The Movie Maniac's Picks and Pans: Inglourious Basterds, Post Grad

August 21st should be a good weekend for movies, with Inglourious Basterds and Post Grad giving you both action and comedy to pick from.

Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Inglourious Basterds, will be an incredible gore-fest, as evidenced by the trailer. It couldn't be anything else, but will it be good. The renegade director (and one of my favorites) needs a hit, badly. And I predict Brad Pitt will give it to him with a cherry on top. The role of kickass Lt. Aldo Raine is made for the temperamental, though often excellent, actor. The Basterds, think The Dirty Dozen on crack, are Jewish-American soldiers bent on terrorizing German troops: scalping, carving and otherwise defiling anything or anyone to get to Hitler. No Geneva convention here, Inglourious Basterds will be viciously entertaining.

With Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice and Batman) and Jane Lynch (A Mighty Wind and Two and a Half Men) in the cast, how can this film not be good? Lynch is as ubiquitous in film and TV as any actor except possibly Jonah Hill, and Michael Keaton is the kind of comedic actor that makes even bad comedy good. Post Grad could be the comedy breakout movie of the summer. The story: Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) can’t find a job after graduation and moves back with her nutty family, sounds more like the plot of a Frank Capra film (check out You Can’t Take it With You) than a modern day movie. I intend to be there with bells on… here’s hoping.