I sit in my seat and look about to see my surroundings; I start to hear clicking sounds getting louder and louder. I start to fly around the city of London, looking around I see people having snowball fights with each other, singing Christmas songs. This might sound like the Star Tours “The Christmas Carol Edition” that would be at Disneyland. You might think wow that sounds kind of cool, well in this film it played out to be too much of something can be a bad thing. It sounds strange that Zemeckis could not pull off a simple adaptation. The last animated film we saw from Zemeckis was “Beowulf” which I found to be an excellent adaptation; it carried strong writing as well as excellent use of 3D effects.

“A Christmas Carol” was written by Charles Dickens, it tells the tale of a decrepit old man named Ebenezer Scrooge whom despises Christmas and anything or anyone to do with the holiday. So on Christmas night as Scrooge arrives home, he is visited by his old business partner Jacob Marley, who died many years ago, whom has come to warn him that three spirits will come to visit him to counsel him about the error of his ways.

Zemeckis adapted the writing from the book to film very well, he stuck relatively close to it but also put in a few things of his own as an attempt to mix up some originality to it. One part of it in particular was how the spirits were made use of, all of them were different from the many film adaptations, not only characteristically but also visually.

Jim Carrey portrayed the title role of Ebenezer Scrooge, he performs it in a story book manner to the point of how I imagined him to be. That has been Carrey’s strengths as a character actor. He usually does very well with other films such as “Man on the Moon” and “Eternal Sunshine of the spotless Mind” but when it’s a role like Ebenezer scrooge or even The Grinch, I feel its like his primary weapon in his arsenal and it shows in the film.

There were problems with the film and they varied, the film had a lot of what I call Zemeckis moments: in which there are tons of flying shots or just moments blown out of proportion. Where we follow scrooge flying around the city or we have overview fly bys of London itself, it felt like the 3D was very reliant on this factor. It felt like it was used about eighty percent of the film and that can cause many problems for people who would like to see it at a non 3D show. Those Zemeckis moments became very obnoxious and boring, I thought to myself “Jeez enough already!” and we all know Zemeckis has the creativity but it seemed like he was just relying strictly on the 3D and nothing else. That’s one of the big problems with the film, we have so many Zemeckis moments that it begins to bury the messages that the story is trying to tell.

Now with any vital thing to a film it comes to the marketing of it, from the posters and many of the trailers or spots I see that “A Christmas Carol” looks like a family fun Christmas movie. But don’t let this fool you, there is a lot of dark themed messages and spine chilling moments in a kids advertised film, that might spook younger audiences. I thought there was going to be much more humor to it and that’s what it lacked a lot of it to make it friendlier to kids. Yes to a point the Story in it self is serious, if you don’t change the error of your ways them bad things are going to happen to you. But you would expect with Zemeckis and holiday movies but its not, some parents might be rubbed the wrong way with it.

The story of “A Christmas Carol” is a simple one and a classic but overdoing effects and relying on it to carry the film actually brought it down for me, despite the strong acting and good writing. The effects became obnoxious and distracted from the story that was being attempted. But hey if people are into over done effects and Star Tour rides instead of a good film then that’s cool. I think the film should have been live action versus animated but well see if Zemeckis returns to it. But if he decides to then I got the perfect idea, partner up with the Wachowski’s and tell the tale of the three little pigs, over do the effects and combine some “Matrix” shoot outs and “Beowulf” acting like maybe Ray Winestone as the wolf. Throw in some dark themes, then we might have a movie on our hands. Oh and don’t forget the 3D as well, anyways hopefully the next Zemeckis product will be better and I know it can be done.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Yes this movie was fantastic

“Nein nein nein nein nein nein!”

“YES YES YES YES YES YES!”

Tarantino’s films have always had me curious because of his style and the way he writes out the story, the characters, he’s always been different from other filmmakers and keeps to his style and makes each new film interesting. So it’s not always the same old story, which I like. I’ve always had a thing for war films, especially World War Two films. Finally after months and months of waiting, I finally get to see Tarantino play with WWII, which we haven’t seen from him yet. I waited eagerly in my seat for the masterpiece to begin.

The story takes places during World War Two in Nazi-occupied France, where we have a special group of Jewish soldiers called “The Basterds” who are sent in by the United States to strike fear into the hearts of Nazis. They are lead by the Lieutenant Aldo Raine, also known as “The Apache” by the Nazis, played by Brad Pitt in both a hilarious and entertaining performance. Pitt’s character primarily derives his tactics from the Apache Indians (hence the name “The Apache”), his primary tactic is to scalp all the Nazis that his squad runs into; some of the dialogue in these scenes was just side-splitting. Their big mission is called Operation Kino, in which most of the high command of the Nazis will be attending the screening of a film created by Josef Goebbels; the Basterds are ordered to take them all down with one mighty blow in order to get the job done – but they are not the only ones looking to take a hit on the Nazi party.

In what was possibly one of the most intense openings Tarantino has ever done, we meet Nazi SS officer Colonel Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz, who carries a phenomenal performance as the main antagonist, he was the knife that kept the audience on edge in every scene he was in. You never knew what this man was going to do, one moment he would smile and you would think all was well but it’s really a completely different situation. He may be one of the best villains ever – he made your skin crawl, made you want to run out of the room. Give that man an award, already. The whole start of the film felt like a big homage to the Spaghetti Western, which complemented the World War Two theme, specifically to say, Leone’s The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. At that moment, Landa is searching for Jews, finds a family and attempts to murder them all, until one girl manages to escape him. That girl is Shosanna Dreyfus played by Melanie Laurent, who carries a very powerful performance as the tortured soul who is out to get revenge. Four years later she becomes the owner of the very same movie theater that the Nazi high command selects to view Goebbels film – and there she plans her revenge.

The whole cast of the film was one big powerful entourage, everyone shined in his own way. I was personally very surprised at Eli Roth’s performance as Sgt. Donny Donowitz, he carries attitude throughout the film, he shone defiantly as an actor in this and I must commend Tarantino’s casting choice. One of the fellow Basterds, Til Schweiger plays the intolerant, equally bad-ass Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, who despises the sight or sound of a Nazi. One particular scene I loved was the bar scene, you could see Stigilitz’s facial expressions becoming worse and worse with each passing moment. A pin could drop and everything in the room might just explode.

The pace and editing of the film was the best of all the Tarantino movies that I have seen; I have never, in any of the other films that he’s made, been so hooked from beginning to end. Sally Menke really took this up a notch and served a delicious platter of goodies with this film. I felt so engaged from beginning to end and I didn’t want it to stop, two hours and thirty nine minutes flew by and I wanted more. The cinematography played out well too, the Tarantinto-isms (as I call them) were all there, such as the three-sixty-spin-around shots. Those long takes also helped build the intensity, like the steady-cam follow-through of a line of gunpowder (forever!) leading us to… some big barrel of adrenaline ready to be unleashed. I really liked the use of music, even though it was stock music and not original it still smoothed and enriched the film like jam spread just so evenly on a peanut butter sandwich.

The violence of the film felt very controlled and effective; it wasn’t like Kill Bill’s orgy of blood with the yakuza sword fight. But with every injury you would still get that wonderful cringing feeling like if you were in the place of that person. But Tarantino still does splurge a bit towards the end of the film – I won’t spoil it, but you will see what I mean.

