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Quentin Tarantino Calls Inglourious Basterds a “Masterpiece.” Writing Epic Review of Superman Returns?

Posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson

basterds poster tarantino heels

Dear readers, yes, we had to. While browsing the NYT today, we came across a new interview with Quentin Tarantino in T Mag. Awesome. But then the horrific photo above came crashing atop our Sunday hangover like a white squall. Bustin’ surfboards. Alas, the chat does contain a few bits of cool info. First off, Tarantino confesses that Inglorious Basterds is indeed the “hardest film” he’s ever made. From a director who says that he would die to make his movies perfect, this may or may not come as a big surprise. Perhaps the latter, given that IB is a WWII epic, clocks in at over 2 hours and 30 minutes, and was cast and shot in time for this month’s Cannes. When asked about the quick production schedule, he frankly responds…

“I wanted to have a masterpiece before the decade’s out.”

At first, I interpreted this sentence to mean that he considers Inglourious Basterds to be his only masterpiece this decade. But clearly, both volumes of Kill Bill reached those heights, while Death Proof remains a genre exercise that certainly did not.

Of more curious note, QT says that he’s working on a 20-page review of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, a film he’s quite passionate and protective over. And looking back as a member of the jury at Cannes in 2004, he remains pleased with awarding Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 the Palm d’Or.

Head on over to AICN to see the latest poster for IB, featuring Brad Pitt at Lt. Aldo Raine (above) in High res. Unlike Tarantino’s foot fetish, it’s understated and badass in all the right ways…

Comments

Adam

Superman is the best. And to dislike parts, or to get annoyed at it...reminds me
of a family member. It is good to provoke, and to have a complaint, but like
family members, you still need them in one way or another. The world needs superman!
Great the tarantino is backing it up, he is for the good!

Captain_Howdy

You missed the point. With tongue-in-cheek, the long monologues serve purpose. You see... oh, never mind. I couldn't be arsed trying to explain it to anyone who is never going to give a f*ck anyway.

Defending Tarantino can be tiring at times.

Rick Gershman

Don't bepresumptuous, Howdy, I DO give a fuck. I like QT a lot and I want his films to be good. Reservoir is one of my all-time favorite films, I also love Pulp Fiction and think Jackie Brown is massively underrated. I am an interested in your take on the long monologues. If you're suggesting that he's parodying himself, I understand that. Make your argument, I'm up for discussing it.

Rick

Armando

I always knew i liked Tarantino's opinions! I loved Superman Returns, saw it 3 times in theatres, I don't care what anyone says it was a beuatiful film, and it was great reintroducing the character, but todays ADD audience couldnt appreciate it because of the lack of action. It wasnt perfect, I've yet to see a perfect film.

Kokushi

Cant wait for IB and Superman Returns was facking horrible (77% in RT is to high maybe 65% is more accurate,V for Vendetta 74% and Watchmen 64% which both movies are 100 times better than SR) superman with a kid (WITH POWERS!!!!!), by coincidence a machine gun in the roof of the damn building (LOL), superman getting his ass kicked by luthor goons, lack of action (TDK, Iron Man, X1 & 2, Spider-Man 1 & 2 have enough action to keep the viewers into the movie and not bored with great character development), not a villain the can superman fight (i want superman tu punch someone, he didnt do that),a bad casting of lois lane, etc..

starscream9289

I keep hearing everyone say that Superman Returns sucked, but I don't hear anyone give out any good reasons as to why it sucked other than a bunch of fanboys bitch about Superman's bastard child.

And didn't Kill Bill and Death Proof come out within this decade?

whothewhatthe

I didn't think Superman Returns sucked, but there are people on this message board giving fairly good reasons why they didn't like it, if you'd pay attention. It is, for example, kind of hard to get around how Superman is suddenly able to handle an entire landmass made of freaking Kryptonite, though. Just saying...

Reebee7

This needs to be made known to the world: The mass of kryptonite was highly diluted. As luthor said, the crystal takes on the traits of what is surrounding it. That means this crystal was surrounded by Kryptonite, but also minerals, salt, seaweed, water, etc. in the ocean. It's not nearly as potent as regular Kryptonite. Notice the color: The landmass is black, dark green. Regular kryptonite is the bright, vibrant, venomous green that Luthor makes his dagger out of.

Reebee7

This seems to be a common complaint, so I'm posting it so everyone can read it: The giant Kryptonite mass that Superman lifts at the end is highly diluted. Luthor says the crystal takes on the form of its surroundings, this crystal was surrounded by Kryptonite as well as gallons of Earth's water. Meaning it took on a lot of minerals other than Kryptonite. Notice it's highly diluted color, it's dark green. Regular kryptonite is bright, venomous green. The green of Luthor's little shank.

whothewhatthe

Thanks for clarifying. But it seems Singer could have done a better job of communicating that in the film. Either that, or all of us who had a problem with it are just plain stupid. Hell, maybe I am.

Reebee7

No it was pretty unclear. It had to be explained to me as well, but it does make sense. Whether you like the whole island thing as a device or not is a different story.

