Suck it history

The stylish over the top trailers got me pretty hyped for this movie. A crack Dirty Dozen-ish team of Jewish American sent in to kill a bunch of Natzis? Please take my money right now. I was disappointed when I actually watched it. Not because it was bad, but because it was not the movie that was advertised. I guess that is to be expected of all trailers. Heck the director has no input in them, but nevertheless I expected the see some action packed exploits of these so called Inglourious Basterds.

I’m not a movie buff, just someone who enjoys movies so I concede that maybe I don’t “get” Tarantino movies. For IG in particular his set pieces involve long drawn out talky scenes filled with devilishly witty back and forth, with a subtle yet sinister tension throughout. The first chapter in particular was amazing and will no doubt be dissected by film students for years.

There was a lot to like- snappy dialogue, black humor, a sense of you don’t know what is going to happen next, and a fantastic ensemble performance especially by Christoph Waltz who was the rare antagonist protagonist. But in the end I felt like the pacing was very uneven. Set up as an action flick, there were only sparse glances of the Basterd’s misadventures. I found some of the action sequences completely inexplicable like the bar scene.

If you are a Tarantino fan I think you’ll love and appreciate this movie. For those of you not that familiar with his work it may be like french cuisine- you may not get all of the intricacies and nuance but you can still eat it.