Evidently, some of you still haven’t taken the time to see “Inglorious Basterds”. Correct this. Immediately.

At this point, there is no other film running in American theaters that warrants your time and money more than Tarantino’s latest fully-deserved hype train.

Look back on my past reviews. Most of them read more like a list of grievances with the film industry as a whole than balanced criticisms. Calling me negative would be akin to calling water wet. Yet even I don’t have a bad word to say about this movie.

For those readers that have recently escaped from an isolated cult compound preventing them from hearing about this film or the invention of penicillin, “Inglorious Basterds” is the stylized WW2 tale of two groups trying to achieve the American dream: killing Adolf Hitler in the most dramatic way possible.

The first group are our titular Basterds, a group of Jewish (and one amazing German, who we’ll get to later) commandoes put on this earth for the sole purpose of reducing the Nazi population. They pursue this goal with a gung-ho attitude and sadistic glee that gives about half of the action the kind of cartoonish energy and hilarious tone more movies should imitate. The Basterds, and the film itself, work on a single glorious principle: Nazi’s aren’t people. After a decade of war films dedicated to reversing simplistic trends and humanizing individuals on both sides of the conflict, this is a breath of fresh, revenge-fantasy soaked air.

The second plotline follows a jaded blonde woman seeking vengeance against those that gunned down her family…

…not exactly new ground, but extremely well executed. Despite the appeal of the Basterd’s gun-toting antics, Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) is arguably the real heroine of the film, earning vengeance with nothing more than solid planning, the tools available to a theater owner, and a well-aimed cigarette.

Tarantino manages to balance extended moments of calm and bursts of violent anarchy with a skill I haven’t seen in cinema in ages. Rather than spread meaningless action throughout the film (the current idiotic trend), “Inglorious Basterds” simply works to make a lesser number of violent conflicts absolutely glorious. The combat presented is always some combination of tense, slick, over-the-top, and most importantly, hilarious.

The greatest part of “Inglorious Basterds” is, like in all great media, the characters. One standout (and personal favorite) is ex-Nazi Basterd Hugo Stiglitz, who, out of nowhere, receives his own stylized introduction. One night, as a Nazi trooper, Hugo decided thirteen Gestapo officers needed to die amusing deaths. And delivered. The scene depicting this outlandish backstory is in the running for the film’s best tied with a very special scene in a French theater.

Despite the existence of Hugo, the best character lies on the SS side of our conflict. Christopher Waltz gives a performance as simultaneously amusing and abominable Nazi Officer Hans “The Jew Hunter” Landa that should make all other actors that portrayed villains in 2009 contemplate suicide. Every time Hans appears on screen, “Inglorious Basterds” has another water-cooler moment.

This is indisputably the best work Tarantino’s done since Kill Bill (which happens to be a top candidate for my favorite movie, but that’s a fanboy rant for another time), and the best movie to come out in 2009.