Price: $13.49
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Kill Bill Volume 1
Starring: Uma Thurman , David Carradine , et al.
Director: Quentin Tarantino Editorial Reviews Amazon.com
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is trash for connoisseurs. From his opening gambit (including a "Shaw-Scope" logo and gaudy '70s-vintage "Our Feature Presentation" title card) to his cliffhanger finale (a teasing lead-in to 2004's Vol. 2 ), Tarantino pays loving tribute to grindhouse cinema, specifically the Hong Kong action flicks and spaghetti Westerns that fill his fervent brain--and this frequently breathtaking movie--with enough cinematic references and cleverly pilfered soundtrack cues to send cinephiles running for their reference books. Everything old is new again in Tarantino's humor-laced vision: he steals from the best while injecting his own oft-copied, never-duplicated style into what is, quite simply, a revenge flick, beginning with the near-murder of the Bride (Uma Thurman), pregnant on her wedding day and left for dead by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DiVAS)--including Lucy Liu and the unseen David Carradine (as Bill)--who become targets for the Bride's lethal vengeance. Culminating in an ultraviolent, ultra-stylized tour-de-force showdown, Tarantino's fourth film is either brilliantly (and brutally) innovative or one of the most blatant acts of plagiarism ever conceived. Either way, it's hyperkinetic eye-candy from a passionate film-lover who clearly knows what he's doing. --Jeff Shannon
Big, pulpy fun. , September 26, 2003
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Reviewer: soanim8ed from Denver, CO United States |
It's quite apparent from Kill Bill Volume One that Quentin Tarantino has not lost any of his love for pulp fiction. From the opening black and white sequence of Uma Thurman to the final almost touching final fight scene with Lucy Liu, Kill Bill has the makings of an epic cult film. I say cult film because I'm sure the movie will polarize audiences. Tarantino takes some big risks with his film genre bending and mixing. Most of them pay off.
The action sequences that were talked about are actually not as sustained as rumoured. In fact, it really shows a sign of maturity in Tarantino that the action takes breaks so the audience can take a breath before the characters start in on each other again. It makes the characters more human, too, since even those in the best shape could not withstand these constant pounding without taking a short breather.
The story? It's a revenge plot, plain and simple, and as pulpy as those get. Plus the actors are all quite up to that task. They all go about chewing up the scenery, which fits quite nicely into the film as it's set up. It's good to see Thurman again. Here she takes the lead as The Bride with much vigor and attitude because The Bride is pissed. Her old assassin team has killed her entire wedding party and even tried to kill her, but didn't quite finish the job. Now she wants to get even.
And it's great fun. With over the top fight scenes with heads and limbs flying to bodies squirting blood like hoses, Tarantino is wearing his cheesy gore film influences on his sleeve. There are several film genres here and the best is the back story on Lucy Liu's character when the film switches to Japanese anime to set up the audience for the second half of the film which takes place in Japan. The dialogue is more classy in this half of the film only between Thurman and Liu. Instead of using the F-word (as Tarantino is want to do in his films), they shoot more witty barbs at each other as if there was once great respect between them. This sets up a scene at the end of their fight that is actually touching and makes The Bride human instead of just a killing machine.
Of course, the film ends with a cliff hanger because Miramax didn't want to release a 3 hour plus film; however, with some creative editing it ends nicely and sets up for Kill Bill Volume Two. It gives hints about The Bride's husband, the baby she was carrying, how she was found after going into hiding and her relationship with Bill to name a few things. All of which are very soap opera, but a soap that is very stylized and willing to take chances. None of this would have worked had it not been for Tarantino being self-aware he was just making a big piece of entertaining fluff. In other hands, it would have just been another over-wrought pile of junk. And even if Miramax cut it in two, it's nice to know that they have allowed out a film that tries to push the envelope.
