Kill Bill: Volume Two
Cast
Uma Thurman .... The Bride/Black Mamba
David Carradine .... Bill (Snake Charmer)
Michael Madsen .... Budd (Sidewinder)
Daryl Hannah .... Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake)
Chia Hui Liu .... Johnny Mo/Pai Mei (as Gordon Liu)
Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
6/10. Most people waited six years from Jackie Brown to see Kill Bill:
Volume One, the next eagerly awaited movie by Quentin Tarantino. I
did not have to, since I had seen none of his previous works. I did,
however, see Volume One, and loved it, making this six month wait for
Volume Two almost unbearable. The two films, originally to be fused
together as an epic, could not be any more different. While Volume
One was relentlessly and gleefully violent, without much in the way
of plot or characters, a truly entertaining movie. Volume Two,
however, was a complete 180: it's mainly a talking heads movie, with
a few (generally) non-violent fights, an over development of
characters and plot, and a style that Tarantino seems to be stealing
from his own classic movie.
The Bride (Uma Thurman), a deadly assassin, after having been put
into a coma in a wedding chapel by her employer Bill (David
Carradine), awakens four years later and swears to kill all involved
in that massacre. By the opening of Volume Two, she had already
gotten two of them. Next on her list is Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah),
Budd (Michael Madsen), and, of course, Bill.
I would have loved to see one four-hour long version of Kill Bill.
The series just doesn't work as two parts. They're completely
different; if they were one, then, being fused together, it would
work perfectly. The first half wouldn't be this extremely
entertaining part and then suddenly switching over to drama.
Basically, though, that's what the movies are if placed side-by-side.
There's not even much material to link the two. Events mentioned in
Volume One are shown, but the only repeated scene was the opening
scene in the first one, one that wasn't needed to be repeated. Why
not show some of the fight between The Bride and O-Ren Iishi (Lucy
Liu), or, when The Bride's daughter comes into play, a flashback for
when she killed Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) in front of the
latter's daughter? They seem like two completely different movies
(when they're supposed to be one complete movie separated into two
parts).
But enough comparisons between the two. Let me go into the specifics
of Volume Two. Almost everybody, if not everybody, loves Pulp
Fiction, understandably. It's Tarantino's masterpiece. The trouble
is, we've come to expect Pulp Fiction from everything he does. Now,
Volume One was no Pulp Fiction, but it was just as entertaining, if
not more so. I was at least hoping as much for Volume Two. Tarantino
has become so cocky in his directing that he believes that any well-
written dialogue is entertaining dialogue. This movie's dialogue is
well-written, but has nothing to do with the plot and isn't
entertaining. It's not funny, nor amusing. In Tarantino's script, we
get backstory on people who don't need backstory, which always annoys
me. I must admit, however, that the eyeball thing is one of the
funniest things I have ever seen.
The fight scenes (though few and far between) were amazing. The
obvious training that everyone went through must have been quite
rigorous. That was always fun to watch and always entertaining. I
must also comment on the cinematography. Oftentimes I found myself
wondering how they managed to do that. It amazed me in Volume One,
also. Its sweeping views, long shots, close-ups, etc. were simply
spectacular. Something not so spectacular, however, was
Tarantino's "stylish" choices. A few scenes were shot in black-and-
white for no reason, others in partial color for no reason, and
others in 1.33:1 aspect ration (the size of your TV screen) for no
reason. Why? Because he can, I suppose. The black-and-white sequences
meant something in Volume One-the difference between an R and an NC-
17. But they were completely worthless here.
Volume Two is an entertaining movie for the most part. Some of the
dialogue became repetitive and was unnecessary, but for the most part
it was a fun watch. Thurman is great, as usual, and was even better
here than in the first. Carradine had more to do, but I found him
rather flat. Hannah, as Driver, was very good, because her character
was more interesting than Madsen's Budd. Madsen, to me, will always
be Mr. Blonde, the best part of Reservoir Dogs, to me. I must say, I
am disappointed by how this chapter of the killing of Bill is as a
whole, but in fifteen years or so, we can look forward to a Volume
Three. I'll be first in line there.
Rated R for violence, language and brief drug use.
Running time: 136 minutes
Back Home