Somehow, "Quentin Tarantino" and "Disciplined Military Mission" Don't Seem Like a Natural Fit

Quentin Tarantino's ultra-hyped WWII movie "Inglourious Basterds" is set to debut on May 20 at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Brad Pitt, Mike Myers and "Hostel" director Eli Roth, "Basterds" (misspelling both words in your title is good for the Google search) tells the story of Jewish-American soldiers on a revenge mission against Nazi Germans. Early reports say the film is heavily subtitled, with French and German characters speaking their native languages onscreen.

Tarantino's film sounds like it borrows more from the grindhouse Vietnam-era revenge fantasies of "Rolling Thunder" or "Brotherhood of Death" than "A Bridge Too Far" or "Where Eagles Dare." Even though Cannes audiences have supported Tarantino in the past ("Pulp Fiction" won the festival's top prize in 1994), "Inglourious Basterds" will like provoke an intense response from the European crowd.

Watch the official trailer on YouTube.Check out this interview with Tarantino at NYTimes.com. You can also download a typo-riddled copy of the alleged screenplay at Cineobscure.

James Barber has written about music and movies for Slate, Blender, Good and AlltheMusicNews.com. He is also a record producer, band manager and was an A&R guy at Geffen/DGC Records. He has never been a celebrity chef in Canada, even though he gets a lot of internet fan mail for that guy.