inglorious basterds

So the weather was supremely crappy this weekend so we opted for a Saturday double feature with our friend Dennis. One of the flicks? Quentin Tarantino's latest flick Inglorious Basterds.

Sigh...

Where to start? First off, let's just say I didn't hate it. In fact, there were parts of it I quite liked. Like, a lot. But those parts didn't come until the last quarter of the movie. About a quarter of the way into the movie it lost me completely. COMPLETELY. I was so bored I was starting to wish I'd left with the people who did 10 minutes into the movie. The first part of this movie is chalked full of your standard extraneous Tarantino scenes that are loaded full of useless dialogue that succeed only in reminding us how much Tarantino himself knows about obscure German films.......any obscure films really. I swear to God, during most of those scenes the actor's face would blur away and Quentin's big giant head would appear yammering away about something that has nothing to do with anything. There's a director putting his stamp on a movie and then there's what Quentin does - insert himself directly into his movies.

The good things? It was gorgeous to watch. All dark and noir-y......just lovely. The best thing? Christopher Waltz. He is SO amazing in his bad guy role you find yourself wanting more and more of him. The press about this being Brad Pitt's latest success? Forget it! Yeah he's pretty good too but rarely have I seen a movie get so stolen by one actor. It's all about Waltz. Just brilliant. Also great? The gore. Tarantino can certainly do gore and make it look real. More great? The soundtrack - chock full of Ennio Morricone and some strange pop choices. Well done...

All in all, I did like it. Will I see it again ever? Likely not. Was it about 45 minutes too long? Of course it was. But with a Tarantino film that's pretty much a given...