The director Quentin Tarantino, surrounded by some cast members of Inglorious Basterds at Cannes, where the film received mixed reviews - something that hasn't changed since its widespread release in cinemas.
The director Quentin Tarantino, surrounded by some cast members of Inglorious Basterds at Cannes, where the film received mixed reviews - something that hasn't changed since its widespread release in Show more

I used to think I rather liked it



September, whose breath even now dampens our necks, will see the UAE release of Inglourious Basterds. Anticipation runs hot for this, the sixth feature from the banana-jawed American auteur Quentin Tarantino, if one agrees for charity's sake to overlook Four Rooms. I'm not a huge Tarantino fan but even so, I confess I am curious to see this film when it finally plays in Abu Dhabi. For one thing, having followed the voluminous and excitable coverage heaped upon it since its debut at Cannes in May, it has proven remarkably difficult to get any clear sense of what manner of beast the film really is.

We know that it's an homage to pulpy Second World War thrillers, that it references the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and that there's a splendid villain in it - an SS "Jew-hunter" played by the German television actor Christoph Waltz, hoisted from obscurity by Tarantino for this film. But is it, in the words of the great critic Roger Ebert, "a big, bold, audacious war movie", an additional proof of the director's ability to deliver "quixotic delights"? Or is it rather, as the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw claims, "a gigantic two-and-a-half-hour anticlimax" boasting only "great heavy lumps of nothing"?

As a potential viewer, one is placed in a position of unusual ignorance, a state of doubt rarely achieved in this age of online spoilers and rottentomatoes.com. It is, I'm surprised to find, all quite exciting. What, when you get down to it, is Inglourious Basterds? My own thrilling sense of uncertainty seems not to have been diminished by the fact that I've already seen it. I was, as it happens, one of the film's first reviewers, crammed into that Cannes screening. An hour or so later I had composed The National's slightly giddy write-up. I gave it four stars, noting that it was "sadistic, jingoistic, inauthentic" but, all the same, "a blast".

At the time I wasn't entirely sure what I'd seen, except that it was in doubtful taste and that I'd enjoyed it. My review was, I thought, the kind of delicate hedge that shouldn't blow up on me. And then I started to hear what other people were saying. Incoherent. Botched. Tarantino still has nothing to say, except now he's saying it about the Holocaust. That was the gist of it. My colleague Kaleem Aftab appeared sunk in gloom at the whole thing. In the press office there was a rumbling consensus that Tarantino had finally lost the plot. Most perplexingly, several critics appeared to have found it very boring. (It does, in fairness, run to a talky 153 minutes, many of them subtitled.)

The more I listened, the more convinced I became by the case for the prosecution. Why was it called Inglourious Basterds when the guerrilla group of the same name played so small a part in it? Why did it feel like Brad Pitt, the top-billed actor on the marquee, was just pulling a whimsical cameo between smug caper films? Why exactly was Eli Roth, that gleaming-eyed Squirrel Nutkin of torture porn, allowed on screen at all? It all mounted up. Ah well, I thought, perhaps I can spin my review as a piece of Armond White-style contrarianism. It is still possible to carve out a career as an idiot about films, after all.

Imagine my puzzlement when the first wave of pre-release commentary seemed to vindicate my first impression. American reviewers seemed as entertained by its pop-art vacuity and hokey sensationalism as I had been ("for anyone professing true movie love," said Rolling Stone in a representative take, "there's no resisting it"). The Brits pretty uniformly hated it, but mainly for irritable, hand-wavy reasons. Sukdev Sandhu complained in the Telegraph that Pitt "carries himself like a cross between Popeye the Sailorman and Clark Gable," but who could see that as a bad thing?

Indeed, the spread of opinions has been so wide, the factions so evenly matched, that any firm view looks like a hostage to posterity. Misshapes like Inglorious Basterds make fools of us all, especially reviewers. Best to steer clear. Still, I wouldn't mind another look. Just to check, you understand.

Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale

Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni

Director: Amith Krishnan

Rating: 3.5/5

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Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Rating: 4/5
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5
 

From Conquest to Deportation

Jeronim Perovic, Hurst

The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Power: 268bhp / 536bhp
Torque: 343Nm / 686Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
On sale: Later this year
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs

Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol

Power: 154bhp

Torque: 250Nm

Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option 

Price: From Dh79,600

On sale: Now

Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
Most F1 world titles

7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)

7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)

5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)

4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)

4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)

Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode

Directors: Raj & DK

Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon

Rating: 4/5

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
The specs

Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo and dual electric motors

Power: 300hp at 6,000rpm

Torque: 520Nm at 1,500-3,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.0L/100km

Price: from Dh199,900

On sale: now

The specs

Engine: Direct injection 4-cylinder 1.4-litre
Power: 150hp
Torque: 250Nm
Price: From Dh139,000
On sale: Now

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

THE SPECS

Engine: 3.6-litre V6

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Power: 285bhp

Torque: 353Nm

Price: TBA

On sale: Q2, 2020