Not bad, had some pointless filler-time.

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2012)

Say what you want about Tarantino, but he's one of the only Director's where I can tell, without knowing firsthand, that he directed a certain movie. For better or for worse, he has style.
For the better, the movie fascinated me. There's very little to say to compliment than the usual stock of "great" things. Acting was fine. Brad Pitt was a bit of an exaggerated caricature, but it served well enough.
I will mention Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa, as he bears mentioning. He was a FASCINATING character. He felt like a genuine threat in every scene that he was in, and it was very unique to see a skilled detective play in a Villainous role, as "Detectives" are usually reserved for heroes. He definitely stole every scene he was in and like I mentioned before, every line of dialog seemed relevant because he was investigating everyone he came across. I loved watching every scene he was in.
Now, my 8 out of 10 may come as to a shock as I go into more detail about what I didn't like about the movie. But as a rule of thumb, anything I don't mentioned I consider fine. Make no mistake, it IS a fine movie. As always, everyone has more to say about the bad parts.
First the minor complaint. I expected more Nazi killing. We get all of two good, solid, Nazi-bashing scenes and the rest are quick 4-second snippets for comedic effect. Which kind of leads into my major complaint...
The "for worse" part of Tarantino's style is there's a whole load of talking. A lot of filler time. I had this same exact issue with his two Grindhouse movies. Specifically "Death Proof" with the second set of potential girl victims just... talking. I fast forwarded for a few seconds and they were talking about nothing. I did this a second time, and nothing. I did it a third time to where the next scene began, re- winded a little bit, and started again, and missed NOTHING.
*Spoilers Ahead*
It was the same problem here. Every "chapter" only has a few minutes of relevant conversation, the rest padded pointlessly. Specifically, the bar-basement scene where three of the Basterds and the actress were plotting, and the REAL German officer walks in and hounds them. While it was fascinating in itself, they could have removed perhaps the short "game" they played, and a few minutes of pointless banter. To it's credit, it was very intense. But they could have done it better by doing the same thing they did in the beginning with Col. Hans Landa, whose every single line of dialog felt relevant.
I mean, Tarantino did this same thing in Reservoir Dogs, near the beginning. THAT conversation, too, was fairly relevant throughout. Every now and then he just misses that particular charm.
That's all I didn't like. I enjoyed the movie all the same, even though you could cut thirty minutes out of it without harming the film, I would think.