INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) (UPHE 4K UHD Review)

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) 

Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: R

Duration: 153 Minutes 

Audio: DTS-HA MA with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 2160p HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 

Diretor: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, B. J. Novak, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Sylvester Groth, Martin Wuttke, Jacky Ido, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender

Quentin Tarantino's deliciously exploitative WWII revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds (2009) features a Nazi-scalping squad of American soldiers, known as "The Basterds," they're on a righteous mission to exterminate the The Third Reich as brutally as possible. Led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), the Basterds are comprised of Jewish soldiers who terrorize the Nazi divisions they encounter, among them Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz (Eli Roth, Death Proof), Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger, SLC Punk!), Smithson "The Little Man" Utivich (B. J. Novak, The Office), a rogue German soldier who murdered his squad and translator Corporal Wilhelm Wick. They've made a name for themselves in Nazi occupied France where they have been brutally dispatching Nazis and keeping their scalps as souvenirs, always leaving one survivor nehond with a swastika carved into their forehead, to spread their legend among the German ranks. 

The film opens with a scene of SS 

Standartenführer Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa (Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained) arriving at the farmhouse of a dairy farmer and his daughters, interrogating the man about the whereabouts of some missing Jews who were his neighbors. The scene establishes Landa as a quirky, intelligent and malevolent man. In the aftermath the farmer gives up the whereabout of the Jews, hidden beneath his floorboards and the SS pepper the floor with machine gunfire, killing all except a girl named Shosanna who flees into the hills. 

Three years later we find Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent, The Nightingale) now living in Paris, running a cinema under the name Emmanuelle. Its there that she meets a handsome Nazi soldier named Fredrick Zoller (The Falcoln and the Winter Soldier), the star of a new Nazi propaganda film called Nation's Pride, which documents his story of killing 250 Allied soldiers in a battle from his perch in a sniper tower. Zoller develops a things for Emmanuelle, much to her disgust, and tries to curry favor with her by convincing Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to hold the premiere of Nation's Pride at her cinema. 

With the high profile premiere sure to draw in high-ranking Nazi officials, including der fuhrer himself Adolph Hitler (Martin Wuttke), Emmanuelle and her lover Marcel (Jacky Ido) set in motion a plan to kull a bunch of Nazis, including her family's murderer Hans Landa, by setting the coinema on fire, complete with a short film of herself introducing the Nazi to their death!

Tarantino's film is a delightful bit of historical fantasy, along the way were treated to little vignettes of the Basterds Nazi-killing adventures, and a sub-plot involving a German film star turned Allied spy Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger), who is meets British film critic turned Commando Lieutenant Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender, X-Men First Class) at a small pub in France, also rendezvousing with the Basterds, who plan to tag along with her to the Nazi film premiere to cause a ruckus, but Hicox's strange German accent and an errant hand gesture threaten to derail the whole Nazi killing plan. 

Tarantino's film is a absolutely epic and can be a bit languid in it's pacing, but he fills the screen with such fascinating characters that  I am always happy to go down the rabbit hole with him. The dialogue is so tasty, the scenery is delicious, and his WWII revenge fantasies are the stuff of cinematic legend. I also thought it was quite interesting how much he winks right at the audience, having so many film connected characters in his story; we have actors, a film critic, a cinema owner and even a movie within a movie, and some flammable film stock is what sets the fire in the final reel of the film that give Shosanna her revenge, not to mention a final line of dialogue from Pitt that is clearly Tarantino bragging to the audience that this might just be his masterpiece, just ass the screen cuts to his title credit - the balls on that guy! 

The Pitt scenes are terrific but its Waltz that steals the show here as 'The Jew Hunter' Hans Landa, he's at one a clever detective and a quirky cog in the insidious Nazi war machine, but so a super-corny fan-boy of American pop culture - there's a scene where he attempts the American colonialism "Bingo" by excitey uttering "thats a bingo!" that always gets a laugh out of me, it's great stuff, and how he figures into the finale and the fall of The Third Reich is perfection. 

Audio/Video: Inglourious Basterds (2009) arrives on 4K UHD from Universal Pictures on 2160p UHD framed in 2.40:1 widescreen. This is not being advertised as a new scan so I am assuming its sourced from the same 2K digital intermediate used for the 2009 Blu-ray. I am sure there are cinephiles bemoaning the fact that we don't get a new 4K scan of the original 35mm film elements for this release, and I understand that instinct - this is a fucking Tarantino flick - give it some respect! That said, I thought the UHD upgrade/2K upscale was quite pleasing with evident finer detail in the close-up, more vibrant and deeper color saturation and a modest uptick in depth thanks to the HDR10+ color-grading. 

The 4K resolution delivers fine grain that is better resolved with close-ups of facial features and period clothing textures revealing minute details that easily advance over the 2009 Blu-ray. Additionally the HDR color-grading strengthens primaries, especially those nazi-reds, but the biggest benefactor is the deeper blacks and more layered contrast which improves depth. 

Theres no Atmos audio upgrade either, but we do get the same great DTS-HD MA 5.1 from the 2009 Blu-ray, which was great then and still fine today, zero complaints. Its a solid track that handles both the atmospheric and aggressive moments with equal fidelity, including the terrific score selection fron Ennio Morricone (Cinema Paradiso).

Extras are also carryovers but there's some great stuff in there, including a half-hour discussion with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Elvis Mitchell, and the over hour-long The New York Times talk with Tarantino, plus extended and deleted scenes and a handful of shorter featurettes plus trailers for the film. 

The 2-disc release arrives in a black keepcase with single-sided sleeve of artwork. The same art is replicated on the slipcover. Inside there's a redemption code for a 4K UHD digital copy of the movie. 

Special Features: 
- Extended & Alternate Scenes (12 min)
- Roundtable Discussion with Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt and Elvis Mitchell (31 min) 
- The New York Times Talk (68 min) 
- Nation’s Pride – Original Short (6 min) 
- The Making of Nation’s Pride (4 min) 
- The Original Inglourious Basterds (8 min) 
- A Conversation with Rod Taylor (3 min)

- Rod Taylor On Victoria Bitter (3 min)

- Hi Sallys (2 min)

Film Poster Gallery Tour with Elvis Mitchell (11 min)

- Teaser Trailer (2 min)

- Domestic Trailer (2 min)

- International Trailer (2 min)

- Japanese Trailer (1 min) 

Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds still delivers the good, a fun Nazi-killin' romp that's has aged quite well. The new UHD looks and sounds terrific, and is worth the upgrade.