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One of the problems with Quentin Tarantino’s films is that he seems to just want to make things that he would enjoy watching and enjoy making and as he wants to control every aspect of his cinematic babies you have to go with his decisions or not watch his films at all.

Basterds has been kicking around in some form for more than 10 years and Tarantino has finally decided to get off his ass and get it into cinemas and amazingly it’s the best thing he’s done since Jackie Brown.

Set during the German occupation of France in the Second World War, the story follows Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) who witnesses the execution of her family at the hands of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). She escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as a cinema owner. Also in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is set the task to organise a group of Jewish American soldiers into a guerilla fighting force dropped behind enemy lines to terrorise Nazis and strike fear into their very souls performing shocking and swift acts of retribution.

Into the mix is thrown famous German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) who along with some well placed British secret agents is set to embark on a mission to eliminate the leaders of the Third Reich at a cinema premier. The two plot lines of course converge one fateful night in Shosanna’s cinema where the fate of the war will be decided for good.

Being a Tarantino fan since True Romance I was excited and curious to see this new film after the awful Death Proof and over indulgent Kill Bill and to see if he could still create great dialogue and kick-ass cinema. I was thoroughly impressed and happy to see that the break he has had to get this script right has been what was needed to refuel and replenish.

In a chilling opening sequence we are introduced to Colonel Landa and learn that he is not only an expert Jew hunter, but someone who greatly enjoys his job, and it sets up a truly memorable modern screen villain to hate. It’s a marvel then that

Christoph Waltz who plays Landa manages to make the character likeable despite his actions and in the process steals the entire film from out from everyone around him, including Pitt. The performances all round from the multi-national cast are excellent with everyone getting at least one line of juicy dialogue and their moment to shine.

The title of the film is a slight misdirection, as you only see the actions of the Basterds on a few missions, but what you do witness is sick and violent, with Eli Roth’s baseball wielding Donnie Donowitz being a stand out.

But the film is really about Shosanna’s story and the British government’s plot to assassinate the Third Reich’s high command, and because of this the film is all the better. Part-war, part-spy and part-pulp movie, the dialogue crackles in places and is laugh out loud funny in others. There are too many stand out scenes to mention them all, and this film, which will no doubt improve with multiple viewings, has Tarantino’s stamp all over it.

Yes it is revisionist history but what a rewrite and what a ride it is.

Mark Cappuccio

Fed up with sloppy, sentimental, twee, syrupy romances? Then get yourself down to this movie which is less chick-flick romcom, more doomed romance soundtracked by the The Smiths and more obscure indie bands.

Our hero is Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a sensitive soul who believes in the concept of one true love with a soul mate. Tom is on a quest to find “the one” and when he meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) he believes he has found her. The problem is, Summer isn’t ready for a love so overwhelming it consumes your soul, in fact, she doesn’t really believe in a love that has somehow been cosmically ordained, but she likes Tom and a romance of sorts develops. Thus, over the course of 500 days, Tom sets out to convince Summer he is her “one”, that she loves him as much as he loves her and that they are destined to be together, forever (in electric dreams).

(500) Days Of Summer is wry and dry, clever and witty, sweet and sour. It’s about misery and sadness and loss of faith, but it is also about that weird, warm, gooey feeling you get when you fall in love. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are both actors you warm to immediately, mostly because they are so human and fallible, and it’s nice the film is even-handed so you don’t end up rooting for one and hating the other.

Watch out for a fabulous performance by Chloe Grace Moretz who plays Tom’s older-than-her-years sister Rachel, oracle of wisdom, common sense and sound dating advice, while Tom’s male friends are good-hearted yet useless.

So, a thoroughly modern romance from rookie director Marc Webb who manages to make you smile through Tom’s pain.

Dee Pilgrim

It comes as an absolutely gobsmacking and equally refreshing surprise that the blockbuster of the year does not contain any recognisable box office stars and isn’t even American – it’s South African. With the last golden period for sci-fi flicks (Bladerunner, Aliens) decades behind us, we’ve suddenly got two gems in one year.

First came the small but beautifully composed Moon, and now we get the big budget District 9 which is by turns intelligent, thought-provoking, funny, entertaining and probably the best thing you’ll see in the cinema all year.

The action starts in 1990 when a huge alien spaceship begins to hover above South Africa. It soon becomes clear something is wrong with the craft and its inhabitants (known as “prawns” because of their appearance) are in some distress. As they seem non-threatening the international community sets out to help with “humanitarian” aid – clothing, food and shelter in a refugee camp which becomes known as District 9.

