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Critics Consensus: A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining.
Critic Consensus: A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining.
All Critics (316) | Top Critics (52) | Fresh (279) | Rotten (37) | DVD (6)
The performance of Christoph Waltz, playing the Nazi Gestapo figure Col. Hans Landa, is the highlight of the film. His ability to convey courtliness and sympathy and then go to commit the cruelest of horrors is simply superb.
Despite the injection of content from a variety of directions, Basterds lacks the crackly excitement of Tarantino's other efforts, mainly because he can't seem to tie the whole package together.
Waltz will be unknown to most American audiences -- he was certainly unknown to me -- but he's nothing less than sensational as the silky, polyglot SS officer charged by the Fuhrer to root out the remaining Jews in France.
Like a bat to the head, it's not too subtle, but you can't help but watch.
Quentin Tarantino seems to be hanging on to a lost world of moviemaking. He may be nuts. But he's a nut who cares.
Its biggest flaw, though, for those who care about such things, may be its moral attitude. That might seem a stodgy thing to bring up in the context of a Quentin Tarantino movie, but it takes such center stage that it needs to be examined.
It's funny. It's violent. It's funny and violent. The acting is unbelievable. Pitt is charming as the icy killer, and it's clear Tarantino has found his new muse in Laurent.
It's all eye-poppingly impressive, and the relentlessness of it will still make you want it to stop as you head deep into hour three. Then after you leave, you might find you think about it a lot, how interesting it was, even the boring parts.
From the opening moments (Tarantino's films always start strong), the film establishes itself as the auteur's best work.
Where Death Proof kept halving itself-effectively remaking and one-upping the Kill Bill mommy saga with different drapery-Basterds keeps excoriating everything, loud and proud and begging to be heard.
The movie left me both exhilarated and frustrated. Not quite a masterpiece, it might qualify as a "messterpiece," an unwieldy, unfocused film with unforgettable moments that nearly get lost in a sea of excess.
The movie is a bit long, well over two hours and probably could have been two hours had the first half of the movie not dragged. But the second half is well worth the build-up.
A little long in the run time I felt, but overall a very entertaining film with great performances from Brad Pitt and Christopher Waltz. The second half of the film is better as a plot to assassinate the top Nazi's in one hit slowly unravels with a few twists and turns.
Super Reviewer
Quentin Tarantino returns with the story of the Basterds, a group of Jewish soldiers performing guerilla warfare and terror tactics behind enemy lines to strike fear into the hearts of German soldiers during World War II. Inglourious Basterds is a very difficult film to pigeonhole. It's part Jewish revenge fantasy, part gung ho war film, part knowing parody of patriotic flag wavers and 100% Tarantino. His trademark patchwork of styles and references is as evident as ever; the opening scenes are pure Leone, turns into The Dirty Dozen and then zig zags off on tangents all over the place. It's impossible not to enjoy a film with this premise (unless you are a closet Fourth Reicher or member of the BNP) and Brad Pitt's hilarious send up of a hick war hero is almost as good as Christoph Waltz's high camp evil Sherlock Holmes (complete with pipe). But I'd have to say much of the film that does not feature these two could've stood for some judicious pruning and very oddly for a Tarantino film, the soundtrack sometimes just did not work. Unlike the likes of Lucas and Cameron though, Tarantino is a pure film fan's film maker so when he gets too self indulgent, it is with the direction, dialogue and characters rather than visual bullshit and so even at their worst his films are always interesting and of merit.
I'll be honest this was the first Tarantino film I've ever watched. However, if this is good, I can't wait to see his better films, like Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs. With a superb opening with such an intense pace, from these 20 minutes, it's very clear of how powerful a performance Christoph Waltz gave, especially the fact he won the Oscar he surely deserved. The rest of the film is packed with violence, some good laughs and some intense moments in which hell breaks loose within seconds. To top this off, Christoph Waltz is backed up with Brad Pitt (Fight Club), Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) and even Director Eli Roth (Hostel). Overall, Inglorious is a superb feature, that is compared way too much with Tarantino's earlier work, which has a nice twist within its WWII setting. A must watch for action and Tarantino fans.
Nice little Tarantino flick of revenge set against the backdrop of WWII. The actors are top notch and the carnage is just right.
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