MovieChat Forums > Inglourious Basterds (2009) Discussion > Wished this was more of a Dirty Dozen ty...

Wished this was more of a Dirty Dozen type film


I mean just a group of guys on a mission film with a ton of famous faces, with Tarantino's dialogue with a great villain in Christoph Waltz out to stop them. I just was never gripped that much by Melanie Laurent's storyline, nothing agaisnt her performance but all the best stuff happens when she's not on screen. The ending is silly fun. But this film could have been so much for me, maybe it's my expectations weren't met.

But I loved the stuff with Michael Fassbender and Diane Kurger in the bar plus the opening are the standout scenes. I liked Daniel Bruhl performance, and felt somewhat bad for him. Waltz is fantastic, and is a slimy villain. Pitt is fine, he's done better. Overall it's a fine film but It's nowhere near Tarantino's best work. Surprised it's 8.3 on Imdb.

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It was certainly advertised that way, especially in light of its namesake, "The Inglorious Bastards."

But the opening scene made it clear to me that this was NOT going to be an "action flick."

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It was a real "bait and switch."

Also interesting: for the years in which QT said he was working on the script, he posited an all-star cast of tough guy actors to be in it together(Sly, Arnold, etc.) But what we got was one modern superstar (Brad Pitt) and a bunch of barely-known American and German actors (including Hostel director Eli Roth and -- one guy from The Office?)

And of course, the Basterds were off screen for at least half the movie, with the whole sub-titled French and German character storylines taking over.

I've learned to love "Inglorious Basterds" for what it really is(somewhat of a love letter from QT to "Eurofilm") but he sure misled us on the story. For years...

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I don't see how he misled the public. Everyone knows Tarantino wasn't going to put out a run-of-the-mill action flick, not to mention he's known for his long sequences with creative dialogues.

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It is what it is, it was what it was. I got a big kick out of Rod Taylor's Churchill, it was spot on.

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They spent WAY too much time on the shoshana storyline, if it was just about the basterds and was a lot more action oriented and faster paced (fight scenes, ambushes, bloody shootouts galore), it would’ve been so much better

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I disagree. It's a nice balance between the two. And Melanie Laurent is one of the film's highlights.

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