I wish I liked Inglourious Basterds more, or maybe if it were a better a movie, I would have. The premise is great-Jewish American soldiers and once Nazi defector, led by Brad Pitt–reveling in his goofy role–go behind the lines in occupied France, brutally killing Nazis to terrorize the the behilter out of the rank and file soldiers. Meanwhile, Shoshanna Dreyfus who escaped the murder of her family by SS Colonel Hans Landa, has emerged in Paris as the owner of a cinema under the alias Emmanuelle Mimieux whose charms seduce Nazi war hero/rising movie star Fredrick Zoller. Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbles to hold the premier of Zoller’s first film Hero of the Nation at Mimieux’s theater, and thus she reencounters Col Landa and finds a way to wreak revenge on the entire Third Reich.

Meanwhile, the Basterds are involved in another plan to with the same goal-to blow up the theater during the premier, which is where the whole movie begins to sloooooooooow down and lose its pacing. Plus Tarantino once again resorts to his tired devices-well now they are gimmicks- of screen cards and superimposed titles to make a point. Like, maybe he need sot grow up a little.

A seemingly interminable scene in a rathskeller drags its potential tension into tedium as does the build-up at premier-until Col Landa reappears onscreen. Christopher Waltz, who plays Landa, won Best Actor at Cannes for his portrayal and steals every scene he is in.

Inglourious Basterds really is really a movie about movies. The title is from an Italian film. "Emmanuelle Mimieux" is a tribute to Yvette Mimieux and the 1970s porn flick Emmanuelle. There are discussion about classic films and directors, a visual reference to the classic scene of the arc opening in Raiders of the Lost Arc, and most importantly, a plot point about the flammability of silver nitrate film stock. What lost treasures of the cinema are contained on those 350 reels of silver nitrate film that explode in film’s grand revisionist fantasy finale?

And what concessions to Landa will the US government give to end the war and save our heroes? Did we do that for others? And why are guerilla terrorism and suicide missions okay when the US does them, but not when anyone else does? These were questions I was left with, along with, "Why wasn’t this a better movie?"