So the film is a wonderful gift wrapped with genius, but you might wonder, Ilya, you did nothing but worship the movie and kiss its feet, was there anything bad about it?

Hmm, one might think so, but if I were to choose anything it would be definitely length; I heard originally there was a longer cut screened at Cannes. Now I’d scalp any person to get that cut of the film, or stalk Tarantino for a copy. But I can’t otherwise put the film down, the writing was magnificent, all the characters were strong and hooked you into what would happen to them, the editing was tight and the pacing was strong. So far I have no complaints; I will see this many times again, hopefully the full cut of the film will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD so that I can dip into the complete experience of Inglourious Basterds. I would recommend seeing this opening day.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: So, can we talk about working with Tarantino and stepping into a project like this?

Fassbender is a Basterd

Fassbender: Well, I suppose it’s sort of [pause] first thing’s that it was very surreal for me, and because the first thing I did when I was starting to get into the business was when I was 18 and me and my friends got together and did a stage version of Reservoir Dogs in a local nightclub. Well, in Ireland, it’s called disco, really. So that was my first steps in getting into a career, so to actually work with him was a dream come true. And once I sort of got beyond that, it’s just fascinating to watch the man work, cause he really does work in his unique sort of way. And also the fact that he’s just so knowledge able in film, you know? He does his craft by absorbing all this information from the last …well… when cinema began, like a hundred years of seeing international film knowledge like I’ve never come across, incredible encyclopedia, and he’s just a dream to work with. He gives you a lot of information outside of what’s written, we all know his written work is pretty exceptional, and his reference points are very precise and original also, like I got “Well, this this guy is like young George Sanders, so all you have to do is listen to the man, and he gives you all the ammunition you need,” so I watched all the George Sanders films I could get my hands on, and…

Atomic Popcorn: Did you read his suicide note?

Fassbender: That’s weird isn’t it? I always thought of that, like he said “I was bored of life.” It was kind of weird; it was always in the back of my head watching.

Atomic Popcorn: Can you touch upon the casting process, and how you first met him?

Fassbender: Yeah, I can. It was pretty interesting because I was really sort of trying to get Christoph Waltz’s part [Landa] so I was really after that part, and I was doing this thing called Fishtank at the time, and my agent pretty much terrorized Quentin to see me, and they were, like, “Landa, Landa” and Quentin [said] “let’s look at Hicox as well. So I put all my eggs in one basket, ’cause I was working on this other job, so I came home and did five hours on Landa, and got French lessons [laughs], and did about 27 hours work on this Landa character. And then, I flew out to Berlin and got into this room and we chatted for a while and he said, “Okay, well let’s look at Hicox”, and I said “can we look at Landa also?” and he said “I cast my Landa Tuesday” and I said “Oh, really?” and he said “Look, anyone who gets cast as Heathcliff is not f-ing German enough to play Landa!” [laughs], so I said “Fair enough”. And we sort of read the Hicox part pretty much cold, and I thought I made a real balls of everything afterwards, and I remember I was terribly depressed, and a week later they called me up and offered me the job.

Atomic Popcorn: This role requires that you learn not only different languages, but even little nuances that native speakers can pick up on, you talked about taking language lessons, but how is that whole process, was it difficult to pick up all the little nuances?

Fassbender: Well, no, everything that’s said – that I say is verbatim, that’s all written, what I wanted to try and do is I wanted to try and get that feeling of a 1930’s, 1940’s movie star, and that is like why Hicox speaks in such a sort of, it’s not a sort of British type, and it’s very much part of that era, and also the physicality of the character, people move differently, and the props that they had were different props in terms of just, like, …cigarette cases, just that world and trying to come up with as much of that as I could, and Hicox is a film critic, so I thought it would be kind of interesting if he sort of, you know, he’s obviously in love with Bridget Hammersmark, and he would like to be an actor, so I just sort of tried to embody all that in order to help me bring some sort of physicality to all that.

Atomic Popcorn: You have such a fabulous scene in the basement and I’m just wondering. Like. I know you guys -

Fassbender: I got my testicles blown off….

(Laughter)

Fassbender: Through my [backside]. There were actually exit holes on both cheeks.

Atomic Popcorn: Very dramatic, but how involved was Quentin in the rehearsal process, and what was it like working in the scene, and how did it challenge you?

Fassbender: Well, we took about two weeks to film that scene. We rehearsed; the thing is, I think Quentin is like, very much into to sort of getting everything prepped before we arrive on the day, and anything can happen on the day. …say we rehearsed something and we do it a certain way, that doesn’t mean that we’re stuck, and we play it so many different ways and everyone knows where they are on the page, and beyond, so when you arrive on the day then you’re free to play, you’re really sort of allowed to react and go along with what the other actors are doing, and try to keep it fresh and play with it. He’s just so precise, and he just wants you to get things the way he definitely sees them, just the point where he will give you a line reading to get that rhythm right. But then once all of that is covered… and Eli was talking about this last night which sort of reminded me, once you done that, he gets what he wants, you can do what you want. And he’ll allow you to try something offbeat or do your own thing, or bring a different taste and color, and it’s really a sort of fun and free experience when you’re filming – but that’s because there has been a lot of prep.

Atomic Popcorn: How did working on this particular film change your attitude or philosophy of acting, or how do you do it?

Fassbender: I don’t really know, It’s um… I guess it just sort of changed my philosophy, well, not changed, but it’s sort of always nice to watch somebody in their world doing exceptional work, it’s just sort of recognizing a good director. And maybe one day I’ll try and do it, and in terms of acting I work sort of similar, I do a lot of the prep work. I was in Berlin for five weeks before we started filming, and the project before that I was there for five weeks before, and the project before that… the one thing he definitely did do was introduce me to the sophistication of these films made in the 1930’s, 1940’s like… Pandora’s Box and G.W. Paps films and that. I always thought that I was a bit arrogant, that this day and age was the age of sophisticated filmmaking, but these films were dark and socially challenging, and really sort of on the edge. So, definitely got that from him.

Atomic Popcorn: So after a day’s wrap, did Quentin ever get the cast together to watch one of his movie selections?

Fassbender: Yeah, every Thursday was movie night. You’d watch the movie and Quentin would introduce the movie and tell you what he liked about the movie and bits of trivia about the movie, and everyone would watch it. It was like the whole crew and that includes the catering staff, and just everybody that was involved in the production… all these people that are there to work with this man.

Atomic Popcorn: I was wondering if you got an anecdote of a movie that impressed you that he showed the crew.

Fassbender: Well, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, I think that’s his favorite film, I’m not really sure.

Atomic Popcorn: It’s one of his three favorites.

Fassbender: Oh, right, okay. (Laughter) Yeah, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, which I guess he pointed out as well. I’m not a massive fan of Eli Wallach but in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he doesn’t have a foot wrong, it’s just an amazing performance, but totally steeped in reality. His face is just always expressing something to the point where you’re like “Jeez take it easy, little bit less, Buddy”, but it’s amazing the whole way through the film, even the way he puts water over the lips of Clint Eastwood ’cause he’s been stuck in the desert for so long. It’s just such a physically dedicated performance by him, it’s pretty amazing. I did manage to catch Quentin out on a piece of trivia actually. Which was the name of Crockett’s pet crocodile in “Miami Vice”.

