You were just a Basterd from a Basket!

I did my Tarantino run in the lead up to his latest, and you know what I realised? I don't really like any of them.

No.
Reservoir dogs loses pace by minute 35, Pulp Fiction is a bloated self-absorbed attempt at something it couldn't reach, Jackie Brown is arduous and unnecessarily long, Kill Bill, well, it has it's moments, but they are mismanaged and in between excessively long moments of pointlessness, Death Proof, nuff said.

Tarantino's best work was True Romance, and he didn't direct it.

So, I was worried, and the first time I didn't like the Basterds. It was after a day that featured District 9, Mcovin', a Python and an appearance from Pearly King Guy Ritchie and his new wife Robert Downey Jr. That' a lot to live up to, and when a ideo intro by Tarantino proclaimed we were some of the first to see this film I called bullshit like everyone else, it had nationwide previews that weekend.

But as the screenings have progressed I got used to it, the opening sequence gets shorter each time as Christopher Waltz chews the French farm as he hunts down the Jews under the floorboards, Brad Pitt's silly Italian accent, Eli Roth's batting skills, The brilliant use of David Bowie, the film as a whole is brilliant. It's not perfect, however.

The dialogue tends to drag with Shoshanna as she ends up being sucked in to hosting the premiere of Goebbell's new film, starring a soldier who killed almost 300 Allies over a 3 day period, who takes a liking to her instantly. From that everything zips off, the plan to blow up the cinema and eliminate the entire Nazi headliners for what they did to her family, the Basterds preparing their own brand of justice, even in a long scene in a bar with Michael Fassbender's ridiculously English officer under the guise of a German captain, leading to the inevitable explosion of violence, flows far faster than the heavy handed way that Chapter 3 is done, which is painfully boring at times when it could have lots more intrigue, tension and emotion.

As is the case, the film gets better as it picks itself up to the end, with a big sequence between Brad Pitt, B.J. Novak and Chris Waltz negotiating an end to the war, and in truly original style, the ending isn't exactly what we were taught happened.

The soundtrack is exquisite, the use of Bowie is brilliant, Ennio Morricone's stuff works wonders, the memorable opening and closing songs hummable all the time, the tense tunes, the superfluous ones too are well chosen as always, solid work here.

The film looks great, all natural, nothing CGI feeling, just the right style, the acting is universally great, from Mike Myers' scene stealing stiff upper lip to Mr. Waltz's Oscar winning work, and I assure you if he doesn't get the supporting Actor gong there'll be some serious furor, no pun intended, here. Brad Pitt is notably very funny, sometimes hard to comprehend, but he does his job, and the gals, well, they do the kicking ass stuff, and do enough to maintain the dignity needed.

Overall it's a great if not perfect film that isn't quite WW2 as much as Oh Man I Want Him To Explode For No Reason!

10/10