Viewed in the theater. For me, this is a really good but not great movie. It could have been great if Tarantino could simply just exercise some restraint. One could argue that’s what you get from Tarantino: an unrestrained amalgamation of his favorite parts of pop culture, and that enjoying his movies is not trying to view them using any conventional template. My counterargument would be that he was able to accomplish his pop-culture-salad objectives without indulging himself too much when he made Reservior Dogs, Pulp Fiction, AND Jackie Brown, but the Kill Bill movies were over-homages to his martial arts favorites and he still hasn’t rediscovered his more disciplined film-making self since. I didn’t even see his part of the Grindhouse double-feature, due to the bad reviews it received (I did see the Rodriguez one, though). So, my conclusion is that Basterds could have been his 3rd best film, leapfrogging Jackie Brown, but he just indulged himself too much, which made the film longer and sloppier than it should have been. Don’t get me wrong, though - I really enjoyed it, as it was filled with cinematic fun along several dimensions. It is filled with great dialog, action, tension/suspense, and cool techniques. I just hope he doesn’t think it is his masterpiece (a phrase that Brad Pitt’s character uses in a way that suggests it may be Tarantino’s reference to the film itself). In order to top Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, he’s got to be willing to sacrifice some of the parts for the greater good of the whole. Metacritic gives it a 69.