Atomic Popcorn: Elvis?

Fassbender: Yeah! Nice! [Laughs]. I think the other question was Magnum P.I’s Dobermans.

Atomic Popcorn: Deuce and Apollo

Fassbender: Yeah, nice. Excellent. [Laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Mike Meyers seems like the most unlikely person to be in a Tarantino movie….

Fassbender: What? How can you say that after the people he’s cast? [Laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Yes, but still, I was surprised. So I was wondering what your opinion was and what was it like working with Mike Meyers?

Fassbender: I guess because he’s play this sort of, you know, General. I mean, I knew I was trying to do sort of this comic turn with Hicox. So, you’re going up againt Mike Meyers, he’s, like, a legend…

Atomic Popcorn: He’s Austin Powers!

Fassbender: Yeah! Exactly, so I thought he was just gonna wipe the floor with me, and hopefully I’m not gonna sort of crumble. But when I arrived, we just hit it off really, really well. We just went back an forth all day sharing little anecdotes and stories. We were making little jokes, I was just doing fast show sketches, which is a program on British TV. He knew about it, and he just stayed in his accent all day. And he’s just very generous and a lot of fun, and of course, we had Rod Taylor in there as well, and he’s just this obvious sort of giant. I just picked his brains and asked to tell me some stories, and he’s just a generous, beautiful human being, so I was very lucky.

Atomic Popcorn: Did he tell you any good stories?

Fassbender: Yeah, but I can’t tell you. [laughs]

Atomic Popcorn: You have a lot of projects coming up and I was just wondering if you wanted to talk about what’s coming up next for you and what you’re excited to see.

Fassbender: I just finished working on this film Jonah Hex.

Atomic Popcorn: Which Josh Brolin said at Comic Con that you’re absolutely amazing in.

Fassbender: I know, I was very pleased. He’s just one of those special sort of people in the industry that’s sort of… just very supportive, you know? John Malkovich as well, he’s pretty amazing, and Jimmy Hayward at the front of it, and of course Megan Fox. So, again I guess that was sort of… I kind of developed this character and really kind of pushed it, I’ll see how far I pushed it. I was John Malkovich’s right-hand man, and I had this idea about the character, and he’s this kind of psychotic who gets his kicks in perverted ways. But I didn’t want to make it obvious, like you’ve seen it before. But I didn’t know where to go with it, and then I went to wardrobe and Michael Wilkinson, whom I’ve worked with before on 300, had this three-piece suit pulled out for me that was very green, and I’m playing this Irish guy, and I said “Look man, you gotta take the green down, I can’t go back home to Ireland, they’ll kill me.” [Laughs] So it was faded down, then I was going through hats and I picked up a bowler hat, and I put it on and looked in the mirror, and I thought “Oh, this looks just like A Clockwork Orange”. So, I thought I could go along that vein having Clockwork Orange meets Frank Gorshin’s 1970’s Riddler with a Carrey accent. And then the guys at prosthetics …developed this tattoo thing which started here [points to jaw], and goes all the way down the torso and my arm. So really, it’s like the people around you doing these things doing all the work for you if you’re just open to it and it became a really fun character, actually.

Atomic Popcorn: Are you involved on the action side of that movie, are you doing a lot of stunt work in it?

Fassbender: I tried to do as much of that as they let me. Again, I do enjoy having this sort of physical role, and it’s just good fun really. Just running around, and jumping about the place. So I did quite a bit of it, yeah. We got together with the stunt guys and they were just fantastic. They watched both Josh and [my] fighting styles, they took us down to the dojo and saw what way we moved and whatnot. So then from there, they developed the fight between us, which was great, so it’s like Jonah’s this slugger and if he hits you once, you’re in big trouble, and my guy is dancing around, working inside a pocket, and his weapon of choice is a knife, so it was really cool. They sort of developed this fight, and brought us down there, worked through it and did pretty much most of it.

Atomic Popcorn: Being of German descent, what was it like being in a movie that changes history as much as it did?

Fassbender: I remember reading it at the time, and was like [expression of shock, laughs]. I was like, you know, I thought it was pretty cool, that’s what I love about it, that it’s not going to be restrained by the confines of history. We’ve seen this topic matter done so many times. I was like “World War II, here we go again”, and then it’s like, maybe the film to end World War II films, and I loved the fact that he’s going with French people speaking French, German people speaking German, and I always thought that was weird seeing in movies German people speaking English in German accents. It just bursts the bubble of illusion immediately. So, it’s just great.

Atomic Popcorn: Were there any surprises watching the final product?

Fassbender: Yeah, I have to be honest with you, I can’t wait to see it again, because I was overwhelmed by the whole, you know, being in Cannes, it was like Eli again, where it felt like a second film where the Basterds were infiltrating the premiere of Cannes, it was such a mad trip. I definitely want to see it again, but I got so many elements from seeing it I suppose, that I didn’t realize how it was almost separate films, like the opening scene, which I thought, was a film unto itself. I was just blown away by the whole event, really.

Atomic Popcorn: Thank you so much.

Fassbender: Thank you.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: What is it like working with Tarantino?

Diane Kruger is a Basterd

Diane Kruger: Well, it’s everything you would imagine for a Tarantino movie, he’s a little larger then life, he’s very exuberant, and mad and running around. It’s nearly a childlike quality, he sits next to a camera and gets so excited about the scene you’re doing and at the same time he can also be incredibly soft spoken and sensitive. But what sets him apart from other directors is he has the ability to sense what a different actor needs for different scenes and he knows exactly what you need to help you open the door.

Atomic Popcorn: What were your inspirations for the role?

Diane Kruger: No one in particular. I guess the only character that could make the role exist is Bridget Von Hammersmark, it’s a bit of a puzzle of different people. Though he had a lot of other actresses Tarantino wanted me to watch one actress, I think she was Hungarian. Of course also being German I knew a lot of German actresses of that period.

Atomic Popcorn: What do you think your character’s motivation was? Your character decides to stay and spy on the British, but we don’t know much about her, what’s her backstory?

Diane Kruger: Well the truth is I can tell you 20 years of backstory on her, which is what Quentin does, but without getting into too much details because I don’t know if there will be a prequel or not. But she grows to despise the Nazi regime and wants to use her influence to attempt to take down the Third Reich and end the war.

Atomic Popcorn: What was the casting process like? How was the meeting with Quentin?

Diane Kruger: Casting for me was not pleasant, you know he had someone in mind when he originally wrote the script so there was never even going to be the opportunity to meet with him. So of course everyone calls and plans, and he says no, no, I want a German, so that was hard because it took a while to convince him that I was German. And I guess he was casting German women so he told me to come to Germany to meet with him …so I flew there and had 2 days to prepare 30 pages of dialogue in both German and English. So when we finally met it was the easiest thing in the world and it was obvious that we liked each other and we both saw the same humor for the character which was important so we both agreed on it.

Atomic Popcorn: Did you grow up in Germany?

