Inglourious Basterds

A film by a filmmaker who loves films. Tarantino's synthesis of B-movie aesthetics has (for now) reached its ultimate stage in the form of a war opus. There’s room for references, his own ego, and a final chapter of historical revisionism that, if it hadn't been making fun of the previous ones all along, would hardly have been understood. A pleasant surprise to my own expectations. (10/07/2009)

If it weren’t for the initial Leone-style chapter, I would have no objections. But that chapter is there. And its matchless genius sheds a big shadow over the rest of the movie that it doesn’t manage to escape (with the exception of the exquisite tension build-up in the bar). But even so... To satisfy everybody’s great expectations with a few guys in uniforms blabbing away about bullshit for two and a half hours in about seven different interiors deserves applause alone. Simply wunderbar! P.S.: And I want Tarantino to make a regular spaghetti western at last. He’s been heading toward that all his career, so why avoid the unavoidable? P.P.S.: Having watched the Basterds for a third time in just a couple of weeks, really enjoying myself each time, I realized that full stars is more suitable, and so I changed it. ♫ OST score: 5/5 (08/20/2009)

It didn't offend me, but it also didn't please me. There are a few good catchphrases, perhaps a few revealing references to Reich and Weimar German films, but... Especially the Pitt-Schweiger-Brühl trio was bland. And the women? The completely non-fatal Laurent and Kruger. Sure, there were some nice ideas in there - Jewish revenge, the swastika on the forehead, and some good period details, but they were drowned in the total period failure. (03/10/2010)

To have a two-and-a-half-hour Tarantino movie with only two characters portrayed in detail with a proper backstory (Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent) while none of them belongs to the titular “Basterds” is unforgivable. The “Basterds” are there just to give the film some sort of a weak framework; their potential started in the trailer and ended in the cutting room. All of the other elements of this flick are, however, *Cinema Paradiso*. (08/30/2009)

Tarantino has the craft down pat. He's great at leading actors, he's got a sense of timing, and his dialogue scenes have more punch than all of Bay's action scenes with screaming robots put together, but I can't digest the story he presents with the best of wills. The first chapter is phenomenal. It has everything: a great build-up, a sultry atmosphere, the suspense of what will inevitably come at any second, and the perfect entry of an extremely charismatic asshole. But the rest of the film, in my eyes, teeters on a thin line between sparse admiration and feelings of awkwardness, between what I am still logically willing to accept and what I am no longer. Narrative excess is fine, but everything has its limits, Quentin. (08/30/2009)