#26 Zwartboek (Black Book) - Lots and lots of shit

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Genre: War/Thriller
Key Players: Carice Van Houten

The third (and hopefully final) mention of something that has Paul Verhoeven's named attached to it's title (previous posts include Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct). In Black Book, Paul, as I like to call him, returns to his roots, with this dutch World War II spy-thriller, re-living some memories (and some made up) as a youngster growing up in occupied Holland. And as with most of Paul's work, you'll find not so subtle undertones of eroticism and sex - Black Book is no exception. But unlike the glossy sweaty sex between Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, here he uses it almost as a reverse effect, keeping it nasty and clinical. Almost business like. Because that's what it is: an undercover operation that makes the heroine go through all possible ordeals. And with pretty devastating results. When put in jail for empathizing with the enemy, Carice Van Houten's underground spy is stripped to her bones and gets an entire dumpster filled with crap (and I mean crap in the true meaning of the word: shit, poo, ass cream) released on top of her. It's gross, humiliating and pure nasty. Black Book shines on occasion, but is really just a watered down mix between Inglorious Basterds and Lust, Caution. Make up your own mind.

#14 Inglourious Basterds: Operation Kino

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: War/Thriller
Key Players: Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger, August Diehl

Fresh in mind, I thought it only appropriate to say a few words about Tarantino's most recent cinematic outing, the sprawling WWII epic Inglourious Basterds. But where to start? What to chose? It would be an understatement to say that it is difficult to just pick one glorious (or in this case, an inglourious, haha, lame) moment from a movie, which basically consists of one awesome moment after another. To pick just one moment from a movie such as Inglourious Basterds, well, that's fucking hard as fuck.
For a while I was thinking of going with the Hugo Stiglitz rock n' roll introduction (it's so left-field and unexpected, in a sort of expected Tarantino way, but at the same time, it isn't) but once consorting with myself, I settled on the tavern shootout instead. Well, there's more talking than shooting actually, but the looooong parts of dialogue that proceeds it, is perhaps some of Tarantino's best work: joyful, snappy and suspenseful. It's fantastic. The whole thing is put to an end with an extremely violent and quick shoot out with lots of carnage and other disturbances. Bravo.