A career at a crossroads.

Rating: 4/10 (23 August 2009)

Quentin Tarantino needs to work out what kind of film maker he wants to be. Is he the brilliant director of Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction. That Tarantino made intelligent, brilliant movies. Or is he the director of film-fan obsessed movies such as Kill Bill 1 and 2, Death Proof and this, Inglorious Basterds. Which ever one he is, his career s now at a crossroads.
And that is a shame, as there are moments in this movie when you can clearly see how good he can be. The opening chapter, which is mostly a talk between Col. Landa, and a farmer is brilliant. It's tense and grips through-out, as you never know how it's going to play out. It's also the best sequence in the movie.
But on the other side of the coin, there are the parts of the story involving the Basterds themselves. Some of the scenes involving them are very comical, and that includes Brad Pitt's performance. I'm not sure why he performs the part as he does, but Christoph Waltz, as Landa blows him off screen through-out, and is easily the best performance here. There is good support too, from Diane Kruger as a double agent, and a wonderful performance from Melanie Laurent as Shosanna. And this brings up another fault with the movie.
The story involving Shosanna is the best part of the story, yet it never ties in with the story involving the Basterds, even though the movie climaxes in the same location, a cinema. Tarantino should either have made 2 separate movies, about each story, or made one of them. The Shosanna part is serious and very well done, which as I mentioned puts it at odds with the Basterds side, which at times does get a bit over the top.
Tarantino as his is want, uses pieces of music or songs either from other movies, and some of this doesn't work either Instead it gives credence to the idea he is simply making movies that are homages to the past, instead of something original, which we know he can make.
This is a pity. As stated, there are moments here which show how good he can be. And he deserves credit for, in a big-budget movie, allowing Germans to speak in German, the French to speak French, instead of all the actors speaking in English with a funny accent.
To be fair, this is a much better movie than Death Proof, but now someone must take him to one side, and have a strong talk with him. If he keeps making these homages to films, then he is going to squander his talent. If he wants to do that, instead of coming up with a movie as good as Jackie Brown again, then so be it.
The choice is his.