A failure to fuse different movie genres into one feature.

Rating: 1/10 (11 September 2009)

Tarantino was in my opinion a master in fusing different movie genres into one. But he miserably and painfully fails to do so in Inglourious Bastards (IB).
Where in the past in movies like Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill saga there is a constant mix of both comical and gritty scenes which are consistently applied throughout these movies, in IB Tarantino tried to only loosely paste them together. The result is an unfocused string of scenes in which each displays another facet of the different genre. In one scene it's drama and violence followed by one that would have perfectly fitted into a Naked Gun type of film. This simply doesn't work and I found myself being highly irritated watching this failed experiment ruin an otherwise fine movie idea.
Another failure of the movie is to not present the viewer dialogs which are actually worth the elaborate time it takes to conclude them. The dialog often proceeds at glacial speeds and likewise just as easily melds and vaporises as time progresses, leaving a pile of scattered moraine in stead of something actually contributing to the, as it already stands, paper thin plot.
In the end IB is nothing more than a mismatch of ideas with a steal from Pulp Fiction here and a pinch from Reservoir Dogs there. These rehashed ideas, far superiorly employed in the past, will perhaps fool the younger moviegoer into believing they are watching something fresh and innovative, but people who have seen these other movies by QT surely wont be impressed. The movie ends at two and a half hours featuring long, drawn-out scenes that could have been easily compressed into one and a half. And like with Death Proof, there is far too little pay off to warrant stealing people's time and attention over these all-heard-before and talky routines.
Through most of the duration of the film I contemplated suggesting to my friend, who was clearly not being entertained either, to leave, but I decided to see it through till the end. Suffice to say I have never been so glad the ending credits finally rolled so I could get up and make my way to the exit.
The pro's:
Excellent acting (apart from a horrible Pitt who was clearly miscast) and good cinematography in a film with some solid and interesting ideas.
The con's:
The film's criminally in need of an editor and serves perhaps a bit too much dialog in a foreign language for the average moviegoer to swallow. Not enough suspense to justify bludgeoning the audience with endless routines of mere dialog and no character development to make the audience care about whatever outcome these scenes, and ultimately the whole movie, might bring.
3.5/10