Better Than You'd Guess

Rating: 8/10 (10 March 2010)

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino re-imagines history by matching against each other two amiable psychopaths--one an American Army officer and the other an Austrian Nazi--in a customary Tarantino bloodbath, with nothing less than the outcome of World War II at stake.
Brad Pitt, as the American, ironically has never been quite so appealing, endearing, charismatic, loose, or just plain funny. And character actor Christoph Waltz, as the Nazi, is a real revelation: His performance received not only the Oscar but also most of 2009's other supporting actor awards.
Filled with stylish anachronisms, references to other films, and arch homages to period propaganda, 'Inglourious Basterds,' like the other films in the Tarantino lexicon, is not for all tastes, and most definitely is not recommended for the timid or the squeamish. Additionally, the middle expository interlude bogs down the remarkable momentum of the opening segments but in comparison adds the necessary zing to the climactic hour.
All-in-all, 'Inglourious Basterds' is much, much better than pulp fiction has any right to be. By the end of the picture the knowing viewer might very well be not only laughing at the ultra-violence, but also ravening for more.
Which is probably the point.