Does Quentin Tarantino actually serve any kind of purpose? This question has been bothering me for a while, largely after the first Kill Bill, a film that annoyed me in a big way. I went into it expecting to enjoy it, and came out bored stupid after seeing two hours and what felt like badly assembled clips from other films. Looking back on his career, his trend is hardly a new one for him. Jackie Brown resembles a ton of 70s crime films. Reservoir Dogs is just a remake of Long hu feng yun, a 1987 Hong Kong film. Pulp Fiction appears to be his only original works, and deserves all of the praise that it gets. It's a stunning film. This aside though, there seems to be little point in what he does. Kill Bill Vol 2 is no exception to this rule.
This is the point where I'd usually write a paragraph detailing the plot. Unfortunately, much like the first, the second Kill Bill decides to pass over such minor annoyances as any kind of story, and thus I have little to write. The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her quest to kill Bill (David Carradine), who tried to kill her at her wedding several years earlier. Along the way she kills several other people that are connected with
Bill. Depressingly, that's about it. Quite how a concept so simple was spun out across a film is beyond me, and the fact it lasts for two is entirely baffling. There is nothing in either film aside from The Bride slowly moving from person to person, killing them one by one, with the eventual aim of getting to Bill.
To simplify it to this level is a little unfair though, as there are other elements taken from other films to fill in some of the gaps. Take the section of training with Pai Mei, which consists of a batch of strained dialog and a ridiculous fight scene. It doesn't help either that Pai Mei is a character from a number of Chinese films, thus leaving one wondering exactly what Tarantino contributed to the creation of this film aside from a name on which it could be sold on. People wouldn't go out and watch tacky Chinese martial arts by themselves, but throw Tarantino's name on one and they will fall over themselves to see it. On a similarily depressing note to this, Jet Li's Hero will only get a release later this year now it's tagged with a "presented by Quentin Tarantino" label. The fact Tarantino had nothing to do with that film seems to be completely ignored.
When watching Kill Bill Vol 2 I just found myself overwhealmed by an amazing sense of boredom on the most part. The dialog is labored to the point one expects the characters to realise at any minute that they are talking utter rubbish. This is taken a step further by the fight scenes, that accurately define the term pointless in themselves. While I'll accept that the overblown style of them is part of the overall style of the film, it does seem a complete waste of time spending ten minutes on The Bride fighting with some enemy when we know damn well that she'll triumph and eventually get to Bill. Throughout each of these scenes I just wanted the fight to be over so we could get on with the slightly less boring dialog and head the film toward it's conclusion.
Now all of this is not to say that the film is a complete disaster. I'll happily admit that I really enjoyed the final chapter, if only because it completely fooled my conception of what it would be. I expected The Bride to burst in, kick the crap out of Bill and the film would be over. Instead we're treated to what border on tender moments involving The Bride and her daughter, BB. The only thing that irritated me about this was informing the audience in the first one that her daughter had survived. If we had been left in the dark, we would have felt as much surprise as she did when the reveal came in the final chapter, thus making a stronger film. This aside though, the final chapter also blurred the lines between good and evil, making Bill out to not be the entirely evil heartless killer we had expected. Of course he is still a horrible man with little to redeeming him, but the whole issue is grayed slightly. The mutual respect in the conversation between The Bride and Bill before the final fight is impressive, and when that final fight comes, it's nothing like what one would expect. The end of it actually begins to border on the beautiful in it's construction.
Acting wise it is difficult to judge a film like this, as there is still not all that much dialog (although a lot more than Vol 1), and a lot of the film is based around the fight scenes. Thurman does her job well as The Bride though, although she is far better as a dramatic actress. Carradine as Bill is the standout of the film, giving his character an extra depth that didn't seem possible from the first film. Everyone else is solid, but no one is outstanding. They all know what to do and how to do it, but that's about it. On top of this, Tarantino's directing is difficult to judge as the film is full of continuity flaws, poor framing and odd techniques, but I'm tempted to just let these slide as being part of the style that he is trying to mimic. He does let the pacing of the film become an issue though, and despite the running time of over two hours, very little does actually happen.
It is the final chapter (that makes up around a quarter of the film) that I am awarding the film the two stars on. This segment in itself is worth a lot more, but in the context of the entire film, one part cannot save it. While the ending is unique and a pleasant surprise, the rest of the film unfortunately remains derivative, self indulgent drivel.
Production Year: 2001 - Action/Adventure - Director: Dominic Sena - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Sam Shepard, Vinnie Jones, Camryn Grimes, Zach Grenier
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2003 - Action/Adventure - Director: Jan De Bont - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Angelina Jolie, Ciaran Hinds, Chris Barrie, Gerard Butler, Noah Taylor, Djimon Hounsou, Til Schweiger
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Great review, but I would have to disagree with your opinion of the movie... but that is what reviews are for!!!! I did enjoy watching it but I will say that it was not as good as the hype had made it out to be.... Cheers Dave
FC_Goat 11.09.2004 18:45
Great review but I actually really liked this...especially Elle Driver. xxx
vinni 03.09.2004 05:06
Saturday night's booked to sit and watch both.
Thanks for the warning though.
Nice review
"The Bride" (Uma Thurman) gets her satisfaction--and so do we--in Quentin Tarantino's ... more
"roaring rampage of revenge",Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Where Vol. 1 was a hyper-kinetic tribute to the Asian chop-socky grindhouse flicks that have been thoroughly cross-ref...
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"The Bride" (Uma Thurman) gets her satisfaction--and so do we--in Quentin Tarantino's ... more
"roaring rampage of revenge",Kill Bill, Vol. 2. Where Vol. 1 was a hyper-kinetic tribute to the Asian chop-socky grindhouse flicks that have been thoroughly cross-ref...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: If you like glib humor and dialogue, its for you Disadvantages: If you like glib humor and dialogue, its for you. Takes suspension of belief a bit too far...
DonMackaroni 29.09.2004 (29.09.2004)
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Review of Kill Bill Vol.2 (DVD)
Advantages: A Quentin Tarantino film with a great plot, and amusing blood Disadvantages: Some people find it boring, but I don't understand it myself...
![Kill Bill, Volume 2 [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78508584.jpg "Kill Bill, Volume 2 [DVD] [2004]")
Aug 11th, 2004
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