Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds is the heavy favorite to win the box office title this weekend, so Shorts will need more than a wishing stone and Alexis Bledel will need more than a degree to take down these Nazi killers.

Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s latest project starring Brad Pitt. Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. The film is set in an alternate history of World War II in which the entire leadership of Nazi Germany, namely Hitler, attends a film premiere celebrating the exploits of a German sniper who killed 250 American soldiers in Italy. The film tracks the separate attempts to kill Hitler by two disparate forces, one being the Basterds, a motley crew of Jewish American soldiers out for revenge against the Nazis. The Basterds have a code where each soldier must cut off the scalp of a dead Nazi soldier. The Basterds allow one German soldier to survive each incident so as to spread the news of the terror of their attacks. However, the Basterds carve a swastika into the forehead of that German. The other part of the film concerns Shosanna, the only Jewish survivor of an attack led by the "Jew Hunter" that killed all of her family. The Basterds and Shosanna remain unaware of each other throughout the film. Basterds was the only US film to win an award at The Cannes Film Festival this year for Best Actor, Christoph Waltz. Tarantino claims that despite being a war film that the film is his “spaghetti western but with World War II iconography.” A spaghetti western refers to a sub-genre of Western film that was produced and directed by Italians with a Spanish partner. Taratino is known for his unique style and in your face imagery, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill for example, so it will be interesting to see his take on the original 1978 film, Inglorious Bastards.

Shorts is a family comedy that follows 11-year-old Toby’s (Jimmy Bennett) adventures after he finds a magical rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes to anyone who holds it. The film is written and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Sin City). This sounds like it could be a good one for the kiddies, but probably better suited for a straight to DVD release.

Post Grad stars Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel in a coming of age comedy about a girl who graduates college during the recession and is forced to move back home because her dream job has been handed to her arch enemy. And of course there is a love connection between Bledel’s character and an old childhood friend that infers with her dream of being an editor for a big publishing company. Hit the snooze button on this one. Although the concept is relevant and relatable, this sounds totally cliché and boring.

-Jessica Delli Santi