Currently over-rated, but well worth a watch...

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2010)

...if only for Christoph "You never heard of me before this film" Waltz's highly engaging performance as the lead antagonist. "Inglorious Basterds" is nowhere near Tarantino's best film, but it's not his worst (I nominate his contribution to "Four Rooms" for that award, although I've never seen the reportedly awful "My Best Friend's Birthday"), and say what you will, much of it is pure pulp cinema entertainment. Only Tarantino could deliver a WWII Jewish revenge fantasy patterned after spaghetti Westerns that taps into 21st century sublimated fears and self-righteousness like a drill.
"Inglorious Basterds" makes itself clear from the start, "Once upon a time...," and then wallows in its reference-strewn, cartoonish, fairy tale universe like a junkyard dog rolling in the dirt. The dialogue is pure Tarantino throughout, with almost all the prime monologues going to Waltz's charming sociopath. What's most striking about all this is that the bulk of the conversations are in anything but English, thus forcing the reading of subtitles, which is typically anathema to American audiences. That "Inglorious Basterds" still managed to pack $120+ mil worth of butts into seats is testament to Tarantino's drawing power and storytelling abilities.
All of Tarantino's trademarks are in evidence, most especially his ability to ratchet up the tension in a scene and then release it in a paroxysm of brutal violence. This is not a film for the faint-of-heart (as if the title isn't already a dead giveaway); there are shootings, stabbings, beatings, scalpings, and chokings galore. Tarantino's predominantly young audience was surely well-sated, given the film's inordinately high rating here on the IMDb. Older viewers were obviously not quite so impressed with the Grand Guignol.
The cast is mostly superb, with the possible exceptions of the stunt-cast Eli "Hostel" Roth (who really has little to do anyway), the equally (and inexplicably) stunt-cast Mike "Austin Powers" Myers, and the guy playing Hitler, whose ridiculous antics I pin squarely on Tarantino's direction. The DP work by Oliver Stone stalwart Robert "Natural Born Killers" Richardson is assuredly top rank, the editing by Tarantino regular, Sally "did 'em all" Menke, equally so, and all the production elements are seamlessly satisfying, as expected.
After one big screen viewing and a pair of DVD watchings, I doubt I'll be returning to "Inglorious Basterds" any time soon. It's fine film entertainment, yes, so long as one bears in mind its utter lack of grounding in reality, but in the final analysis it has little to recommend it beyond cinematic flourishes, brute catharsis, and Waltz' deliciously amoral villain. Ultimately, it's pretty self-indulgent, adolescent nonsense that fails to illuminate the human condition (not that Tarantino's known for that anyway), and is unlikely to be regarded as anything more than that in the future.