"I don't suppose you'll mind if I go out speaking the King's."

Rating: 1/10 (27 July 2010)

PLOT (or lack thereof): A group of Jewish American soldiers, led by Brad Pitt, go overseas to during World War 2 to terrorize and massacre Nazis while a Jewish cinema owner, the only survivor of her family, having barely escaped a German soldier known as "The Jew Hunter" played Christopher Waltz, who now plots to have her revenge when a film about a German sharp shooter is forced upon her to debut at her theater, while Waltz plans defection.
The film is really nothing but another exercise on director Quentin Tarantino's part to see just how much useless dialogue he can cram into a scene and see how long he can drag a scene out before the audience gives up and turns the film off (similar to his misguided "Death Proof"). Where Tarantino's earlier films, affectionate deconstructions of the noir genre, had enough chaotic energy to keep the viewer engaged while his characters blathered nonsense, much of it pop culture and cinema laced, this time around, like Death Proof, Tarantino fails to bring any of that lost energy to the proceedings. The film is dull, inert, and lifeless. Scenes drag on pointlessly with no real tension, in no small part because the characters are cardboard cut outs. Even Christopher Waltz's much ballyhooed and frankly overrated performance as the "Jew Hunter" Nazi fails to set off any sparks. The fact that the character is more annoying than interesting doesn't help.
Brad Pitt and his "Basterds" aren't even in the film that much. While the marketing campaign suggested a darkly comic take on the Magnificent Seven formula, the truth is the that Pitt and the "Basterds" are barely plot devices.
Trust me, you won't miss much by skipping this inglorious mess.