Tarantino - settled down already??

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2009)

For the freshest and most important director of the past two decades, 'Inglourious Basterds' is not a step in the right direction. It's a step in the wrong direction. Though enjoyable at times and extremely well crafted, it is a smug and arrogant piece of work; one that has little maturity and is essentially a joke.
Having time to think about the film, it's not actually THAT bad. Just being a huge admirer of Tarantino (Though 'Jackie Brown' set me awry slightly) i expected so much more. I wanted a vision and more of Tarantino's desperately engaging dialogue, and instead i got a completely mediocre story with a mediocre (in fact quite a poor) script, with a director who seems to have stopped taking himself seriously!
The film ultimately revolves around killing Nazis. Killing, slaughtering and laughing at Nazis. Now, that seems like a cheap shot to me. I mean, I just think there has to be more to a film than just killing and making jokes about the tyranny of Hitler. That's just too easy. Of course everyone in the world would agree that that is acceptable and now, more than half a century later, OK to laugh at, but it just upsets me that a director with the power and class of Tarantino would go for such a simple and easy story. It just feels like he's giving in to film as an enterprise over film as an art-form. I'd hate to use the term 'sell-out', because the film isn't that bad exactly, but it's definitely a step in that direction.
Though amidst the (maybe slightly unfair) pounding and hammering I am giving Tarantino and this film, there are some great moments, and great new acting gems. Til Schweiger is definitely someone to look out for, as is B.J. Novak, though contrary to popular opinion, I really didn't think Christoph Waltz was that impressive. He just didn't add enough to the character of Col. Hans as a real great actor would do.
Tarantino found time to keep the film self-referential and stylish, with lots of French New-Wave and Western homages to appreciate, though it just failed on me with such a silly plot. I've not quite lost my faith in Tarantino, just jarred it a bit, and I won't expect as much when he makes another film.
So, overall, a good film if you don't take it too seriously; a very disappointing film if you had Tarantino on some sort of Godly pedestal. Because it really did make me upset. I don't think we'll see any improvement in his work from here on. 6/10