An uneven mess

Rating: 4/10 (24 August 2010)

When I saw the trailers for Inglorious Basterds, I was less than impressed. I have a (very) soft spot in my heart for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but the movie seemed ridiculous. So I watched it with very low expectations.
I sadly found out that I was correct in my assumptions. The movie manages to feel like 5 hours and still be very thin, both in plot and characterization. Tarantino tried to cram in a 12 hours long movie into 150 minutes and it failed - miserably. The Basterds storyline is by far the weakest. We are treated to a short speech about the Nazi killers, a few few short scenes and montages and then the final massacre at the theater. I feel that Tarantino would have been better off leaving them as shadowy figures in the background, as a real band of vengeful and silent assassins, instead of making them appear as unlikable cretins. Give them less screen time, but make it count.
The Shosanna storyline is as thin, but at least Laurent's character's back story is given to the viewer (in parts, at least). The love story with Marcel also felt tacked on at all moments.
What is even sadder is that the movie started out great. The farm scene is up there with Tarantino's best offerings. Much of that praise can be attributed to Waltz's performance as Lauda which is simply stunning and frightening. Too bad the movie started going downhill afterward, what with wooden 40 minutes dialogs (nothing new for Tarantino there, but at least the long conversations used to be funny or clever) and superfluous/masturbatory references that only served to remind the viewer that he was watching a QT flick.
Still, the movie merits a viewing if only for Col. Lauda, but it certainly won't become a classic.