Disappointing Film Fails To Gel

Rating: 3/10 (2 September 2009)

By far the worst film Tarantino has made to day, this rambling mess of a movie fails on several levels, and ultimately leaves one unsatisfied.
First of all there is the matter of the misleading title and advertising campaign. This is not a movie about the Inglorious Basterds and their war against the Nazis. The Basterds are, at best, secondary characters in this film. Of the eight Basterds, only two have speaking lines, and six of them are never seen after the first thirty minutes of the film. They don't die, the movie just forgets they exist.
In fact, we see little evidence that the Basterds are even an effective fighting force, and we mostly have to rely on other characters assurances that they are scary. There are very few battle scenes, and those that do exist are extremely short. With the exception of a brief prison breakout -- seen entirely in a 30 second flashback! -- we never actually see the Basterds operate as a combat unit. If you go to see this film expecting the Dirty Dozen Tarantino Style -- which the ad campaign seems to promise -- you will be sorely, sorely disappointed.
Worse though was the complete and utter lack of character development for any of the Basterds. The only member who gets a back-story is ignominiously shot later, leaving one to wonder why Tarantino even bothered to name him (as he doesn't name the majority of the Basterds). We're simply never given any reason to care about the characters the movie is NAMED AFTER. It's almost surreal.
The most developed characters in the film are a French Jewish woman whose family is killed by a SS officer, that same SS officer, and a German soldier turned film star. The movie focused almost entirely on these three characters -- most of whom never even meet the Basterds! Its as if the movie's subplot took over the film, and it leaves you wondering if the movie about the Basterds promised by the trailers was left on the cutting room floor. Several other characters are given lengthy introduction scenes, then quickly discarded.
Other flaws include the soundtrack, which is full of modern songs, including a David Bowie track that calls far too much attention to itself and was a major distraction, as well as a ridiculous and somewhat surreal Mike Myers cameo.
Many scenes seem to wander aimlessly and by the time the film came to an end I was yawning and ready to go. All if all, this film completely failed to deliver on its promises -- even the blood, gore and mayhem were relatively tame. While there are definitely some funny lines and a few really excellent scenes, and the subplot involving the Jewish girl is interesting, the movie fails to gel into anything coherent, and the resulting mess feels half-baked. This one definitely should have spent more time in development.