Tarentino's WORST Movie Ever

Rating: 1/10 (1 June 2012)

I didn't go see Inglorious Basterds when it first came out. Although I'm a fan of other Tarentino movies like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs,and Kill Bill----and think Jackie Brown was totally brilliant ---- the promotion and the trailer to Quentin's first war movie just didn't grab me. Now that I've finally gotten around to seeing it---- it's definitely two thumbs down. This is not only Tarentino's worst movie ever, it is also one of the all-time worst movies. It doesn't take you long to see that the plot is just a hash-job remake of "The DIrty Dozen" and "Where Eagles Dare" and some other famous war flicks. It's the old "Select-team-penetrates-Nazi-headquarters-in- disguise-and-wipes-the-enemy-out" cliché. There's really nothing really new here at all except the level of violence. Even the foreign dialogue with subtitles has been done many times before. All that happens is that Tarentino basically just throws the cast into a big stage set like a puppet-master, and regurgitates his own standard clichés. It has the usual amount of extremely gratuitous violence thrown into your face at regular intervals. It has the usual number of bizarre, sadistic, disturbed, twisted, and otherwise bent or unconventional characters. It has shocking twists in the plot when you least expect it. But that's all you get. Tarentino fails to to give us something unique, like he can do when he's really on. The basic problem is the script, which is the weakest he has ever written. The plot is just plain silly and pointless, and could have been so much stronger and interesting. There are long tedious scenes with reams of dialogue that just take up time and go nowhere, unlike his earlier productions, where dialogue is original, razor-sharp, riveting, totally unpredictable, and powerful. There are no performances that reach the level of Samuel Jackson, John Travolta, Pam Grier, Uma Thurmann, Robert DeNiro etc. in past productions. Brad Pitt is basically just hamming it up, and is ultimately disappointing. The same goes for the rest of the cast. That's because Tarentino's usual gift for characterization is only partially evident. This movie could have been so much better. It's disjointed, self-indulgent, and ultimately boring. I never thought Tarentino could make such a total loser. I hope he gets back on track with his next one.