Dirty Ol'...Well, You Know

Tarantino. Blood. Extensive dialogue scenes. World War II. If any of these words interest you, it might be time to check out one of the Cannes festival's most anticipated movies this year.

Inglourious Basterds (yes that's misspelled purposely), the latest from film mastermind Quentin Tarantino, was showcased at Cannes this past week to mainly positive reviews, and I'm stoked for it to hit theaters.

IMDB.com gives me this description of the movie: "In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis." We're talking Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger and Samuel L. Jackson acting and music composed by Ennio Moricone of countless spaghetti western movie fame in a Nazi-beat-em-up movie.

Sound sweet? Um, most definitely.

If you're anything like me, whenever you hear "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Stealer's Wheel come on the radio, you can't help but think of the sadistic yet fascinating scene from Reservoir Dogs, when Mr. Blonde cuts off a cop's ear with a razor. I am admittedly a big Tarantino fan, not only because I like his artistic directing style (using the same set pieces and related characters in different movies; telling the story in varied order a la Pulp Fiction; extensive dialogue that explores character depth), but also because he doesn't churn out a movie every year like the directors of those insufferable spoof movies or high budget/low intelligence action flicks.

Basterds' release date is August 21, 2009. I've got my countdown started.