QT's glourious return to form

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2009)

This is truly a great movie, celebrating everything that's wonderful about cinema. Granted, although it isn't anywhere near as brilliant as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, Inglourious Basterds hits Tarantino's recent full-blown or half misfires like Death Proof (boring dialogue, uninteresting characters) and Kill Bill (fun, but annoyingly superficial) right out of the park, and rejuvenates this once-great director's career.
No need for nitpicking about the blatant historic inaccuracies, since this is just sheer good fun - made abundantly clear by the first chapter's title, 'Once Upon a Time... in Nazi-occupied France' -, with Christoph Waltz as an inspired nazi villain, Brad Pitt's laughable Tennessee accent providing comic relief, and great, highly convincing female performances by Mélanie Laurent and Diane Kruger, rekindling memories of the leading ladies of cinema's golden age.
Furthermore, making the characters speak in their native tongues was a bold - Americans are known for disliking subtitles, especially in a 'talky' movie like this one - , but refreshing move, certainly after having to sit through 'Shakespeare-English' abominations like, for example, Valkyrie.
Combine all of this with an exciting, exceptionally smart storyline and a fantastic, at times anachronistic soundtrack (especially Bowie's 'Cat People' is put to good use), and what you've got is a highly entertaining two-and-a-half hour thrill ride.
So, in short: welcome back, QT!