That Magic Line was crossed and ruined a potentially gripping movie

Rating: 2/10 (1 September 2009)

Warning! This review contains spoilers related to specific scenes and their outcome. If you do not wish to know key plot and scenes details, STOP READING NOW.
This is a hard thing to say because I really love QT. He has produced some brilliant work and some not so great stuff but I like where he is headed and generally give him more praise than my peer group.
With that said, there is a magic line that everyone has that just can't be crossed. Over the years I have watched QT kill people off in unimaginable ways and accepted it as his "art". I'll even admit to a bit of cheering on because of the graphic nature shown on how to dispose of a few deserving characters. (SPOILER ALERT) But even with that rich history of accepted death and mayhem, the basement scene in Nadine went too far for me and I ultimately left while Hammersmark was being questioned by Lt. Aldo.
I can't exactly put my finger on it but QT disrespected the audience and especially me. I have a rule for movies, any movie that says you can make up whatever rules you want but you then have to stick by them. To get out of a bad plot line, you can't suddenly invent super powers that weren't there previously or change the rules of engagement to make it to the next scene.
Wilhelm (the Nazi with the sub-machine gun) followed the rules. He was made to be a character that the audience related to and liked. He complied with Lt. Aldo's request and as we learned in a previous scene with Aldo, lives are spared when rules are followed. Allowing Hammersmark to suddenly pull out a gun and shoot him multiple times to death defiled those rules and just made it clean for the next scene (no one else for Aldo to question and confirm what happened). Stupidity also reined as it was difficult to imagine that a movie actress with no military training and who was mortally wounded in a hail of gun fire had the presence of mind to grab a pistol off the ground and perfect hit Wilhelm with every single shot. QT completely screwed up that scene and raised the middle finger to his audience because he wrote himself into a corner and didn't know how to get out. Shame on him for thinking more of himself than the audience.
Finally, the whole basement scene was bad from the start. Knowing that it was a dangerous, stupid place and Hammersmark had no military or spy training, the characters remain there and interact with the German soldiers and SS officer was just something that made no sense. The enlisted men drinking on a night out to celebrate a birth would not have been armed and in their heavily drunken state, wouldn't been able to shoot anyone given there were three guns trained on the SS officer and two of these guys were assassins.
Bad job QT, you let us down and I am out $9.00 because you felt you could go cheap and think we were stupid enough to do what you wanted. I could care less if your next movie sweeps the Oscars and wins in every category; I will not watch it on principle alone just to not feed your money machine until to apologize to your audience.