Torturous and good(?) Tarantino

Rating: 5/10 (14 July 2010)

"Inglourious Basterds" is Quentin Tarantino. At his best? Perhaps.
It has in-your-face violence with left-field characters. I expected that, and I got that. I don't like Tarantino because of the extreme violence and the absurdity of situations that his characters get themselves into. I am usually confident with my decisions to avoid his movies. But here, I became increasingly restless, with it being a comedy, starring Brad Pitt, and all of its award nominations, including Best Screenplay? What?
It's one of those films that deserves its accolades, but it still doesn't mean it's good. I certainly didn't like it, but I watched the full two and a half hours. It's like a World War II epic, and told very slowly. But every time I had enough with a scene, Tarantino knew to switch up the narrative, so I kept watching. The story narratives changed often enough to keep me watching but not too often to get confusing. I will admit, that's good writing.
I got frustrated with the characters because I didn't know them well enough, but that is classic Tarantino. Violence, although necessary at times, was used way too heavily - again, that's classic Tarantino. There was just no sign of comedy, maybe a few non-sense lines for humour, but come on, this is World War II. I'm not one for being offended, but I don't find war particularly funny.
"Inglourious Basterds" is Quentin Tarantino mastering what he is good at. For those that like him, this is a quality film experience, but for others like me, just because you can sit through two and a half hours of torture, doesn't mean it's good.