1st Kill Bill 'review'?

[lamas]

am I the only one who thinks the trailer makes this movie look bad?  when I read the rough draft of the screenplay I thought it was straddling the line between something cool like some of his previous work or just plain corny a la Charlie's Angels.  if the trailer is any indication, this movie falls on the corny side.  if it's true that vol. 2 slows things down and brings the Bill character to the forefront that sounds like it'll be the better movie.

[brockly]

"It's "Crouching Tiger" and "The Matrix," mixed together and served with hot sauce. What a meal these three films will make some day at a revival house!"

That was uncalled for!!!

[Cecil]

ive said it before: those who say that kill bill looks like a charlies angels rip off dont get asian cinema.

[Ghostboy]

I'd agree that the new trailer does sort of play up the goofy factor. But I was surprised at how serious the movie was.

[Alethia]

when are we gonna see your review, ghostboy?

[MacGuffin]

when are we gonna see your review, ghostboy?

It's on page 1.

[finlayr]

Ghostboy:  I'm just wondering how you go to see Volume 1?

And..eh...I'm jealous to say the least...

[lamas]

there you go Cecil, Ghostboy agreed that the trailer plays up the goofiness.  if the movie is more serious than the trailer lets on then it'll be a relief.  i'd like to think i "get" all kinds of asian cinema.  i'm a big fan of alot of the old shaw brothers flicks like master killer and 8 diagram pole fighter but if you think this trailer makes kill bill look anything like those classics then you're crazy.  it definitely makes the movie out to be a quick-cut MTV McG style cornball fest.  i really hope i'm wrong.  when i hear that the violence is just so brutal and could've earned an NC17 rating, that brings me hope.

[Cecil]

meh

[finlayr]

I heard Tarantino has a pet sheep that he keeps here in Ireland and when he's over here he walks it in a big field whilst stroking his genius chin.  Is this true, does anyone know?

[modage]

mixed review up at the hollywood reporter...

Kill Bill -- Vol. 1
By Kirk Honeycutt

Blood is the dominant leitmotif of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill -- Vol. 1." It oozes, drips, flows, gushes, splatters and geysers in lush crimson to oily black. Scalps, limbs and heads are freely removed from characters' bodies. Since the movie essentially takes place in an Asian action-movie world, we're not to take offense at this torrent of blood and dismembered bodies. In each "chapter," art design, costumes and music are lovingly crafted to pay to homage various "grindhouse" B-movie genres. There is an aesthetic -- a movie-geek obeisance, if you will -- behind every moment of violence. Nevertheless, "Kill Bill" may be a case of overkill.

So where does this leave admirers of Tarantino's previous takes on pulp cinema? Dare we say wait until February? "Kill Bill," of course, is a three-hour-plus movie, which the writer-director and Miramax decided to release in two parts (or "Volumes"). "Vol. 2" opens Feb. 20. This may represent clever marketing as "Vol. 1" is one of the year's most eagerly anticipated films, certain to enjoy major boxoffice response. But how does one review a film at Intermission?

The movie feels incomplete, even though Tarantino has crafted an OK three-act structure with a climatic 20-minute samurai sword battle that will have an audience pining not for more but actually welcoming a four-month break. (Is that good?) Yet, one suspects that halving a movie meant to be seen in a single sitting has upset its stylistic balance. When the two volumes get joined in a DVD version, we may detect a strategy not immediately apparent in "Vol. 1."

The Bride, aka Black Mamba (Uma Thurman), awakens from a four-year coma, following the massacre in a lonely Texas outpost, with a metal plate in her head and vengeance in her heart. Only part of her back story becomes clear in "Vol. 1." She formerly belonged to an elite squad of assassins, each one code-named for a deadly snake.

The team leader is Bill -- barely seen in "Vol. 1" and played by "Kung Fu's" David Carradine -- who is the father of her unborn child at the time he shoots her. The first movie details her lethal elimination of Vernita Green, aka Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), hiding from her past as a Pasadena housewife, and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), the Chinese-Japanese-American head of the Tokyo underworld. Ahead lies the (presumed) demise of Elle Driver/California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah), Budd/Sidewinder (Michael Madsen) and, of course, Bill.

Thurman is quite wonderful, if one wants a humorless, strong-willed gymnast for a heroine. For that matter, Tarantino insists that his actors strip all emotions from their playbooks. A child watches her mother die without a change in expression. A sheriff (Michael Parks) regards a pile of bodies with professional detachment. A gang leader watches her gang get wiped out with complete serenity.

Emotions aren't all that's missing in "Kill Bill," at least at Intermission. Unlike Tarantino's postmodern classic "Pulp Fiction," this movie lacks humor, subtext, unpredictability and the rich dialogue that made that film so memorable. Instead of rethinking genre movies, here he is a slave to them.

Make no mistake: The film is hugely watchable. Robert Richardson's cinematography, both in color and black and white, is fluid, brilliantly lit and dazzling to behold. Sally Menke's editing moves us swiftly through the chapters, while costumes and sets are eye-catching delights. A terrific anime sequence makes a striking and original way to give us O-Ren Ishii's back story. And the fight choreography is jaw-droppingly kinetic.

Is "Kill Bill" a homage to great Asian action movies? Yes. Is Tarantino trying to outdo his cherished masters (on a budget that dwarfs their films)? Of course. Is there any other point of any of this? Let's see "Vol. 2."