Anderson Observer

     Nobody expects a Quinten Tarantino movie to be subtle, and his World War II epic, "Inglourious Basterds," delivers.Brad Pitt is Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine

      Tarantino is the Will Ferrell of violence, unapologetically over-the-top, and "Basterds" is no different. This twisted tribute to films like "The Dirty Dozen," the picture he said inspired "Basterds," however, misses the recklessness of his earlier pictures.

      That lack of wildness, especially when stretched out over more than two and a half hours creates numbingly long scenes. The trademark quirky plot, funny accents, snarky dialog, blood, sharp knives and loud guns are all present. But in the end, they don't add up to very much.

      Seems impossible to have a film with so many action sequences without hitting one emotional, or at least adrenaline-popping moment. Such a complete lack any compelling sense of story, is most frustrating because the opening chapter of the movie, the best 20 minutes of the film, get things off to a wonderful start.Mélanie Laurent watched the Nazis murder her Jewish family

      Brad Pitt, with his snuff dipping and ridiculous (but often hilarious) Tennessee accent, is Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine, the commander of bloodthirsty American Jewish soldiers. He tells his men he has "Indian blood" and, as they are chosen, he requires a bounty of 100 Nazi scalps from each of them. Over the course of the film, we get to watch more than a few of these prizes been sliced off in battle. But the scalpings and brutal murderous beatings of the Nazis by baseball bats fail to evoke much emotion.

      Shoshona/Emmanuelle (Mélanie Laurent) does her best and almost breathes genuine life into her role as the Jewish anti-Nazi French theater owner who family was slaughtered by the Germans. She narrowly escapes death as a teen and plans her own revenge on the Nazis. Laurent's haunted performance makes her the most complete character in the film. In one of the movie's best moments, a tense public meeting with the man who killed her family years earlier, offers a taste of the movie that "Basterds" could have been. But Tarantino cannot allow her spot on emotional break as the scene ends the screen time it deserves.

      Most of the Germans in this film are more "Hogan's Heroes" than "Schindler's List." Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and the rest of the Nazi elite are silly, cartoon-like buffoons.

      Only Christoph Waltz (Col. Hans Landa), who took the Cannes Best Actor Award for this performance, Christoph Waltz, who won Cannes best actor award for this role, is the Nazi "Jew Hunter" with his own agendacreeps around the edges of cold believability as he cheerfully embraces his orders to hunt down Jews. But Landa despises the "Jew Hunter" label and sees himself as a detective. Landa speaks four languages and enjoys playing cat and mouse with nearly everyone in virtually every scene. His total enjoyment as a man who is unapologetically morally bankrupt, is the heart of the film, according to Tarantino.

      When Waltz, Pitt or Laurent are off screen, however, things bog down. Divided into chapters, the once which do not feature any of these three can be numbingly long. By the time Tarantino gets around to bringing them all together, few will really care what happens in the story or the people in it.

      Those who love Tarantino will likely not be disappointed by the excesses of "Inglorious Basterds." Most everyone else will find his long Nazi fantasy trip a bit exhausting.