Quick Hit: Inglorious Basterds

I loves me some Tarantino, no doubt. Saw Reservoir Dogs on VHS at a friend's house in the summer of 1993. Saw Pulp Fiction the night it opened, in a packed, old-timey theater in Berkeley. The crowd was primed, buzzing. A fired up Friday night full of lit up film geeks (before there was any cultural cachet to being called a film geek). Everybody started cheering as the opening credits rolled and the music started. I've never seen anything like it since and doubt I ever will.

Anticipated the hell out of Jackie Brown. Liked it in the theater, love watching it over and over on cable. Whenever I surf to it, I stay til it's over. So watchable. The film just looks warm and inviting, despite the hardcore shit that transpires. That's Los Angeles for ya! Robert Forster plays worn-at-the-heel, lion-in-winter bail bondsman, Max Cherry. A man you can count on. A man that thinks things over as he drives around listening to "Across 110th Street" on his Cadillac's tape deck. And Robert DeNiro taking a bonghit. You know what? This is Tarantino's Lebowski.

Kill Bills, 1 and 2 were fun as hell. I loved the mixed media in 1, as well as the one-for-the-ages fight at the teahouse. I loved David Carradine doing a Pulp Fiction-y Grasshopper kinda thing in 2. And Uma snatching out Daryl Hannah's eyeball in the greatest fight in a double-wide trailer you'll ever see. Two pieces of solid entertainment with legs, rewarding multiple viewings.

Deathproof had one of the great all-time car chases. Kirk Russell creeped everybody out as Stuntman Mike. Zoe Bell is fucking fearless. And some chicks said stuff that may or may not have been annoying. Did I mention the car chase?

Inglorious Basterds, the subject of today's quick review (I didn't say anything about the setup, did I, heh), was slow, boring and uninteresting. Kills me to say it. Stuns me, too. I went in with zero expectations, so this review has nothing to do with let-down. But I gotta say I didn't think Tarantino was capable of this--I don't know how else to say it--he failed. In a 2 and 1/2 hour movie, nothing interesting happened until the final 30 minutes. There were some fine performances, the finest delivered by Christopher Waltz, the Third Reich's "Jew Hunter". Mega-star Brad Pitt was entertaining enough, chewing the scenery and letting his charisma out on a leash. But his performance comes in and out of the movie, since it's not all that central to the movie. But then, everybody--and nobody--is central to the movie--which means the story is a failure. Sure, there are some engaging moments of dialogue, as you'd expect, but they stand out because they're not in service of anything you care about, and it isn't nearly enough to carry the day.

One never knows, but I strongly suspect this won't be one I watch again and again on cable. Here's hoping QT gets back on track with the next one.