Twenty years later and District 9 resembles a ghetto, just like the apartheid townships of old. Many of the prawns have become addicted to beer and cat food and are being exploited by Nigerian gangsters. With the South African public fast turning against the aliens, seeing them as unwanted immigrants they believe are taking their jobs and precious resources, the government contracts a private firm known as Multi-National United (MNU) to forcibly remove them from District 9 to a new, custom-built camp well away from public view.

However, the prawns don’t really want to move from what has become their home and don’t really understand the government’s motives and so start to resist. MNU’s commander of operations Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) suddenly finds himself in the middle of a PR disaster – with the world’s cameras upon him the eviction rapidly spirals out of hand. When Wikus is accidentally exposed to an alien chemical he becomes as much of an outcast as the prawns and so must turn to an alien and its son to try and put matters right.

District 9 is all about “alienation”; about humanity’s distrust of the different, xenophobia, and “racial” hatred. The fact it is set in South Africa – until recently a country riven with racial tension under the apartheid regime – is deliberate as you are meant to see the parallels between the black/white conflict and human/prawn conflict.

It also has much to say about the plight of refugees of any race, nation, or even planet, as they flee from perilous situations only to find themselves vilified and hated in the place where they seek asylum.

However, District 9 doesn’t preach. Writer/director Neill Blomkamp has crafted a rollicking good ride with some stunning special effects, plenty of action and some nice comic touches. Sharlto Copley, who really has to carry the film almost single-handedly as the only human star, is magnificent, while the aliens are so well realised they soon become familiar rather than creepy. Peter (Lord of the Rings) Jackson produced this movie and hats off to him that he managed to persuade Sony Pictures to spend considerable sums of money on a film with no big stars and set in South Africa, not the States.

District 9 successfully rewrites the rules about what constitutes a blockbuster and it deserves nine out of 10 for doing so.

Dee Pilgrim

Win the chance to see Editors play at Sony Ericsson presents Q The Music Club Live at Hard Rock Café.

Sony Ericsson presents Q The Music Club at Hard Rock Café is a monthly night presenting some of the hottest acts around.

Next month, one of the greatest British indie rock bands to emerge in recent years, Birmingham-based four piece Editors, will be performing an ultra exclusive gig.

Selling over two million copies worldwide of their critically acclaimed platinum albums, Editors are set to release their new highly anticipated third LP, In This Light and On This Evening later this year.

For a chance to win a pair of VIP tickets to this invite only show, simply answer this question:

What is the new Editors album called?

A) In This Dark and On This Afternoon

B) In This Light and On This Evening

C) In This Dark and On This Morning

Send your answers to competitions@the-void.co.uk before noon on September 3.

Although not vintage Pedro Almodovar, Broken Embraces is still far superior to many tragic love stories that have recently made it to the big screen. The main reason for this is Almodovar never sinks into trite sentimentality and the sadness of the film is lifted by flashes of humour. It also helps that it stars the stunning Penelope Cruz who is fast maturing into an actress of real depth.

As is always the case with Almodovar, there are elements of autobiography in the film, but you are never quite sure how much of the story is actually based on truth, how much on a hyper-realised version of the truth, and how much is just totally fabricated. Our hero is Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar), an author, scriptwriter and film-maker who also uses the pseudonym Harry Caine.

Mateo – or Harry as he is known when we first meet him – was blinded in a car accident in Lanzarote many years ago, a crash that also robbed him of the love of his life, Lena (Cruz). In order to understand how this loss has shattered Mateo, the action cuts between the present and the past, gradually filling in the empty spaces and introducing characters like Lena’s older lover Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), and Mateo’s assistant Judit (Blanca Portillo), who become increasingly significant as the story progresses.

Being the master he is, Almodovar seamlessly blends four stories at any one time (including a film within a film) and the fact everything remains as clear and logical as it does is testament to his great storytelling skills. Cruz, as the fragile, brittle, but ultimately courageous, Lena is wonderful throughout and it is her performance that is most memorable, but praise should also go to Lluis Homar who gives Mateo/Harry a bitter (but not twisted) edge that eloquently encapsulates his inner torment.

However, this does not count as vintage Almodovar because it doesn’t have the self-contained feel of many of his previous works – it has an open-ended aura that makes it less thoroughly satisfying than, say, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, which built its own little world and was perfectly self-realised. However, this is a minor quibble as there is so much to enjoy here, not least the strange, exotic landscape of Lanzarote – Mateo and Lena’s version of a desert island escape.

Dee Pilgrim