Diane Kruger: Yes. I was born and raised there until I was fifteen

Atomic Popcorn: So what made you decide to go to the states?

Diane Kruger: No, I live in Paris, and I’ve sort of been living here on and off because I worked here as a model and I love America.

Atomic Popcorn: Did you feel lucky? Honored to be the focus of the foot fetish?

Diane Kruger: Well it’s a funny thing ’cause I guess I was naïve but I didn’t know about that and I was interviewed by a journalist who had just got the job and said “So have you heard about it? You don’t have a foot scene?” And I said I no and so he filled me in on it. And the day comes and I tell Quentin, “Hey Quentin, it’s the foot day, are you excited?” and he said “No it’s not true, journalists made it up.” Six close-ups later on my foot, then my face, maybe there’s some truth to it.

Atomic Popcorn: And it was your foot?

Diane Kruger: Oh [yes], never looked better, that pedicure lasted forever.

Atomic Popcorn: How did working on this movie change your attitude or ideas towards acting?

Diane Kruger: I feel confident, I think that’s what he does, he installs confidence into actors and he has faith in actors and I feel like that you can do anything when someone had faith in you. Especially as a woman who works in Hollywood to feel valued to be given a dialogue that actually is intelligent and nuanced and you’re not just being treated as the accessory to whatever male story is happening in the movie, it’s empowering. He empowers women; women should thank him for the parts he writes for them in his films.

Atomic Popcorn: Any funny anecdotes about wearing the leg cast?

Diane Kruger: I think it’s a genius idea, when I first saw it I was, like, “It has a heel? Are you kidding me?” It was genius. It wasn’t comfortable but it looked great.

Atomic Popcorn: How did you study your character?

Diane Kruger: Well it was important to Quentin that when you watch films from the 40s people back then were more formal and especially for actresses; I guess what you call it is a commanding presence, they’re more formal and less conversational. They were big stars and when you saw them you could tell they were stars with the lighting and filtering, and it was important for when you see Hammersmark on screen you see that she’s the movie star and when she speaks no one else does. It was also important that you would see the fierce and intelligent Bridget Von Hammersmark and if you only thought she was this ditzy actress then you wouldn’t believe her to be this smart elite spy for two years without being discovered and to come up with this smart plan to take out the high command. And that gave me a great arc later on because you do, later, see the real Bridget in distress when she steps into the office, she thinks the Basterds are morons for messing it up and it was just so much to play with her.

Atomic Popcorn: Was the fight scene with Christoph very tough?

Diane Kruger: Oh, yeah, that’s the funny anecdote of that scene, though, is that was Quentin straddling me and strangling me… and I was, like, “Quentin, are you trying to tell me something? Did I do something wrong?” [laughs] It was my last day and Quentin came into my trailer and told me “Christoph is just a actor, you know? And he’s gonna squeeze too hard or too little and we’re gonna have to do it over and over. I know exactly how much I need, so I think I should do it, you trust me, right?” And then you’ve seen Christoph, and Quentin is two heads taller so none of his costumes would fit him. So they had to make strap-on fake SS sleeves you know, and so then there’s this huge man on top of me squeezing me and you know it was sweet cause he was a lot less stronger than Christoph, and I couldn’t tell him “Oh [yes], good one, we can do one more, ‘cough, cough’!” He’s so sweet ya know.

Atomic Popcorn: How do you think this film will be received in Germany or, say, France – do you think it will be different from America, I mean, is this still a sensitive subject in Germany?

Diane Kruger: I know it’s going to play well in Germany because we premiered it there two weeks ago and you know, it’s funny thing ’cause journalists have asked the same question since we [asked] the question in Cannes. The thing is it’s the same audience as it is here in America because its been sixty years, there’re six generations that have not lived through the war and that half had to grow up with this heavy shadow on their shoulders and honestly they don’t want to hang on to Adolph any longer then you guys do. If they could, they would have killed him themselves; if anything, it’s even more positive towards seeing a movie end the way it does, where it has this revenge aspect and lets us change the ending of World War II.

Atomic Popcorn: So what was the reaction In the theater?

Diane Kruger: Cheering, it brought down the house, it was Cannes times 3. My grandfather came to see it and I was a bit  nervous about it and you know he was, like, “OHHHH it’s all fairy tale! They messed up Goebbels! He didn’t talk like that!”

Atomic Popcorn: How do you feel about rewriting history?

Diane Kruger: That’s what I wanted to do, you can imagine as a German, I get offered World War II movies and I never wanted to do it, why should I associate with it just because I’m German? So this came along and I was, like, that is cool, I will be able through Bridget Von Hammersmark to bring down the Third Reich. I like it.

Atomic Popcorn: You have the momentous scenes, which ones did you like?

Diane Kruger: They’re all so different, like the tavern scene. They were fun to film but it was a two-week scene, imagine keeping up the energy for two weeks, you know? Ten to twelve minute takes, even when you’re not on you’re still on, I think the funniest one was the one in the theater it’s with Brad and two of the Basterds trying to pass for Italians. I mean it was really hard to keep a straight straight face and I think Brad is so genius “BONJIUUURNO” it’s, like, really? I mean, I loved it because my character could go really big and be, like, “are you a f-ing moron?!” its just so funny! Its like an old screwball comedy to do.

Atomic Popcorn: What was it like working with Brad Pitt?

Diane Kruger: Well I knew him from Troy and I was glad I had the opportunity to meet him later on in my career because I was so green and inexperienced at that time and completely overwhelmed when I was doing Troy, that was my second or third film ever. So being a little calmer about the whole thing, having experience and having such a really cool character to play… Knowing each other it helped you know, we were laughing and having such a good time. We were doing accents together all the time and joking around; it was a real good time.

Atomic Popcorn: You said that Quentin doubled for Christoph in that office scene, did he stand in for the foot close up part as well?

Diane Kruger: No. [Laughs]

Atomic Popcorn: What are your upcoming projects?

Diane Kruger: Well, a movie I just shot was selected for the Venice film festival, which is cool. I have never had a film in competition there and then I am going to do a French film in French, it’s been my love project and I have been trying to get this movie made for years and it’s finally coming together. I tried to make a French film for a year at least.

Atomic Popcorn: As someone who speaks different languages, from the acting side are you more comfortable with one or another?

Diane Kruger: Not really, but you tend to be different in other languages, I think German tends to be tougher for some reason while French is so soft, and English is just sort of normal [laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: This project that you’ve been working on, what did you do on it?

Diane Kruger: I raised money for it, I was lobbing it around to get made.

Atomic Popcorn: What was it about?

Diane Kruger: It’s about two sisters, it’s a very female-driven movie, a female director as well and it’s a art house movie, its hard to make in these times.

Atomic Popcorn: Would you have gotten Genghis Kahn if you played the game?

Diane Kruger: No I don’t think so, [laughs] you know it’s funny when I read it and there were all these different names, I was, like, who the hell are all these people? And I didn’t want to go to all of Quentin’s meetings and not know all these people.

Atomic Popcorn: I heard Quentin plays movies for his cast on Thursdays, what did he play?

