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Saturday January 15, 2005

Kill Bill: Vols. 1 and 2

2 stars (out of 5). (VOL. 1)
3 stars (out of 5). (VOL. 2)

I dunno, I was really underwhelmed by this pair. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is pretty much archival footage from a shoot-'em-up (or rather, slice-'em-up) video game, where you kill a level 1 baddie and then comes level 2 with a worse baddie to deal with, and so on, and so on, and on and on and... Yawn.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 picks up where Vol. 1 leaves off, though as it moves toward the inevitable and predictable confrontation with Bill himself, there is at least some attempt to flesh out the characters. Before they are unfleshed by some blade or another, a shotgun, or perhaps a well-placed, well-manicured hand.

Throughout the pair, you can't help hearing Quentin Tarantino in the background going "Isn't this cool? This is so cool. Watch this, it's so cool!" He makes movies like William Shatner acts. (Which is better than how William Shatner sings, at least.) He's making a movie, and he wants you to know it's a movie, and he wants you to know it's a very cool movie, because he's such a cool guy.

Contrast this with the higher rated movies on this list: serious ones like House of Sand and Fog, silly ones like 50 First Dates: they create a world which, whether it makes you sad or happy, feels very real and very dear. Kill Bill creates a tacky shrine to other tacky movies.* If that's Tarantino's objective, he hits his mark. If it's not, I'll stick with Shatner -- he's much more fun to watch.

[GET IT (VOL. 1)]
[GET IT (VOL. 2)]

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*Hey, I've got nothing against tacky shrines: Galaxy Quest pays loving tribute to Star Trek. Tim Allen is brilliant as... Shatner. But even in its homage, it builds an endearing world of its own. Not just a snide caricature of one.

(2005-01-15 14:40:48.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Trackback URL: http://blogs.sun.com/jsolof/entry/kill_bill_vols_1_and

Comments:

Kill Bill used Lady Snowblood (look it up on imdb) as inspiration. Maybe you'd enjoy that 1973 kung-fu movie better. KBV1 was the first Tarantino flick I ever watched and I liked his style, esp. his excellent choice of music. I haven't yet seen KBV2.

Posted by luis fernandes on January 20, 2005 at 02:55 PM EST #

Thanks, I'll check it out! KBV2 is better than V1.

Posted by Jeff Solof on January 21, 2005 at 12:31 PM EST #