Inglourious Basterds

With (intentional) bad spelling and historical errors, Inglourious Basterds will be the bane of English teachers and World War II buffs everywhere. Unfortunately, the bigger problem is how Inglourious Basterds is like two movies. One movie features Brad Pitt, fantastic dialogue, shocking action and everything you hoped Inglourious Basterds would be. The other movie stinks.

Set during World War II, Pitt stars as Lt. Aldo Raine - a no nonsense soldier with a special assignment. He has recruited 8 soldiers to go undercover to Nazi-occupied France, dress like locals, kill 100 Nazis each and scalp them. Also, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) is a young Jewish woman who escaped the Nazis several years before, but she's about to come face to face with some of the most powerful German officials around, and it is time for revenge.

Will Raine and his Basterds put enough terror into the Nazis to end the war?

Will Shosanna get the revenge she so desperately wants?

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino is about to drive you crazy. Everything with Pitt and The Basterds is awesome. Inglourious Basterds is a vibrant, memorable, and entertaining film when we get to watch Pitt chew the scenery with a perfect exaggerated performance that could be one of my favorite characters of all time. However, Tarantino will not stick to the good stuff.

Inglourious Basterds needs to be more focused on telling the audience about The Basterds. Tarantino hints that each one will have his own story told when he launches into a funny and revealing look at Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), but only gives us info about Stiglitz, when a similar story for each one is needed and would have been 100 times better than the Shosanna story. Instead, Tarantino delivers long scenes with tons of meaningless dialogue, which slows down the pace of Inglourious Basterds as these scenes shed light on nothing, don't advance the story, and make a vibrant movie boring.

Worst of all, Tarantino has a strong desire to focus on the storyline that isn't as interesting, and feels forced to fit in with the other half of the movie. Shosanna's story could have been interesting, but it pales in comparison to The Basterds. It's like putting an apple and an ice cream sundae in front of a kid and asking him which one he wants. The apple might have its merits, but the kid is going ice cream 10 times out of 10. Laurent is OK, but she is not an actress who is as interesting as Pitt and others surrounding him, and Tarantino doesn't give her story anything beyond cliché. The audience would rather be watching Pitt and Christoph Waltz (while enjoying an ice cream sundae).

Waltz as Nazi Lt. Landa is the perfect opposite of Lt. Aldo Raine. Where Pitt is brash and outlandish, Waltz is calculating, quietly intimidating, aloof, jerky and cerebral. He makes for a fantastic adversary and villain. Meanwhile, Pitt brings the campy aspect of Inglourious Basterds to life in a way that is comical and exciting.

The scenes with Pitt are the scenes we expect from Inglourious Basterds, if you can put up with the unnecessary moments.

Inglourious Basterds is rated R for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality.