Disappointing to the point of irritation

Rating: 5/10 (15 November 2010)

First of all let me say that in general I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino movies. But this one left me cold. I've given it a day or 2 to think about it and I've decided that this is not a very good film.
Now we all know that Tarantino knows his cellulose - and there is homage throughout all of his movies to some of the greatest films of all time. We know already Quentin! Why keep doing it! Isn't it about time you moved on?
For me the worst point of this movie was its counterfactual content. Everyone of a certain age and intelligence knows that Hitler blew his brains out in a bunker in Berlin in 1945. But I wouldn't mind betting that many watchers would have skipped out of the cinema thinking that World War II came to an end in 1944 because of some huge explosion in a cinema! Not so.
Now defenders of this movie will probably claim that "it's an art movie - anything goes". Okay fine. But it is still a movie. Art films don't have to be counterfactual, but they can be fictional, example, Babettes Feast, Jean de Florette, Once upon a time in the West, they still tell stories fantastically well and look brilliant. You can also have art movies that are factual, for example, the Passion of Joan of Arc, Amadeus. These are some great movies! But Inglorious Basterds doesn't hold a candle to any of these - not even in the same league. Why? On this showing Tarantino has reduced the war movie to a comedy. It's a very odd comedy, a violent comedy, a character's larger-than-life comedy. But it's a comedy nonetheless.
Tarantino is trying to do a lot of things with this film. For one thing, he is making a statement about the power of film and its propaganda qualities. For another he's trying to say, " yeah, the Jews had it rough". Yes Quintin, we know already. He's also trying to say people will sell each other out if the price is right. Okay, we know. You told us before.
The film just doesn't hang together. But then Tarantino films can have separate stories running within them, Pulp Fiction being the classic of this type. Pulp Fiction contains larger-than-life characters and is hysterically funny. I didn't want for this movie to be a comedy especially since it begins with the brazen ( and predictable) murder of a basement full of Jews hiding from the Nazis. Okay Quentin you got my attention. But then the film descends into comedy and parody and homage and we've seen it all before.
One thing you can say about this film is that it is full of tension - there are long scenes with dialogue. Always nice in a movie that - dialogue, and usually Tarantino films have quite good dialogue. But this just doesn't go anywhere - it's just unbelievable silly nonsense. The only character we care about - Soshanna - is somewhat surprisingly gunned down.
Tarantino is a very gifted filmmaker and storyteller. But I think he needs to get over himself. He needs to stop taking the film watcher for granted. Even the music, good though it is, is borrowed. War has in the past been been a vehicle to some of the greatest movies ever made. But this most certainly is not one of them.
Disappointing.