Diane Kruger: Well he loves Spaghetti Westerns and he played The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. But the funny thing was that Quentin would have a popcorn machine and hot dogs and he sits through all the movies, he’s seen all of the movies two times and he’s like “ha ha ha ha,” you just gotta watch him be this little boy watching them.

Atomic Popcorn: He was invested a lot into the Spaghetti Western theme, was there anything that he pointed out in the film that he wanted you to do especially for moments in it?

Diane Kruger: It’s more about how he shoots it, there were a couple of iconic shots, I don’t think it was in the movie but there was a closeup of me with a fedora and you don’t see the face, kind of like the classic Eastwood thing with the face coming up. But he was inspired by other things, he was inspired by von Sternberg, I actually called him my von Sternberg we had that kind of relationship as well, he gave me a book about him. There’s a shot in the tavern scene that was kind of a iconic von Sternberg shot. Where it’s a long traveling shot, it was from a famous movie of his.

Atomic Popcorn: Do you ever want to direct? After doing a movie like this with Quentin?

Diane Kruger: I don’t really have a ambition to direct, but when you work with a person such as Quentin I don’t think I could ever do that job, I don’t think I have that kind of visual eye for it. I like producing, though.

Atomic Popcorn: Eli Roth talked about how Quentin would be strict on set with no cell phones and whatnot, and keeping everyone focused with strict rules. Was that difficult?

Diane Kruger: I think the cell phone thing is a given – I don’t know what idiot would bring a cell phone onto a movie set because I think its simply disrespectful. I think that will happen, though, because a cell phone went on while we were filming and he went ballistic. What he’s so strict though is that he’s so attached to his words, if you don’t say one word  right he could break a scene, he wants you to say every single word and that exercise can be difficult because you can forget an “and” or a “but”. So that took a little getting used to.

Atomic Popcorn: We were told Quentin would give line reads because he wanted the words a certain way, was it something he worked on with you?

Diane Kruger: Not really no, not with me.

Atomic Popcorn: What sort of stories do you lean towards when you look at a script?

Diane Kruger: No it’s just, it has to be that every movie you make has a different challenge, it has to be worthwhile, I don’t want to play the same part that I played in a different movie like playing Helen of Troy again. So I have to be scared of it to want to do it.

Atomic Popcorn: Is this the first movie you fired a gun?

Diane Kruger: YESSS! [yells, laughs] the preparation they would make you train to use it, but I used to hunt because I come from the country hard and I am a pretty good shot. But come to think of it, shooting with your eyes open without blinking was really hard.

Atomic Popcorn: Well thank you for coming!

Diane Kruger: Thank you!

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: What was your favorite part about working on a Tarantino set?

B.J. Novak is a Basterd

B.J. Novak: Quentin Tarantino, watching him direct – which is a performance in and of itself, wondering how it did, I have always been fascinated by how Tarantino makes his movies. You kind of see the authorship in the film at work but you can’t picture how he comes up with stuff. He’s very loud and performative, to watch him transform his ideas on the set was just awesome. It’s like going to the Tarantino film school.

Atomic Popcorn: Do you feel you have to match his energy every day?

B.J. Novak: Oh I could never match his energy; I am the opposite of his energy you know? We would be a great Vaudeville duo: the bombastic director and the quiet writer. Yeah, there is no chance, Eli came much closer to that then myself.

Atomic Popcorn: So you were the “little one” but you made it to the end and you basically got the two climactic scenes for the Basterds and the final defeat, so what was it like building up to those moments and materializing those moments?

B.J. Novak: Well, first of all, not to give anything away, but one cool thing about the character that Quentin always told me he conceptualized for me that he was frustrated with war movies where you know who lives and dies. So he wanted to play with audience expectations and focus on some people and kill them off and hide some people and have them emerge, he said it would be funny to have the guy who is supposed to get killed first make it to the end. So i think that was where the surprise and fun of Utovich [disappearing] for so long comes from. The backstory to the character and the interplay with Aldo and stuff really came from one scene in the vet’s office where everyone gets their jobs and I think its on the longer script and will be on the DVD or something. That’s where sort of the rehearsal process of that and just a general rehearsal process where went through everyone’s backstory and talked about how people knew each other and how they played it. He’s very much a believer in that, in essence a high school or college theater where you have the time to spend to be sort of theater-nerdy about your character and his motivations which is fun because you’re on a Tarantino set and all you want to do is play and think and talk and have fun, and talk about the movie, so you don’t want to do your job and you don’t want it to end, so it was cool that he felt the same way.

Atomic Popcorn: Why do you think your character was named little man?

B.J. Novak: ‘Cause I don’t think there was a character named medium-sized man, I think I would have been much better suited to it but I couldn’t do it ’cause I don’t think the medium-sized man wouldn’t have been as funny. I almost didn’t make it and I definitely wouldn’t fit the Bear Jew role [laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Can you talk about some of the graphic scenes? Did you have fun with that?

B.J. Novak: You know, I thought I would hate it, I am really not a fan of violence in movies and what I like about Tarantino is the humor and the dialogue and the characters, I wasn’t exactly covering my eyes for the violence, so it was kind of odd to find myself in that part of a Tarantino movie but that was my job and that was my homework. I had scalping lessons and I looked it up on the internet and after awhile it became like a calculus test I wanted to get a A on. I hate calculus, too, but I was a good Jewish boy who did his homework and that was what Utovich was but if that was his homework assignment from Aldo he’s damned if he wasn’t going to get a A. That’s how I approached it on the set.

Atomic Popcorn: Did you have challenges with keeping to the script because of Tarantino’s rules on his script?

B.J. Novak: It’s a lot easier when you only have about ten lines, it was not a challenge for me – in fact it was a joy because I worked 99 percent of my life as a writer and to have someone else write for me and to get the opportunity to say Tarantino’s words was once in a lifetime as far as I was concerned and I wasn’t going to eff it up by, you know, throwing in some more B.J. Novak words that I am sick to death of… it was to turn off the writer’s side of my brain.

Atomic Popcorn: How did you get involved in the project? Did he watch “The Office”?

B.J. Novak: He seems to watch everything,, one question I have been dying to ask him, one night when we went for drinks in Germany, I wanted to ask him what don’t you like? Cause he seems to find so much grayness in everything, in every movie and there’s plenty of things he doesn’t like and he’s very articulate about them. You should ask him if you ever get the chance, it’s very interesting. He did watch “The Office”, he was specific about some jokes and comic timing, and I knew he liked that specifically. I don’t know exactly how Hollywood works, every agent takes credit for everything, I don’t know what list I was on or what casting director or what favor what agent pulled or whatever. He said he wanted whatever Jewish-American actors in their twenties and I guess all the Apatow actors were busy. [laughs]. I must of showed up on some list, you know? And then I had a meeting and it went really well and I was just under the line of the 5-9 little man. I don’t know how it works, sometimes your agent calls, sometimes they don’t.

Atomic Popcorn: How much did you immerse yourself in the time period?

B.J. Novak: I read a lot of books about the time period and a lot of soldier accounts of the time period and watched a lot of movies from the time period like The Dirty Dozen. I wanted to watch a German film called Lucky Kids, Julie had it but asking to go to her hotel room to watch it with her sounded too sketchy so I didn’t end up asking. I really wanted to see it, plus I didn’t speak any German and since it wasn’t subtitled I wouldn’t understand it anyways.

