Some flashes of Tarantino gold, also Nazis

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2015)

This film has one of the strongest starts I've ever seen. Waltz interrogating a farmer is an absolute triumph of tension building. Tarantino lingers here for far longer than other film makers would, and it's that that pushes the scene to another level. Subsequently any scene throughout the film where Waltz features earns a measure of this same tension. Sadly everything else here doesn't quite stand up. The scene in the basement did something similar and was also enjoyable, with a strong performance from Fassbender. Aside from that, pretty much everything else is frankly ridiculous, yet I didn't find this film funny especially. The dialogue just doesn't hit home in that way very often. The Basterds particularly were both basic and uninteresting, though perhaps that was intended, who knows... I also felt the tension drained from the film towards the end, which is really the opposite of what you want. The more ridiculous and violent the film is, the less compelling it is, but Tarantino wants to get all his tropes in there rather than go with the more serious and exciting film that this truly is at times.