Movies

District 9 - 7 Cranks out of 10
Starring:  Sharlto Copley, Vanessa Haywood, Jed Brophy, Nick Blake,
William Allen Young, Johan Van Schoor
Directed by: Neil Blomkamp
 
At times astonishing, District 9 is plenty enjoyable as an action movie, which gets in its message of tolerance amidst the impressive special effects.

Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a clueless, mid-level executive at paramilitary organization Multinational United (MNU). He goes headlong into his new responsibility, overseeing MNU’s job to remove the insect/humanoid aliens derisively known as “prawns” from their already squalid slum, and into another concentration camp outside of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Drawing parallels with that country’s disgraceful segregational Apartheid regime that was disbanded in 1994, the prawn aliens in District 9 are kept separate from the population mostly out of distrust of the “unknowable” creatures.

First-time director Neill Blomkamp creates a very convincing alternative reality within his home country, spinning mock news reel footage of the alien landing in 1984 into the fabric of the narrative. The interesting thing is, although the news footage, featuring talking heads, is so familiar to anyone with cable television, it turns out to be just one of the things making the humans the enemy.

The aliens simply want to go home, and not only is MNU looking to exploit their technology, but their hunger for cat food is also taken advantage of by a nasty slum gang. The humans overwhelmingly come out as the unredeemable lot, because the prawns get screwed over at every turn simply because they’re slimy and look like over-grown cockroaches.

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Inglourious Basterds - 8 Cranks out of 10

Starring:  Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Diane Kruger,
Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Daniel Brühl
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino  

Inglourious Basterds is a movie that looks back at an alternative past, one that, despite its sure box office success, will gain more thematic appreciation in the future than it will now.

There is so much dialogue in this film, and even by Director Quentin Tarantino’s standards, it occasionally tests patience, especially for those somehow expecting this to be all out action. Sure, Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads a group of eight Jewish soldiers to instill fear into the Nazis in Germany, scalping them and in general doing nasty things to the enemy. And yes, the ending is gnarly, well-staged and action-packed.

But this two-and-a-half hour film is really centered on dialogue, particularly when it comes from Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), “The Jew Hunter,” and young Jewish girl Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) who escapes his clutches. Landa’s a multi-lingual chatterbox who instills fear through his persistent interrogation skills; Shosanna knows full well what destruction he’s capable of, and is bent on exacting vengeance.
So yes, this is a long movie that’s going to feel even longer to those expecting something on par with Transformers, G.I. Joe or even District 9.

That’s not to say there aren’t tense moments. On the contrary, when the Basterds get around to communicating with actress Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), their dilemma of passing by unnoticed by a group of drunken Nazis becomes an extended anticipation piece, leaving you wondering when the other shoe’s gonna drop and their cover is at last exposed.

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