Atomic Popcorn: What about wool underwear?

B.J. Novak: Who told you that?

Atomic Popcorn: Eli Roth

B.J. Novak: Sound like it, [laughs]. Sounds like a Eli thing.

Atomic Popcorn: You didn’t go into character that far?

B.J. Novak: Wool underwear?! [laughs], I don’t know what his relationship was with Anna Shepard, she didn’t provide me with that.

Atomic Popcorn: In Tarantino movies, there are no small roles, so this is your chance to leave a stamp on the film, did you feel that?

B.J. Novak: Yah, I did feel that, one of my friends Bret from “The Office” said to me, “You’re going to be a part of film history, doesn’t matter how big or small the part is, Tarantino is film history and you’re going to be a part of film history,” and I kept that with me the whole time, I think his films hold a special place. When I got back to the set of “The Office” Steve Carrel, you know, all these other people with huge careers who have been working with me for years and years, I was different to them, I was this guy who had done this magical thing. They still ask me all the time, “So when Tarantino this [or that], what did Tarantino say?” You can be a big movie star or do any type of project, there is something about even a small or medium-sized part in a Tarantino movie playing even the little man, in this movie, I think, would be big.

Atomic Popcorn: Were they jealous?

B.J. Novak: I think maybe of the life experience, we writers are so trapped in this little airless room and the worst part of the valley. I think they thought I was on a yacht in the South of France with Brad Pitt the entire time. It was in their head and they didn’t think of the lonely cold nights in a Berlin hotel room… maybe some jealousy from other writers but when I was let go to do [Inglourious Basterds], they compared it to a tradition in Russian prisons long ago. They would let a person go every year and it would always be the best storyteller; the person would have to come back as long as they could tell stories to keep the prisoners entertained for the year. They said I was that lucky prisoner let go for the year and I would have to entertain them with stories.

Atomic Popcorn: How much was cut from the original film?

B.J. Novak: A TON! Hours and hours. There’s a scene in the vet’s office that I know was cut in half and I don’t know how it turned out and I hope it’s shown sometime, I think he knew if the ultimate cut was released it would be 9 hours long.

Atomic Popcorn: Any favorite scenes?

B.J. Novak: I love when Melanie is getting ready to blow up the theater and David Bowie music is playing and she’s putting on warrior-like make up and she’s going to this glamorous premiere, its so Tarantino to me because its so feminine and visual but it’s in the service of something so violent and action-packed, it can only be Tarantino.

Atomic Popcorn: What did you take away from working on the project?

B.J. Novak: Don’t be afraid to trust your instinct, I don’t think Tarantino fit into any box when he started out and he stayed true to his vision and he didn’t listen to anybody that told him to make it like the other movies coming out. He listened to himself, if you’re good listen to yourself and have people imitate you if you can. And no one has more imitators then Tarantino. I hope I am good some day and people try to knock me off and by doing that don’t knock off other people. From Brad Pitt, I learned, don’t let anything bother you, because he has more distractions in his life then anyone I ever seen, and he never wore it in public. When he was with you it was all about the scene, it was all about you, it was all about what was going on, not about the thousand headaches, distractions, fake rumors, and the people who wanted a piece of him. I thought, man, if Brad Pitt can keep his cool and keep from complaining and from being too big…

Atomic Popcorn: As a Jew what was it like being a movie that you kill Hitler?

B.J. Novak: You know I thought it would be more personal from that angle, to me it felt like a good-guy-bad-guy movie, people know who the bad guys are and I don’t think you have to be Jewish to look at Hitler and think “bad guy”. Maybe it was moiré personal to other people in the case but it was just like any other good-guy-bad-guy movie.

Atomic Popcorn: Tarantino waited a long time to release his final draft of Inglourious Basterds because he didn’t think it was perfect enough yet, is there anything that your working on now that you are still waiting to release until it’s perfect as well?

B.J. Novak: That’s a great question, I mean it’s something I want to say. I have learned these lessons watching Tarantino, I can’t necessarily say it, I can apply them, I don’t know – I think every writer must fight [his] own fear and I think there are plenty of obstacles like that but I guess it means specifically to not write things to please other people if it doesn’t please you, is the lesson I learned from Tarantino. Don’t just try to be a working writer, be a artist, if you like this film or not you can tell Tarantino is a artist with a capital A. There aren’t that many people like that or who even aspire to be like that right now, it’s kind of old-fashioned and I loved it. I loved being around it and I want to have the courage to try and do that myself and there are other obstacles that you face when you try to be a artist. Pretentiousness is a deadly one, but it’s trying to do something great and I think there’s a few people out there that I really think of as artists that boldly struck out in a direction and succeeded.

Atomic Popcorn: Do you think most artists aren’t really that pretentious?

B.J. Novak: Some are very, and some are not at all and some don’t think of themselves as artists, some do their job as well as they can and it’s elevated to the level of art. Some artists have crazy egos and you can’t even talk to them and you just wanna watch them work, some are humble and are nerdy and articulate. I have only met a few in my life and I consider myself lucky to have met them. Ricky Gervais is someone who I consider a artist with a capital A, did something so different and could not be more sort of humble and normal and wonderful, the small sense that I don’t think he consider himself a artist, despite his aspirations to do great, brave, bold things. There are many types and I think it might be separate things trying to be a good person and tying to be a great artist. And I admire them separately too, and I admire Quentin for trying simply to be a great artist – not just a rich filmmaker.

Atomic Popcorn: Thank you so much

B.J. Novak: Thank you for coming

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Atomic Popcorn: So, how honored did you feel when you read in the script that you were going to be the man to blow away Hitler?

Eli is a Basterd

Roth: Oh, it was an incredible honor! It certainly was an honor that I took very seriously, that was actually not originally in the the script. That was something that came about when we were shooting. So it was actually even more of an honor, in fact, because as we were shooting, Quentin adapts to what he likes as things going on, and he was so happy with what I was doing as The Bear Jew and the scene where we were beating Rachtman, he just loved the scene where I was kicking ass, then I shot Nation’s Pride, the film within the film, and Quentin realized that, “Wait a minute, Eli is shooting all the action stuff!” Like, we fired so many thousands of bullets in two days of shooting Nation’s Pride, and I was, like, ‘DUDE! We have machine guns and 30 guys firing!” and he’s like, “Wait a minute, we got machine guns?” And over Christmas he rewrote it and he [said], “I made a little change.” And I read it and it was, “Donnie kicks open the door and shoots Hitler in the face”, and I was like “WOOOHOOO!” (Laughter) I was so happy, it was amazing, I was gonna be the new Moses.

Atomic Popcorn: How many times did you have to film the scene when you’re beating this guy to death with the baseball bat, how many time did you have to do that?

