Bland, Meandering Nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (27 November 2009)

In the early part of his career Tarantino gave the world some excellent films, Pulp Fiction arguably being his masterpiece. Unfortunately it's been downhill ever since. Inglorious Basterds ("Chortle! He's put the word basterds in the title! ZOMG!") is on a par with Death Proof in being his low point. The film could have been infinitely more interesting had it just focused on Brad Pitt's squad of vengeful Jewish soldiers shooting and clubbing their way through Europe taking out prominent SS ne'er-do-well's, but sadly we have to endure a ridiculous and tedious story of Hitler and the Nazi top brass attending a screening of a pro-Nazi film in downtown Paris, enabling the Basterds and a few uninteresting partisans to devise a plot to eliminate them in one fell swoop. It's aesthetically pleasing no doubt, but sadly falls victim to Quentin's "trademark", that is to fill huge parts of the movie with meandering dialogue that adds little to the experience. The film could easily have been trimmed down to around 90 minutes without all the yadder yadder and would have improved vastly for it. The cast do their jobs well enough, save for Brad Pitt who lacks charisma and seems to be doing a Forest Gump impersonation throughout. All in all I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was 14.