The Film (3.5/5)

     The Inglorious Bastards is getting a lot of attention recently, since director Quentin Tarantino decided to name his new film Inglourious Basterds in homage to this little seen Italian gem.  The Inglorious Bastards is directed by Enzo Castellari (Bronx Warriors, Eagles over London, Cold Eyes of Fear), and falls square into the Dirty Dozen men-on-a-mission genre of films that were popular following the success of the Dirty Dozen throughout the late 60's and 70's. 

     The Inglorious Bastards stars Fred Williamson and Bo Svenson as part of a group of military soldiers on their way to either be court marshaled, or executed.  The truck escorting them comes under enemy fire, and a few of them manage to escape.  They regroup, and plan to make a run for Switzerland where they can live as free man.  This changes when they get involved with a plan to destroy a Nazi train.

     Because of the Tarantino connection many people are going to be watching The Inglorious Bastards looking for some lost masterpiece of cinema.  Those people may be disappointed.  The Inglorious Bastards is far from a masterpiece, it is however, an extremely fun spaghetti war movie, and should be checked out by those looking for a fun time with a kick-ass action film.

Video (4/5)

    Severin has outdone themselves with their first blu-ray release.  Inglorious Bastards is presented with a 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, and is encoded in 1080p.  While the DVD was not bad looking, the blu-ray really shines.  It will never look like an big budget glossy Hollywood film, but what we have here is the best the Inglorious Bastards will probably ever look

Audio (1.5/5)

    The one bad thing I have to say about this release is the audio.  Severin has presented the film with a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound track, and an 2.0 mono track.  Neither is very good.  The score can be heard quite clearly, but the dialogue throughout is quite muddled.  I had to put the volume up quite a bit to understand what was being said.

Extras (5/5)

     The transfer on the blu-ray is sweet enough.  However, the extras are where this blu-ray really shines.  Severin has ported over all of the extras (minus the soundtrack cd) from the 3 disc special edition released last year, and added more.  What you get with this release 30+ minute discussion between Inglorious Bastards director Enzo Castellari, and Inglourious Basterds director Quentin Tarantino.  A nearly full length documentary on the making of Inglorious Bastards.  There is also a commentary with Castellari, and Severin main man, and Plague Town director David Gregory.  If that wasn't enough you get Back to the War Zone a 13 minute piece with Enzo Castellari revisiting some of the locations from the film.  The blu-ray has 2 exclusive featurettes, one shows the Inglorious Bastards reunion at the New Beverly theater in L.A., and another shows a small amount of footage from Enzo Castellari's 70th birthday party in L.A.  The disc is rounded out with trailers for Inglorious Bastards, and Eagles over London.

Overall

    The Inglorious Bastards is a great Saturday afternoon at home war film.  The blu-ray from Severin is a great value, and is loaded with a great uncut version of the film, and a ton of informative extras.  The Inglorious Bastards comes highly recommended.