Inglourious Basterds

August 29, 2009, 10:56 am

A new Tarantino film comes along about once every 8 years. That’s a proper “directed by” film rather than a “presented by” or “produced by” where his name’s just used to bring in cash. The problem is, since Pulp Fiction there hasn’t been a single one worth the wait.

Inglourious Basterds continues this theme of disappointment. I thought Kill Bill sucked so much that I didn’t bother seeing part 2 until a friend insisted I watch it on DVD. It was no better. Where Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction used the similar trick of bouncing the story back and forth until the whole became apparent, the following films have been more linear. Instead of clever storytelling, Tarantino’s instead gone for arty cinematography and it just looks pretentious.

As for the trick in IB of using big porn-star lettering everywhere to point out characters… didn’t Guy Ritchie do a better job of that in Lock, Stock… and the like? Slow-motion killings and music that just doesn’t fit or suit the scene add to the mess. For a modern film, it looks positively dated.

The story is linear and quite predictable. There’s no real twist other than you don’t expect things to work out at the end (as ever, trying not to spoiler anything).

Plot-in-a-nutshell: a Jewish American special forces team working in France gets wind of a chance to eradicate Hitler and his cabinet in one fell swoop during a film premier in Paris.

In fairness, there are some excellent performances from the cast. Having the film in German and French, for the most part, lends some kind of authenticity which many action films don’t have. It’s certainly better than the usual “bad accents” school of thought. Sean Connery‘s “Russian” captain in The Hunt For Red October, anyone?

Generally, though, I think I’m the first person I know who’s not really enjoyed it – certainly judging by the Twitter posts I’ve seen over the last week or so. I’m far more excited about the upcoming District 9.

Is it crap? No, not really. I’d definitely go for “overblown and over-hyped and just overall rather disappointing”.