The not so glorious Bastards...

Quentin Tarantino hasn't released many great movies in recent years. So, when I heard he was making a World War II movie I was anxious to see it.  Surely, the man who created "From Dusk till Dawn", "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" would be able to make a class movie, combining the gory fight scenes, the humorous dialogue and story.

The cast, as usual, was a lot of less famous actors and then one of the greatest male actors in the last decade - Brad Pitt.  This was bound to be a great World War II movie, following a unique squad of US soldiers trying to kill as many Nazi soldiers as possible.

The trailers were great, portraying Pitt's character as a real mean bastard that was looking for his scalps.  These helped build up the excitement and the anticipation grew.

Finally it arrived on DVD.  We don't get to the cinema that often, so we normally wait for the titles to be released on DVD.  It's much easier too.  You can just pause the movie, get coffee and snacks.

Excited, hoping for a movie similar to "Where Eagles Dare" with a Tarantino twist, I quickly started the movie.  The first 10 minutes was a scene in the French country side, showing a farmer hiding Jews and how the Nazis tries to get him to reveal where they were hidden.  They succeed. They killed all the Jews and let one little girl escape.  So, the plot was already there.  The girl would obviously play an important role later in the movie.

Thereafter, the movie turns to shite.  It rarely shows the bastards or any of their dirty deeds. It  focuses mainly on other smaller groups of the resistance that are trying to kill Nazi leaders.  Most of the dialogue is either in French or German, which is no problem, but there were only few of Tarantino's classic bloody fight scenes - in fact, I only counted three.  Well below the Tarantino standard.

Poor screenplay and a lot less action than I expected.  So, you can imagine how surprised I was, when I saw the movie was nominated for an Oscar.  For what? The worst WWII movie in recent years? The crappiest foreign movie produced? Blimey, I'd rather watch "Legend" with Tom Cruise, than see the "Not-so glorious bastards" again.  I rarely turn off movies before the actually finish, but this one I did.

The trailers and movie poster, and the attention from the press, gave the movie a lot more credit than it was worth.  I wonder if Tarantino is getting old and soft.
- I have to admit, the bad guy in the movie (the Nazi officer) was well acted, a real bastard.  And, Pitt did a great job too - when he was on.