Although I must say, it didn't blow me away. I wouldn't go so far as saying it was the 'best of the year' but I was entertained throughout. The shock impact of OT films has lessened over the years for me. Perhaps I'm just too jaded from seeing a lot of the original cinema (Asian film and in this case, vintage WWII flicks and westerns) that QT poaches for his ideas. Also QT can be so self absorbed in his long-winded edits - that's part of his style, I know, but it did tend to slow things down a bit.
I love QT's ear for sound. The Sergio Leone/Lalo Schiffrin nods were really amusing. Honestly, his homage work is what gets me the most. However, the pilfering of another film's signature theme song (no spoiler - I won't say which but you'll know it the instant it starts) did not work for me at all. Sure, there a hot actress putting on makeup and loading a pistol, but it didn't hold a candle to the original. Remember the original? Not even in the ballpark with that scene. It should have been totally cut.
Doug is spot on - it's all about Christoph Waltz and Brad Pitt. They just chewed up every scene they were in and spat it back with such defiant delight. With their scene, the long-winded edits worked well. I chuckled at almost every line of Pitts. And Waltz was a spectacular villain, which was key in this flick. I would have like to have seen the Basterds developed more. We got a brief intro to the gang, extended on a few, and that didn't go anywhere. Unlike those wonderful old 'band of soldiers' flicks (I'm thinking like Guns of Navarone or Dirty Dozen), the gang wasn't as fleshed out as I would have liked. The story arcs of the minor Basterds was lost. I would have rather seen that then the makeup theme song lift scene. I totally missed Bo Svenson's scene - IMDB says he was cast as the "American Colonel" but that just didn't pop out at me. Oh well. At least we got something up on the ezine on it that was marginally relevant. That article just fell in our lap in a timely manner.
I was processing QT's commentary on exploitative violence in film after the movie. There was almost one of those artsy ****sy comments on propaganda and the spectacle of violence, but in the end, it didn't flesh out for me. Perhaps that was lost in the edit... or maybe I was projecting (as writers tend to do). Anyone else ponder this?
P.S. Ponyo (and just how OT is that on this thread?) was disappointing. The animation and story wasn't as developed. There were some fine Miyazaki moments, but it paled by comparison to his earlier work. Even my kid and my mom (who both enjoyed it) were like 'what was up with that? after given on the loose ends in the story.