Roth: We shot that a number of times… we spent 5 or 6 days shooting it, and it was the first thing we shot. So I was back in this cave, working myself up, ready to kill, and then, “ANNND Cut! That’s it for the day!” and I was, like, “Ugh!” but Brad was, like, “Easy, Tiger!” I asked them to put up a pull-up bar and a punching bag so I can stay loose. So I was, for days, working myself up, and… we never get to it, and I worked myself up to the point of tears and then never get to shoot it and I go “Quentin! You’re blue ballin’ me everyday!” – but he’s doing it on purpose. Finally we get to the scene, and I was ready to explode, and I just unloaded on this guy and it was great when I finally beat him just to get that out and just do it over and over and over, and I just completely blew out my voice and we had to film the reactions of the guys cheering me on.

Atomic Popcorn: We all hear about how costuming can help you get into character. How does the fact that he [Donnie] chooses to wield a baseball bat, rather than a knife or a gun, affect you? How did that help you get into the mind of the character?

Roth: Oh, well I grew up in Boston and let me tell you, you use your baseball bat off the field more than you use it on the field in Boston. I mean, everybody had baseball bats in their cars in Boston, that was like a big thing. …so when I had that bat I thought of that and I thought of those guys who were like, I just wanna smash some s***!” Plus, being in wool underwear will make you wanna kill anything.

Atomic Popcorn: How do you think experience working on this film will change your future attitude towards acting or directing?

Roth: Oh, well it certainly will change the way I write scenes. Always in Hostel, after I did an intense torture scene, I gave the actors a few days off to recover and rest, and I’m glad I did. I can see why you need that. One thing that’s gonna change is how I run my sets. Quentin had a big rule about no phones, computers, Blackberries, nothing on set, and we had a guy who we called “Checkpoint Charlie”, this German guy who’s, like, “Give me your phone.” So it was certain things like that kept the focus. [A]lso when Quentin’s directing you, you give your performance and Quentin turns the camera around, and you’re off-camera acting for the actor. I was, like, “Man! That’s where I came up with all my good stuff!” and he goes, “Dude, it doesn’t matter if you’re Robert DeNiro or Sam Jackson, everybody is more relaxed off camera,” and you’re just better, that’s just how it is. You’re not self-conscious, you don’t second-guess yourself off camera. And if Quentin sees something off-camera that he likes, he’ll stop, he’ll finish this actor, and he’ll re-light, and reshoot you. That’s an example of that and that’s what makes Quentin a great director. Everyone’s on it, full time 100% even though they were before.

Atomic Popcorn: And both of you guys are cinemaphiles obviously. Aldo Raine is a reference to Aldo Ray…

Roth: Yes, and Major Rane from Rolling Thunder.

Atomic Popcorn: Yes…did you try and channel any iconic World War II characters from…

Roth: No. I was channeling people I knew and myself, but it’s interesting how there’s certain things that you don’t realize that you’re channeling – just influences that get in there, I wasn’t consciously.

Atomic Popcorn: Were there any other roles you were interested in? That you would like to get a shot at?

Roth: No. The only role for me was The Bear Jew. I was like “This is it.” I mean, to be a Jewish guy from Boston that just beats Nazis to death with a baseball bat, I’ve been training my whole life for that part. And that’s what they said to us, “This is it!” …there’s no such thing as a small part in a Tarantino film. Every part is a chance to create a classic cinema moment, and that’s what everybody is going for, the first table read, you look around the room and see Christoph Waltz, and August Diel who plays Major Hellstrom, and all of these incredible European actors like Melanie Laurent. You felt like “God, this movie’s gonna be amazing! It’s gonna be something so special, and so different.” It was just a thrill to be a part of it.

Atomic Popcorn: And you were the only one to get an entrance.

Roth: Well, Hugo Sigletz got his entrance. He got the title freeze frame. He got a really cool entrance. Til Schweiger, who is also a great director. Til’s very interesting ’cause he made this movie called Keinohrhasen, which is “Rabbit Without Ears”. It’s the most successful movie in Germany, it was bigger than Harry Potter and Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Atomic Popcorn: Thank you.

Roth: Alright, thanks you guys.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: So what about the role attracted you to play it?

Christoph is a Basterd

Christoph Waltz: You know what, it’s not a stupid answer: everything. The idea of working with Tarantino, the idea of playing the best part I have ever come across, including various theatrical masterpieces that I have had the good fortune to be in, the attraction of being in a big movie like that altogether, the idea of breaking out of my kind of accustomed circumstances that I have been surrounded in. [W]orking in such an intense manner over such a long period of time. The fact that I get to work with these fantastic people, really, really, not least of them Brad Pitt. You know, the contribution to a fantastic story [that] you know, the hope to apply, for once… what I think I had acquired over the year in a way [but] a little bit to my regret, never got the chance to apply, if yet then only various aspects. But not everything at the same time, the fact that I understood that for once I can check my limit, you know, how am I supposed to know what I can do if I can’t check it? If I can’t actually try it out?

Atomic Popcorn: I also wanted to mention you’ve done a lot of stage work, I respect that a lot. I do plays as well and I think every actor should start out with that before doing films.

Christoph Waltz: Yeah you’re right, the rehearsal is what really does it.

Atomic Popcorn: Have you seen any of Tarantino’s previous works? If so which ones did you like, that stood out to you the most?

Christoph Waltz: I have known them all, I’ve seen them all several times, because you need to see them several times. Jackie Brown was always my favorite one for many reasons, I admired Pulp Fiction but Jackie Brown was definitely my favorite. I preferred Reservoir Dogs over Pulp Fiction, for example, I marveled at [the three] Kill Bills but I didn’t really find them accessible. To me it was like a huge foremost visual experience and I can really engage either emotionally or intellectually. Death Proof was something special, I didn’t dislike it at all and Death Proof actually helped me to understand that these long dialogues actually are very precious and very special – maybe the exact words or the meaning of the words are not that important but the music and the rhythm, the characterizations and who was saying what and how. You know that this is such a beautiful poetic weave, that kind of wafts through these wonderfully interesting images. So that it really made me take in the art.

ATOMIC POPCORN: When a lot of actors go through a script I think that they see a scene they are in and are excited about performing it and can’t wait to undertake it, was there a scene that you were excited about?

Christoph Waltz: I am always a bit skeptical about everything, so yes there were many scenes and not least the first and the last one. But my skepticism always makes me shy away a little about this “HA! NOW I GET TO DO THIS!” I approach it carefully with a lot of respect, and a little awe and a little fear. I try to find a entrance into the thing and so that I can do it from within.

Atomic Popcorn: My opinion after seeing this film yesterday, I have to say you gave one of the best villain performances I have seen in a long time. Its interesting I didn’t see Hans Landa as a typical bad guy, I think his actions can be said to be evil but what he was doing was apart of the German nation and just doing what was required. But he was a smart villain, his detective work was that of Sherlock Holmes, he really did what also benefited him but at the same time he was smart about everything he did. Was there anything you added to the role that maybe was influenced from other things to prepare yourself for it?

Christoph Waltz: Oh thank you so much, I agree with you totally 100 percent, that the [archetypal] villain is the least interesting, its exactly all these maneuvers, these little smart side steps, and this light-footed movement through  the various layers and aspects of these occurrences. I really tried to stick to the script; yeah, there were things I read other then the script sort of, around, but that’s more for inspiration. I found a few old books about, textbooks on criminology, that was interesting and how the beginning of the twentieth century they applied psychology to understanding why a criminal would actually commit his crime. Now it’s called the profiler, but then they didn’t have the word and they still did it, especially one book I came across was really a humanistic approach to crime and before the First World War, this book was written in the 1915 in the middle of the First World War. So that was interesting, I don’t know if it was immensely helpful but it was interesting to understand backstory and to flesh it out a little bit. So I drew inspirations a little bit, but not too much; I worked mostly off the script because that was what I was after.

