Another self-indulgent dialogue showcase from Quentin Tarantino

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2016)

Oh for crying out loud. When will Quentin Tarantino realize that he can't have a 2 and a half hour movie consisting entirely of people sitting around tables and talking with occasional flashes of excessive yet simultaneously tedious violence? More importantly, why do people love him so much? A group of Jewish soldiers, led by Brad Pitt, become Nazi hunters in Nazi-occupied France, with the villainous Hans Landa as their nemesis. Well, that's what I thought I was getting. Brad Pitt and co disappear for long stretches of time while characters sit down and talk about strudels, cinemas, King Kong and a lot of the time nothing whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, this is a good film in many ways so I can't completely write it off. Christoph Waltz has done the performance he does here several times now, but here he is at his best and he's brilliant. Michael Fassbender is good and the rest of the acting is fine. There are good bits (Especially the marvellous opening scene) and the cinema shootout finale is quite effective. Also, you can sense Tarantino's love for cinema running through the film which makes it more interesting to watch. Unfortunately, while the writing is often good, a lot of the time nothing is happening, the film is completely incoherent and messy (Here's proof that Tarantino's movies being non-linear don't add anything to the films!) and it goes on and on and on. This isn't a bad film, but it's a very self-indulgent one which is basically lots of scenes, some good, some bad, put together in a stunted non-linear narrative which doesn't even manage to sustain the paper-thin revenge plot. As for the violence? Bland. After a strong introduction to the film's heroes and villains, soon it just becomes a lot of sitting around and talking. All in all, an arrogant, poorly constructed war movie which shows Tarantino re-affirming his status as the most overrated filmmaker working today. By the way: The Hatful Eight was better than this.
6/10