I hate Tarantino - but this movie you have to see!

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2010)

As the summary states, Tarantino is one of the directors/writers I try to avoid when deciding what movies to watch. In my opinion his movies are nothing more than senseless splatter flicks with little more substance than most B-movies (or so much substance the story doesn't make sense - Pulp Fiction).
This is what I expected when I sat down to watch Inglorious Basterds, boy was I wrong.
French characters speaking French?! Oh wait they swapped to English with some bad excuse... no wait it was part of the plot and it made sense! Not only do they speak their native languages fluently, these are good actors.
Suddenly you forget you are watching a movie and you get wrapped up in the dialogue driven story and the intrigue just dying to know what will happen next.
There are a few moments you get pulled back to reality (the odd camera work which I consider a plus since it comes with the feeling - wow that was different), the unlikeliness of the Aldo Raine character ever becoming an officer and his Indian heritage being the reason of his treatment of the German soldiers (this is a big part of the plot and so incredible it ruins an otherwise believable story) and last but not least the shoot-out between two of the main characters toward the end of the movie that feels a tad over the top, very à la Tarantino.
The only other downside is that you never get a chance to really start caring about the characters. There's a depth there that Tarantino just scratches the surface of and just when you're about to start feeling something, cut and new scene.
As far as the very odd plot twist in the end of the movie goes, I'm willing to oversee it as artistic freedom.
All in all a great movie that will keep you on your toes, great acting (I'm very happy to see that Christoph Waltz won an Oscar for his role) and believable (with a few exceptions).
If you shun Tarantino like the plague like I do, still make sure you see this movie.