Near perfection, but only in two scenes.

Rating: 5/10 (9 October 2010)

Inglorious Bastards has one of the greatest first acts of any war movie I have ever watched. With a perfect combination of acting, directing and set design, the scene is both unbearably tense yet painfully subtle. By simply changing it to black and white, the entire performance could be slipped right into Shindler's List without any additional modifications. It seemed to be a prelude to what would be perhaps the best war movie to hit theaters in this century. But I was mislead.
As soon as the next 'chapter' began, it became obvious that the rest of the movie would not be able to live up to it's introduction. Going back and forth between excruciatingly dull and unrealistically Hollywood, you have to start to wonder if there were two different production teams making the same movie. It only comes close to reaching the initial level in a later scene that takes place in a pub containing both Germans soldiers and undercover English agents, but even that is slightly distracted by a very brief flashback with an electric guitar overplay.
The actual plot of the film apparently takes place in some bizarre alternate universe where the events that occur are not even close to reality. Perhaps there is some higher artistic goal here, but it is completely lost on me. In addition, the Nazi high command is portrayed so unrealistically, that you can't even hate Hitler because he comes off more like a cartoon character than the leader of the Third Reich.
I do not want to say Inglorious Bastards is not worth seeing, but rather don't expect a serious World War II movie, even after watching the first act.