For those who haven't seen it yet, Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino's alternate history of World War II, about a fictional band of bloodthirsty Jewish soldiers called the Basterds. Led by southern white boy Brad Pitt, the group roves around Europe, leaving hundreds of scalped Nazis in their wake. Their current mission is "Operation Kino," a suicide bombing run where they'll attend (and blow up) the Paris premiere of Joseph Goebbels' latest propaganda flick, Stolz der Nation (Spirit of the Nation). Lucky for the Basterds, the woman who owns the theater is actually a stealth Jew whose family was murdered by Nazis - so she's got her own explosive plans for high-ranking officials attending the event.

The movie is as much about movies as it is World War II. The war's historical details are smudged throughout with imaginative flourishes that speak mostly to contemporary fantasies borrowed from action flicks. A standout is Hostel director Eli Roth, known for his torture-laced movies, playing "the Bear Jew," who likes to smash Nazi heads open with baseball bats. Another great moment comes when the stealth Jew theater-owner Shoshanna describes how to fight back against the Nazis using the power of film. At first it seems as if she's made another version of famous French resistance movie Open City. But no - she just means that movies are incredibly flammable. If she lights her film collection on fire, it's going to make one hell of a bomb.

A highlight of the DVD extras is a fairly long interview with Tarantino and Pitt, in conversation with film critic Elvis Mitchell. They talk about how intense it was when they showed the film in Germany, and Tarantino speculates that this is perhaps one of the only movies that gave Germans permission to laugh at Nazi history rather than feeling guilty about it. He says there's a whole generation of Germans who had nothing to do with the Nazis' crimes, and that they all carry around this burden of guilt which is reignited by movie after movie - and yet something about Inglourious Basterds allowed them to see their history in a new light. Possibly it's this same aspect of the film that caused some Jewish groups to attack the movie for anti-Semitism.

Film nerds like me will love the special features that explore all the cinematic influences on the movie, including Enzo Castellari's 1970s flick Inglorious Bastards. Tarantino and Roth talk about how much they loved the original film, and we get to see a quick behind-the-scenes on Castellari doing his cameo in the movie.There's also a quick tour from critic Mitchell through the rare movie posters on display in Shoshanna's movie theater, which help explain some of the references in the film, as well as the fictional posters created for Tarantino's alternate history.

Best of all is the fake "making of" documentary about Stolz Der Nation, the movie-within-a-movie which was directed by Eli Roth. And of course, there's Roth playing the director and talking about how great it is that Hitler is going to write an endorsement of the movie.

If you liked the movie in the theaters and just want to plunge more deeply into the piles of references that inform it, or if you didn't get a chance to see it yet, you'll want to check out the Inglourious Basterds DVD.

We grabbed Eli at the Syfy Entertainment Weekly party and hounded him for more answers. He hopes to have Endangered Species out in the spring of 2011. We were happily surprised to hear that he's writing parts for actors he knows - he listed an amazing dream cast of Josh Brolin and Brad Pitt. Yes, we'd see that movie.

He said:

There are certain people that I really want to work. But we'll see. I'm writing the parts with certain people in mind and we'll see if they do it.. Well there's this guy Brad I just worked with, it would be wonderful to work with him again. Josh Brolin I'd love to work with him. Big fan of Josh and we each other's work and have been looking for something to do together. I like to write parts for the people I like and see if they're available.

Interview by Charlie Jane and Meredith Woerner (that's me on the end).

I know most of you are split on Eli Roth, but I'd like to start out saying that I am a fan of the man. For the jokes in Cabin Fever alone. That being said, I don't know if I can get behind this bastard-child-of-Michael Bay movie, especially if it's PG-13, which there have been numerous rumors about. I want blood in my Roth science fiction, and he knows how to deliver it. Roth says he'll be directing the $80 million science fiction disaster movie after he finishes up his Thanksgiving murder movie. Our new scifi villain is supposedly:

It is not aliens or robots or a virus - it's a little more grounded. But when people hear it they are going to be like ‘That is going to be insane!'.

I hope so Roth because we've been hearing about this monster invasion for sometime now and it is time to start filming already, which will supposedly happen this fall.

[MTV]

I'm all for the Werewolf ladies turning into a comic but why stop there? These crazy gals and their werewolf feeding Nazi den of booze and singing deserve more screen time. Who doesn't want to see the naked masked Nazi ladies of death camp 13, let alone the crazy experimentation that went into making a "pure" wolf person.

But while were looking back at the Grindhouse fake trailers I think we need to note Eli Roth's Thanksgiving clip as well. "You'll come home from the holidays in a body bag," is by far one of the top all time tag lines in horror movies. What petition do I need to start to get that film made?

NSFW trailers for Nazi Werewolves, Don't and Thanksgiving.

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