What bothers me more is the fact that he did all that while still having a small chunk of pure kryptonite in his wound (you might recall they remove it in the hospital). I feel like that would weaken him more than it did, seeing as it was directly in his blood-stream (Kryptonite poisoning, in many versions, poisons his blood and makes it boil). It was very small, to be fair, but it seems like it could have done some damage...

Reebee7

I agree, it was a good and very underrated movie. But I don't think I want to see a sequel. The fact that he has a son brings in too many problems that I don't want to have to deal with. I think it's time we got a Superman movie that lines up with the comic books, not a single one has yet.

Reebee7

The way I like to think of the charcoal island (there's no reason for this, it just is the only way it makes sense) is if the land mass wasn't finished developing. It's like that was just the structural foundation, it would develop to look more like Earth after (in the comics, Superman's crystals take on the appearance of their surroundings. Hence: the original fortress looks like ice, but once he moves it to the jungle it changes). So once this crystal reached land it would start looking like earth's topography.

Also he flew in a space ship, which could protect him from the kryptonite. As for the kryptonite mass, it was diluted by absorbing stuff from the ocean water as well as Kryptonite. It was hardly pure, notice it's dark green color as opposed to the vibrant green of Luthor's dagger.

And yes, that shuttle scene was incredible.

ulrich

I hope he meant that when the germans are supposed to speak english, they speak with german accents.
It's interesting that he defends Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, and then later in the interview he says
In Hollywood movies, Germans often have English accents, and I can’t go for that contrivance ( the contrivance that Bryan Singer used in Valkyrie)

ulrich

Wait, did he say in the interview that the germans speak english with german accents- i thought he was going the realistic route.damn, that isn't good.

Sertan

Are you kidding me? Smallville? Smallville?! SMALL? VILLE? Smallville's endurance as a pile of shit is a bigger puzzle than the island on Lost, the Cylons' "plan" and Rambaldi's endgame combined.

whothewhatthe

You're missing the point with your knee-jerk reaction, genius. Smallville may be a steaming pile of dung, but it got the character of Lex Luthor right for once. Hackman and Spacey's portrayals blew. Period.

whothewhatthe

Interesting that you'd have a knee-jerk reaction that doesn't address the point which is, unfortunately, what 99% of posters seem to do with regularity. So here it is again: Smallville may be a pile of shit, but it got the character of Lex Luthor RIGHT. The Hackman/Spacey versions of the character just suck outright, and I was extremely disappointed in Singer for going that way.

whothewhatthe

One of the biggest problems with both Donner's films and the Singer film is the portrayal of Lex Luthor (by two brilliant actors no less!) as a prancing slapstick buffoon. How unfortunate that it took Smallville and Michael Rosenbaum to get it right and give us the deadly serious, extremely rich and powerful, Macchiavellian and evil Luthor we've been reading in the comics for decades. One thing's for damn sure: Lex Luthor would never be in the position of having to scam a dying old lady out of her fortune, as in one of the worst moments of Singer's film.

Anti_Cool

I gotta give respect to the man for writing 20 pages about something that in no way affects his career. Superman Returns was a quality movie witha veiled comparrison between Superman and Jesus (which might be why Smith didn't like it) I thought Routh was great .

I can't wait for Inglorious Basterds. I'm more excited for Avatar because of all of the good press it has gotten so far but I can't wait for this movie, especially because he has been working on it for so long.

Mark Smith

Superman Returns has a 77 fresh rating on the tomatometer and the way people react to it is as if it is one of the worst comic book movies ever. I know it is way better then X-Men 3.

All of the hate comes from the internet and Kevin Smith who not only has not made a movie half as good as Superman Returns but also doesn't have as much talent as Bryan Singer has in one of his pinkies.

Superman Returns was better then both Spider-Man 1 and definently 3 and right on par with 2. It is not as good as The Dark Knight but Warners Bros should give Singer his "Khan level" sequel rather a reboot with some hack to direct a script which is nothing but one liners and set pieces.

TheLM

Not counting Top Gun mind you.

Hated that movie.

TheLM

Tony Scott can do no wrong as far as I am concerned.

Domino or otherwise.

Rob Merritt

I hate Superman Returns. I have visions of QT in his basement writing in a similar state as Jack wrote his novel in the Shinning with the same line being typed over and over.

"Superman is NOT an Emo stalker with a bastard child."

Troy

I'll give Tarantino credit, Superman Returns is definitely a better, more interesting film than the last movie he championed, which was Domino. Few big budget movies are worse than that movie.

Parakeet

The Kill Bill films are FAR from masterpieces.

justinlecair

Inglorious Basterds looks great, but Superman Returns was awful. QT needs to recognize a lame film when he sees one.

Sari

Inglourious Basterds is the #1 movie on my radar. Sooo excited. And, now that QT has made his WWII movie, I want to see his take on like...a time travel movie or zombie movie or maybe some sci fi.