Atomic Popcorn: Yeah, those moments where you would interact with the other characters and they would think they have everything covered but you would still just break them down layer by layer and you could see it on their face, they would all think in their heads “Oh, God, he’s got us!” There was another scene I liked where you with Melanie Laurent at the restaurant after Goebbels left and you offered her strudel with cream. Every time you spoke you were hammering her down and you see her slowly trying not to break down. When you were supposed to ask a question, do you think your character knew who she was or do you think he totally forgot?

Christoph Waltz: what do you think?

Atomic Popcorn: I think he knew because I think the way things were going towards the end of the film, he basically used her to his advantage to help smooth out his plans. That’s what I thought it was.

Christoph Waltz: Well that’s important. I tend to agree, let’s put it that way, I would have been disappointed had you said something else. But Quentin makes it a point that if he wants you to know he would tell you, if he wanted you to know to be certain about the fact that he knows who she is, then he would let you know. So I agree with you, but you could also see it [from] a different point of view, why doesn’t he disclose it to her that he knows? Well, it’s in, a way, the same reason that he doesn’t shoot her, because disclosing that he knows would in a way [have] the same effect as shooting her. But he doesn’t.

Atomic Popcorn: Maybe he’s curious to see what’s going happen next. And see how far she goes, as he already noticed she’s around the war hero of Germany?

Christoph Waltz: Yeah exactly – that’s what I think, too.

Atomic Popcorn: Now, I know you have been doing a lot of things in Europe, and I have been looking over some of the things that you’ve done and I will definitely check them out soon. Are there any upcoming projects with more American directors or any in particular you would like to try to work with?

Christoph Waltz: Oh you don’t have to [laughs] but thank you, of course I would love to work the great directors and do the good stuff, absolutely. I am so curious about Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland because I really admire him so much and I really like the Coen brothers and of course the great directors like Scorsese. I could go on forever, to be in a Woody Allen movie is, like, one of the great dreams ever since I have been a actor. Now I am very curious to see this Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia because of that level of sophistication that I really truly admire. Chris Nolan, of course and Cronenberg and Lynch, so, you name it!

Atomic Popcorn: Maybe you can get a shot for the next Batman movie and play the next big villain, always a possibility, right?

Christoph Waltz: No, so far that isn’t, but I would be grateful if you suggested me [laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: Oh definitely I would do it in a heartbeat if I was the casting director.

Christoph Waltz: Thanks.

Atomic Popcorn: Were there any jokes on the set or gags between actors?

Christoph Waltz: I usually stay out of that anyway, and in this specific case even more so because I was concentrating all my energies into the role. That doesn’t mean you have to get uptight and, yeah, there were a few jokes but I am not a great joker, I don’t confuse it with the social occasion. I am happy and relaxed when I can really work, so Quentin knew that, not because I told him. But Quentin understands so he kept that away, a little. But that doesn’t meant that, you know, when I came on everything quieted down. There’s a lot of talk of the music on the set, he understood I didn’t need that desperately, but you know it was never obtrusive or intrusive playing music. They would play music while they were changing the set and it was relaxing and nice. There was one occasion, in the Italian scene were Brad came from the states and flew all night, he was standing there at seven-thirty in the morning and he was still there at seven-thirty at night. It’s just like the others, like, most of the time off the camera. Only his jokes would get better and better and you know he was somewhere in jet-lag-land and his jokes were so fantastic that I think we had to wrap for the day ’cause everyone was laughing so much.

Atomic Popcorn: Well, thank you so much for your time Christoph it was a real pleasure and I hope to run into you again some time!

Christoph Waltz: Yes! Thank you for coming and see you sometime again soon, take care!

Well it’s been a real long time since I have seen a real good comedy flick from Jeff Daniels, honestly my favorite from him has always been “Dumb and Dumber”. Now walking into the film I honestly wasn’t expecting much, it was a new director and lately the work Daniels has put it out was hit in miss. But after viewing the film, it was certainly a lot better then I expected but not quite the masterpiece I was looking for.

So we have our main character Arlen Faber who wrote a famous religious book called “God and Me” which is a huge hit across the world and is even written in a hundred different languages. But now is about to hit its twentieth anniversary, Faber played by Jeff Daniels is this reclusive bitter hermit author, who wants nothing to do with the outside world. Until one day his back goes out, he tries to get help from his agent but she abandons him because he acts like a complete jerk to her when she’s trying to get the anniversary of his book off the ground. So rather then being stuck on the ground forever, he decides to literally crawl his way to a chiropractor named Elizabeth. From sight Farber falls in love with her, and attempts to go out with her but also runs into issues with a book store owner named Kris whom looks to him for answers for his alcoholic problems.

The film for me was overall good, it’s the romantic comedy with same old motives but the comedy was what made it unique. The other problems were that a lot of the writing for some of the characters didn’t make a lot of sense, even to a point some of the characters didn’t really have to be there and were just wasted.

Jeff Daniels was defiantly the shining star in this piece; he makes us both bothered by and agree with his character about his motives. But his comedy was great, he was the only one that really maintained the character and it didn’t seem to change so suddenly, by that I mean it always seemed like everyone around him were super moody. There was a lot happening in the script, but there wasn’t any reason for it to happen. For instance the character Anne, played by Olivia Thrilby was dressed up as a spine and was dancing around outside gleefully handing out posters for the chiropractor office. But suddenly cut to outside and she’s knocked over by some invisible unknown force, and she storms off crying. I mean was the invisible man just running amok in the city? Or did some bullies just come by and beat her up? Or she had been traumatized as a child for wearing a costume? Some kind of reasoning would be nice as to why that happened.

Now don’t get me wrong here, the actors did a good job performance wise with the characters but to me I really blame first time director John Hindman, who also wrote the script. The characters would get extremely moody for no apparent reason, there would be a moment where you would think what just happened would be fine but to them it’s like you put excrement on their breakfast and didn’t tell them about it. One moment super happy then the next super hulk angry, it really felt forced with them as if John Hindman pointed a shotgun at them and be angry now or I will kill you! But I am sure that’s not what he really did but ones like to imagine so for shear amusement. In any case, there shouldn’t have so much forced emotion in the scenes, it felt so unnatural and left my self confused at the situation. I had also felt some characters felt unused, such as Kat Dennings character Dahlia, she had been in a few scenes but really didn’t serve a purpose other then to stand there and smile. They might as well have just had wooden Native American statues that hey have in front of cigar stores and it would have been just as effective.

The film had the charming comedy which made me like the film, but it fell short and it could have had such huge potential but because the unnatural moments written in the script and inconsistency with characters, it didn’t come out to be the gold trophy.

Its worth checking out for Jeff Daniels, he had a lot of memorable moments in the film that will have you laughing and smiling. So either check this out on DVD or a matinee if you got nothing else to watch.

Rating: ★★★☆☆