Ingloriously Wonderful

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2014)

If you're not big into Tarantino films, you'll find yourself bored sitting through Inglorious Basterds. It's a film that spends a lot of time talking and setting itself up rather than moving. In that regard, it's a typical Tarantino movie. And that's what I love, the witty banter and well-rounded characters that comprise every movie Tarantino makes. And that's how this movie works so well.
The Basterds are a group of Jews fighting the Nazis to get revenge for their fallen brethren. They scalp Nazis after killing them and are really unsavory characters. Brad Pitt plays their leader, Aldo Raine, and he is the star. From his ridiculous accent to his comedic dialog (especially his attempt at speaking Italian), he's wonderful.
The film sets itself up nicely but, the biggest problem and one I touched upon, it can dry up a little bit. It's not that the film is boring, it's that it runs overlong due to long-winding discussion. Tarantino is a master of this sort of dialog when in a more modern setting but the World War II setting didn't allow for as much comedy. It had it's funny moments, but most of it was subtitled banter between hero and villain.
The main idea of the movie is that a Jewish girl who escaped from being slaughtered three years before has inherited a theater and the Nazi's will use it to premiere a violent movie about a single German killing hundreds of Americans. The Fuhrer as well as all of the higher ranking Nazis will be there. She finds it a perfect opportunity to kill them all. As do the Basterds, which is when sparks literally start to fly.
The finale of this movie is brief but glorious, but it's also baffling. Tarantino humanizes the Nazis while completely decimating them. He has one talk about his family and makes that the point of a scene but then turns them into cannon fodder. It's like he wants to say Nazi's are people too, then say "Screw Nazis".
While the message is a little mixed, the movie itself is an enjoyable ride.