Also, can he write a part for Jeff Goldblum please? that would be my dream of dreams. And if he could help out Luke Wilson's career that'd be awesome too.

Michael_W

The sequence (In Superman Returns) where Lex first tests the crystals (the scene with the train set) is at least 5 minutes long.

Maybe they just had a bad editor?

Landfill

I hope this movie is going to be as good as Quentin is saying it is. Even though he thinks Kill Bill wasn't a masterpiece I still think it is. Oh yeah, if I ever had to time, I would definitely read his review of Superman Returns.

David

Although it is better than the soporific Superman Returns. Bryan Singer couldn't tell a story to save his life. The Usual Suspects was a fluke of the highest order.

David

If Kill Bill is a masterpiece, I just made a masterpiece in my toilet.

Matt

Can't wait to see his review of Returns. It's about time a high-profile star comes out to support such a great underrated film that was crippled not by its cast or crew, but by the whining of fans who want to see a Superman that doesn't exist (i.e. one who will go around acting like Batman).

jason B

i thought QT voted for 'old boy' during that 2004 cannes jury thingy. i know moore was awarded, but during the jury 'debate' i remember reading that QT was vehemently pushing for wook's film. anybody know how that whole process works? does it have to be a unanimous vote?

jason B

oh, and i'm a bog fan of superman returns as well, i'm curious to read his thoughts - what'd be great is if it influenced the studio to give singer & routh another shot.

crew2006

This movie will probably blow kill bill out of the water. Which is a hard thing to do knowing Kill Bill was one of the best movies this decade.

NEONBEAR

speak for yourself, i loved death proof.

Sauce_

<!> Thankyou! <!>

I feel like the statement "...Death Proof remains a genre exercise..." is really selling his work short. I thought it was just as entertaining as any other QT movie and had it's own special voice. Go back and watch it on it's own without Planet Terror and tell me that it's just a "genre exercise". The only genre it falls under is Quentin Tarantino film.

CaptainAwesome

Death Proof was awesome.

AndyIII

Boy, I dunno...I'm interested in what Tarantino has to say because I'm afraid I'm with the thumbs down crowd here.

There were plot holes you could drive a dump truck through...from the flying back to his red sun home, to all of a sudden getting over his allergy to kryptonite for no apparent reason at the very end.

And frankly, the main 'scheme' by Luthor was more warmed over real estate BS...this time not even as plausible as Superman I. Wasn't he trying to create an island in the ocean that looked like a piece of charcoal or something?

The one thing I will say is that the shuttle/plane sequence was pretty much worth the price of admission right there.

starvingartist

I second that last sentence.

Travis McGee

I loved the Superman Returns film.
The reason I think so many people hated it is because they don't understand the character of Superman. Most people just want to see Superman beat the crap out of someone (which would be cool to see).

[A]

KILL BILL a masterpiece..? Facepalm anyone?

gregt

Still available on Itunes are Bryan Singer's video production diaries. All 25 of them are great but the one where Singer goes to New Zealand to help Peter Jackson with King Kong is particularly facinating. I encourage everyone to go check it out.

Joe Kick-Ass

I suggest everyone who didnt like Superman Returns to watch it again soon. It was great!

BrendonConnelly

I agree. At leats one MAJOR flaw, but for the most part, smart and witty stuff, well made and intelligent.

Reebee7

Superman Returns is a highly underrated film. The way I like to think of it is: It was a great movie, but only a good Superman movie. The cinematography was awesome, and it was a great character driven, dramatic action film. People wanted more action, perhaps justifiably. We waited years and he didn't throw a punch, so I understand why some people thought it less than ideal. But it was not as teribad as people make it. I'm excited for this defense of it.

Kevin C

BTW does anyone else see Brando from the Godfather in Pitt from this movie? It just got my mindgrapes going about recasting the Godfather for today. An ensamble cast with an unlimited budget, that would be a fun post.

TheLM

lols @ -81.

I have been talking up Superman Returns for years, several times on this very site. Anyone with a decent knowledge of the comic book mythology and the Donner / Salkind films should be able to appreciate it.

Brad

I think that only faint familiarity with the original films helps, but if you actually watch them in sequence, SR falls apart.

In Superman 2, Superman tells the world he will never leave again. (I'm paraphrasing there) Then, according to SR, he forgets that promise and disappears for 5 years to visit his home planet which should actually have been blown to bits - not to mention the fact that that krypton is made of kryptonite and would just kill him and/or rob him of his powers long enough to strand him in the void of space... thereby killing him. Oh, and in the Donner Superman, a small piece of said Kryptonite around Supe's neck nearly kills him, but in SR he can lift an entire continent made of the stuff, just by trying really hard. Also, the plot for Superman 1 was a nefarious land-grab scam by lex and the plot for Returns was... a nefarious land-grab scam by lex. It's fine for one film but when looked at as a trilogy, two movies about Lex Luthor as an evil Realtor is at least one to many.

Anyway, I liked SR better than a lot of people, but it doesn't hold up to any scrutiny. Especially when the old films are considered.

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