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Ncoherent [ 9.0 ]
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...i reviewed KILL BILL vol. 1 and gave it an 8.0...after watching the second half of Tarantino's fourth film,KILL BILL vol. 2, i have to say...QT has done it again!!!...
...i thought the first half lacked character development & QT's brilliant dialgue...however...Vol. 2 has more than made up for that...we finally get the full story on The Bride's character...& some great dialogue between Bill and his brother Budd....Budd's 'flashlight or mace' dialogue...but my favourite...Elle Driver's hilarious info on black mambas...
...where Vol.1 had heavy influences from eastern cinema...Vol.2 pays homage to the spaghetti westerns...
...together KILL BILL gets a 9.0...most will probably still put PULP FICTION as QT's best work...and i'll agree...but KILL BILL is more personal to me in that it reminded me of the cinema i grew up watching & loved...my new FAVOURITE QT flick....
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scottwblack [ 3.0 ]
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Talky homage to Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns that suffers from overlength and Tarantino's obsession with cinematic recreation (there is a difference between inspiration and imitation). The third act attempt at emotional pathos is laughable and completely out of place.
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jim [ 7.5 ]
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In which--no surprise--Bill is indeed killed. What is surprising, considering the non-stop action of Vol. 1, is the sequel's talkiness. The characters are intriguing but impenetrable; the overall entertainment value is roughly equal to that of the original.
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Corto [ 9.5 ]
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I, too, had to change my rating of vol.1 (from 9.0 to 9.5) after this one. Vol. 1 was a physical experience, vol.2 an emotional experience - together they are all around euphoria. If a film can offer such kicks as KB did, there is still a grain of hope left. The levels are deeper in vol. 2, themes of courage and motherhood are dealt with almost a serious grasp. The rhetorics and rhythm of both movies are simply perfect.
(Minor complaint: As a fan of the Shaw Brothers Shaolin movies I would have wished the Pai Mei chapter to be longer and more "profound". Gordon Liu [Liu Chia Hui] was my favourite actor of the golden age of kung fu films!)
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Dancing_P [ 9.0 ]
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In many ways, I think that this one is a lot more Tarantino-esque than the first one. It's a more atypical film but it's also a more rewarding film than the first volume (which, mind you, I loved). So, when we left off the Bride at the end of Volume 1, she had gone Krakatoa on both O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green; this leaves hillbilly strip-lcub bouncer Budd (Michael Madsen), one-eyed, cold-hearted bitch Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah) and of course, Bill (David Carradine). Predictably, The Bride doesn't get it too easy; she's buried alive, beaten repeatedly, shot in the chest with rock salt, cut, punched, kicked, slapped and maimed in pretty much any way you can imagine. There's a lot less action this time around, but we ARE treated to a great scene where The Bride is trained by martial-arts hardass Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). Tarantino's famous dialogue is a lot more present here, as well. The acting is exemplary all around, with Carradine superb as the titular Bill. I have trouble writing down my thoughts about Tarantino films, because... there truly is no writing that can do them justice. Tarantino makes such vivid, visceral films that they really do speak for themselves.
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chapter11 [ 8.5 ]
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Such a great, clever flipside to the first film: while the first delivers a big, visceral adrenaline wallop, oozing with big fake blood geysers and populated with flying severed limbs, "Kill Bill Vol. 2" brings the drama, the humanity, and totally the best dialogue. Bill's final confrontation with The Bride is nothing short of genius, immediately ranking up there with Tarantino's best; still, the whole movie is a treasure-trove of such things. It gets points for being a little _too_ long and dialogue-heavy, but this film best illustrates the whole purpose of splitting "Kill Bill": it's a revenge epic, Janus-ized to form two films with distinct identities that, somehow, fit together perfectly. If I had to pick one to watch over and over again, it would be the first, since it was the more immediately entertaining; but "Kill Bill Vol. 2" is clearly the better film.
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kcremer [ 10.0 ]
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Note: I have removed my original review and 7.5 rating I gave "Kill Bill Vol 1" and gave it a 10. This is not to say that "Vol 1" in itself deserves a 10, but now that I've seen "Vol 2", I am treating them as one movie.
In my original review of "Vol 1", I stated that I was not a fan of martial arts movies, and even though the fight scenes were very well done, the movie dragged a bit for me and was rather short on character development, making it difficult to care much about anyone. And I figured "Vol 2" would be more of the same thing.
Well, now that I've seen "Vol 2" I've realized that I have no idea what I'm talking about sometimes. This movie, as a whole, is Quentin Tarantino's second best behind "Pulp Fiction".
This second installment is quite different from the first. In fact, what was missing from the first one is essentially made up for in the second. There are a series of flashbacks, one giving a detailed explanation of the day "The Bride" (Uma Thurman) was left for dead in an El Paso church by Bill's team of assassins. We learn a lot about the bride's relationship with Bill (David Carradine), and even though the first part of the movie explained why the bride left and why Bill wanted her dead, these flashbacks provided answers to questions I didn't even know I had - if that makes any sense - and gave humanity and sympathy to Thurman's character.
Another flashback involves Thurman's training days with Pai Mei, the brilliant kung fu master who trained Bill. Pai Mei berates Thurman the day they meet, in a funny and fascinating scene in which Pai Mei vows to call Thurman his master if she can land a punch on him.
It's not just the flashbacks that make the movie so good. The scenes in the present time, in which Thurman encounters Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah) on her way to finding Bill, do not have the outcomes I imagined at all, and are a great counter to the well choreographed but long and predictable fight scenes with the first two assassins, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui).
The most unpredicatable and moving scene, however, was the ending showdown with Thurman and Carradine. If you're like me you expected maybe a long and bloody battle in some arena or other fighting ground. I won't spoil it, but I will say that it brings the movie to its' inevitable conclusion in a bittersweet and surprisingly tender way.
It goes without saying by now that Thurman is amazing in this. What is equally worth mentioning though is the performance of Carradine, who by the final scene has created a character that is nefarious and oddly tantalizing at the same time.
"Kill Bill Vol 1" is not as effective by itself, but its' bloody fun action scenes combined with the twists and character developments of "Vol 2" create one of the best films in years. I can't wait to get the DVD, which will no doubt paste the two movies together. I understand why it was cut in half, but I would have loved to see the entire movie together in the theater. But who knows - I can always hope for a re-release. If I would pay to see it again I'm sure many others would.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.4 |
| No. Ratings | : 21 | |
| No. Reviews | : 11 | |
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