auf wiedersehen (see I'm learning Ma). Peace out cub scouts.

Oh and this film is great: awesome shots, beautiful dialogue, amazing directing and the sound is Tarantino to a T(HA!).

Banana-meter: 9.8/10 Bananas.

The Beginning

Yeah so I have been doing a pretty bad job at blogging. I know I know, a 'pretty bad job' is an understatement. Yes lots of movies have come out, and just because I haven't been blogging, does not mean I have been avoiding the silver screen, in fact I have seen several films during my hiatus. Now your probably wondering why "the incident" of my long term step away from blogging. Well its quite the mix drink of excuses: 1 part laziness, 2 spoonfuls of distractions poured over an ice cold job of PA work, shake and pour.

No I am not writing this as a resignation speech, I left that in my other pants and they went through the wash, so that's out. This is also not a comeback spiel, those are over-rated and I am pretty sure Brett Favre ate all of those up this year. Nah folks, this is just me letting everyone know that I am still breathing, and yes still sipping down red ICEEs while letting my mind melt into the big screen.

Ok enough of the sappy stuff, back to business. The other night as I waited freezing on a street corner in my beloved new home of New York City, it finally hit me that winter was fast approaching from the west, on cold fronts filled with the white stuff. With the arrival of snow soon, my oldest friend returns, skiing, and there is no better way to prepare for ski season than by watching some excellent ski/snowboard films.

I owe a lot to the ski film industry, the first time I ever threw in Match Stick Productions: High Society was the budding of the my need to put images on celluloid. The first films I ever made were ski films, the first time I ever had an audience was a ski film. So it's time to pay some respect to my beginnings as I come off my first Hollywood film.

Most people know about Warren Miller, the pioneer of the snow sports film, but I got started with MSP, and new school skiing. So that is why I suggest you all to check out "Refresh" from Level 1.

Refresh starts at the beginning of the Freestyle/newschool movement, the one that got me moving. It helps to show how much the sport has progressed, and how far we have come with the ways it is shot. Also, the soundtrack is nasty and the tricks are pretty rad too.

Snow snow snow, its sooooooo dope.