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Inglorious Basterds? More like 'Inglorious Letdown'





Inglorious Basterds is Tarantino's latest film, and given how awesome some of his past films have been, I was pretty psyched about seeing it. When I left the theater though, my opinion of the movie was 'meh'. Sure, it has some great moments, and there's certainly a few hilarious scenes, and plenty of suspense. But it drags on, and it seems to be uncertain when to be serious and when to treat it all as one great big joke. Everything is a caricature of a caricature. When it's good, it's great. But when it's bad, it's just tiring. And it's bad more often than it's good.

The movie looks great. The acting is... Well, all the actors are great at what they've been told to do. It's just what they've been told to do doesn't make for that good of a movie in the end.

Long story short, the movie isn't anything special. It's an amazingly violent fairy tale painted with strokes of WWII, with no connection to historical fact (not that it's a bad thing). In the end, the sum is less than the parts, and I wouldn't pay to watch it again. It drags out, and would have been better if it had been edited down to be half as long.

Between trying to be campy and funny, and trying to be serious and say something, it achieves neither and falls flat. A few great moments, but not enough to sustain the film. Some incredible acting. But not enough to sustain the film. Some incredible cinematography, but when the rest of the film is 'meh', it's just window-dressing.

Not worth paying to see, unless you've got absolutely nothing else to do.

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