Review: Inglourious Basterds

Christoph Waltz is so great in his role as Hans Landa, the other parts of this multi-stranded re imagining of World War II can only pale in comparison to those featuring the Jew Hunting SS Colonel.

At over two and a half hours long, there are several scenes that are superfluous to the story and would've benefited from being left on the cutting room floor - Mike Myers character is completely unnecessary, but leaves a lasting impression as you mull over whether he was so bad he was good, or just plain bad.

The film's fantastic opening scene where Landa interrogates Perrier LaPadite, a French dairy farmer, over rumours that he had been hiding a Jewish family - suggests a return to the level of Tarantino's first 3 films. It relies on the quality of dialogue for thrills, instead of falling back on schlocky genre apeing gore and violence for excitement that the likes of Kill Bill and Death Proof were full of.

Sadly by the end Basterds reverts to type by the end with a silly shootout and reverse holocaust finale, meaning that despite having plenty of thrills, the mindless and short-lived nature of them doesn't give Inglourious Basterds the timeless quality of Tarantino's best work.