Customer Reviews:
Hardcore, excellent, HARDCORE! , October 22, 2003
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Reviewer: Sergio F. Morales from Levittown, NY United States |
This is easily one of the best action movies I've ever seen. As simple as that. The plot involves Uma Thurman's character seeking revenge on the gang that massacred her wedding day and "killed" her unborn child. This gang is led by a mastermind we only know as "Bill." We don't even get to see his face. Anyway, the movie gets its pace going quick with a fight between her and one of these gang members 4 years later. Afterwards we're treated to a little background on how Thurman suvived the attack on her wedding and some background on Lucy Lu's character (which is all BRILLIANTLY done in about a 15 minute anime sequence). The only person she kills (w/in the gang whom she seeks revenge) in this 2 hour epic is Lucy Lu's character, but not before one of the most phenomenal action packed pulsepounding samari bloodbaths of all time (not to mention an amazing battle scene bet Uma and sword vs. a 17 yr old Japenese girl w/ a mace). I don't want to ruin too much but let's just say if you're into gory movies and are sick of how wimpy hollywood has gotten in the past few years when it comes to violence, Kill Bill is a huge gulp of fresh air. The film never lets up its relentless violence. Characterization is also very well done, you actually CARE about them. The whole film is also done with a very old school feel, you'd almost think it was 1975 or something. A lot of the dialogue is in Japenese so have to read the subtitles. All of these traits have CULT written all over them.
It's not perfect though. For example, about half of that final bloody samari fight between Uma and about a hundred of minions is done in black and white. Sure it gives it a very pulpy feel and look but you know it was just done to avoid and X rating. Another thing that was kind of silly was that the whole movie was basically like a long anime. I mean, when someone gets their head chopped off with some Japanese steel blood doesn't gush out violently like some amusement park waterworks. It was mostly used for effect and it worked, but some people might see it as a flaw, I for one didn't, I just thought it looked a tad silly.
One top of all of this, there is a surprise ending that'll definitely get you to go see Kill Bill vol 2. This is a MUST SEE.
Bring It On , October 22, 2003
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Reviewer: Dave Ricks from Braintree, Essex United Kingdom |
Few directors show such an obvious love of the cinema than Tarantino, and his fondness for revenge and kung-fu flicks is now up on the big screen for all to see. Plain and simply, it's a revenge story concerning Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) who's wedding day is ruined when Bill and her former assasin friends gatecrash the party and massacre everyone when she tries to start a new life. Leaving her for dead, she wakes up from a coma four years later and seeks revenge. Simple. What we then get is a perfect anime, Bruce Lee and Gary Cooper pastiche dripping from the screen in a torrent of cartoon Itchy and Scratchy type blood as each former friend is sought out and eliminated.
In no other movie and with no other director would you laugh with anticipation at the sight of a hospital orderly running a bizzarre brothel using the coma patients as hookers! The pay off is typical and brilliant Tarantino.
See this movie at all costs!!
Bang Bang... , October 22, 2003
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Reviewer: deckard-croix from columbus, oh United States |
It's really amazing how easy Tarantino makes film-making seem. He has such a mastery over his craft that the film moves with such smoothness and grace almost unseen since...well since Jackie Brown actually.
But contrary to what most reviewers have said on here, Kill Bill is very very different from Pulp Fiction. The atmosphere is the same, but the dialogue isn't as quick-witted and the action is, for the most part, all shown - as opposed to Tarantino's previous three films where the violence was mostly implied.
But that is the whole point of the movie, it follows the great tradition of kung fu, anime, and blaxploitation films, and that is exaggerated violence. It's also a kind of 'inside pop lesson' with references from Michael Jackson to Bruce Lee. The anime sequence in the movie is truely a beauty to behold, expertly done in all aspects. And a brilliant idea to have an anime sport a scene that otherwise would've very likely given the film an NC-17 rating (given the pedophile subject, etc.).
Now to the great soundtrack, which Tarantino has always delivered in every one of his films. The opening credit sequence has probably one of the best opening songs ever played on a soundtrack, Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra. The tremolo guitar and Sinatra's curious 'almost out-of-tempo' singing summarizes the entire movie, not only in story but in expert execution. Tarantino wisely opens his movie with such a simple arrangement played over credits for over two minutes - a good example of Tarantino loving art more than action.
Though of course the film has more action than any of Tarantino's previous films, but it's almost artsy in the way he goes about the action. Every shot has some kind of quirky setup that is purely his. He references countless '70s movies to great effect.
Is so many references to other movies plagurism? When it's done as good and professionally done as this, plagurism ceases to be plagurism and more like a really good cover song.
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