A lot has been said already. I’d just add that it’s essential to watch this in a movie theater. I don’t want to give anything away, but I don’t think the effect of what happens at the end would be quite the same if viewed at home on a couch.

I usually am very choosy about my movies. I learnt that critics have been going gaga over QT’s latest movie, so I decided to check it out. Weird as it may sound to those who have loved this movie, to me, this was the worst movie Tarantino has ever made.

I won’t say I am a big fan of QT but I have seen all his movies. And things I like best about his movies are the subplots, character development, long-drawn-out sequences wherein characters engage in peppy and interesting parleys. ‘Inglourious Basterds’ had all the ingredients, typical of a QT movie, but then, something ‘significant’ was amiss. To start with, movie moves at an agonizingly slow pace; i almost yawned to death in the middle of the movie. As if that isn’t enough, a good part of the movie is subtitled. Finally, graphic violence in this movie, unlike Tarantino’s other movies, i thought, was quite dispensable.

There is this scene towards the climax wherein one of the characters(Pvt. Zoller)jokingly remarks to another character(Shosanna)while the former’s movie is being played that it’s a terrible movie and asks for his money back. I wryly smiled and let the feeling of being ridiculed slide.

http://filmeyeballsbrain.com/2009/09/06/quentin-tarantino-inglourious-basterds-2009/

This film left me a bit dumbfounded, as I’d forgotten Tarantino’s staunch penchant for writing female roles in the feministic sense, i.e. portraying women as they are. Stanley Kubrick notoriously once answered a question of what he likes when making films by saying he knew what he didn’t like, and to me, that is the essential of Tarantino’s scripting of female roles. So, all in all, a feministic script. Good. But what about the film in other aspects? While the Kill Bill series served as a complete homage to Asian cinema, especially the pulp parts, this film waves hi to the western spaghetti films while staying true to his dialogue-cum-monologues. In every scene, Tarantino seemingly has decided that one or two character steals the scene with some quite outlandish acting. While Christoph Waltz’s acting is completely wonderful, the direction is tight and led me through a simple and great film, where two parallel stories start the film: one French girl is separated from her family because of the nazis and small American group of soldiers, commanded by Brad Pitt’s character, is led into Germany to “kill nazis”. Every scene is very non-apologetic. No big Hollywood scores are played as people are killed and most of the killing is displayed as-is. Come to think of it, most of everything in this film is displayed as-is, i.e. not sugar-coated. It’s a funny, tragic and hugely entertaining story of revenge – an obvious line through most films by Tarantino – and is well worth your time.

Very Tarantino. Nuff said!

No? Okay, it’s a bit strange, mostly subtitled, very violent, and pretty entertaining. It reminded me more of Kill Bill, with the homages and pastiche qualities, and that certain stylistic look.

To tell you the truth, I fell asleep for about 10 minutes in the middle of it. Yeah, I love QT movies and that there’s nazi killing, but something about the pace got to me. I had to shift in my seat so I’d be alert, but next thing I know, I’m blinking my eyes open and missed a chunk of the film.

Inglourious Basterds was a great movie, fantastic even, and I am not usually a fan of Tarantino. It was as unecessarily violent as I would expect from him – though it left me questioning whether it was really unecessary. The violence really had an impact, probably the impact he was going for. The movie was hilarious but unsettling. It disturbed me and left me sour and I couldn’t get it out of my mind; I didn’t feel for any of the characters at all because I found them revolting. But that didn’t make it a bad movie at all; it was intriguing that way. All the death and violence and the characters’ attitudes towards it were utterly horrifying to me, but at the same time fascinating and not so unrealistic it didn’t leave me feeling anxious afterwards. I felt empathy towards all parties, but hatred as well. The Basterds did the same thing to Nazis as the Nazis did to Jews – callously torture and maim. I don’t believe in revenge or violence like this so it challenged my morals. The sickness and utter depravity of the movie was entertaining somehow. Wonderful, ingenius even. It wasn’t just a comedy, it was something more – something serious. Something dramatic and forlorn, like the labels “drama” and “comedy” were somehow switched in advertising.

Still, it had some pretty damn funny moments.

I highly recommend, but not for the weak of heart, though those interested in nothing but pretty explosions and a bloodfest will be happy too.