Good but somewhat overblown.

Rating: 7/10 (21 August 2009)

The movie is a bit long, drags in the middle and has a corny, hokey comic book story style, nevertheless the movie is good but definitely not great. Instead of an action packed movie focusing on a bunch of angry Jewish soldiers going after vicious, unrepentant Nazis, the audience is given a complex story with plots and subplots that are pursued to the point that the Basterds are almost shunted to the sidelines. There is solid acting, with Brad Pitt demonstrating a definite flair for comedy and Christopher Waltz giving a commendable performance as a suave but sinister SS colonel, but the muddled, absurd story is what keeps this movie from achieving anything approaching cinematic greatness. Solid acting coupled with a goofy story does not make for good cinema. This movie also continues the now time honored tradition of bashing Germans, which is nothing new in Hollywood cinema. Once again the Germans are portrayed as hapless buffoons. Yet despite the fact that they started and lost the war, and that it is highly tempting to mock their outrageous conduct, it is a stretch to present the Germans as bumbling fools. They might have been fools but they were far from bumbling and what they did in Word War Two was not a laughing matter. If someone wants to make a movie about inglorious basterds then make a movie about inglorious basterds and place them squarely on center stage where they belong.