Kill Bill Vol 2

Plot Summary

The Bride, Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman), who was almost killed by her boss, Bill (David Carradine) is still on her "roaring rampage of revenge".  At her wedding rehearsal her future husband and friends were gunned down by Bill and members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.  Kiddo was shot and left for dead but after coming out of a coma she swore vengeance.  She has already killed some of the gang, of which she herself was once a member, but there are others on her hit list, including Bill.

Review

Volume Two starts off with Beatrix Kiddo talking directly to the audience as she drives her car.  She starts to tell the story of her wedding rehearsal and the movie jumps to the day that she was shot.  This helps to link the two movies or parts together so that even if you haven't seen the first movie you will be brought up to speed on what's going on.  In any event the two movie are very different.  The first one concentrated on violence and long bloody fight scenes while Volume Two spends more time developing characters and there is more of Tarantino's characteristic dialogue.  However the story is told in a similar way; chapter headings come up on screen for each new part of the story and the parts are not told in chronological order.  Interestingly there's an element of spaghetti western meets low budget kung fu movie but do we really want to pay homage to low budget kung fu movies?

After my disappointment with Kill Bill Vol.1 I really wanted this movie to be good.  I wanted Volume Two to make sense of what went before and turn things around.  After all this is Tarantino!  Maybe my expectations were too high for Volume 1?  Maybe I missed the point?  Maybe it was just a bad dream! Unfortunately, against the odds, Volume Two is just as bad, although for different reasons.  The action sequences aren't really that exciting.  The roaring rampage of revenge seemed to have burnt itself out.  The final scene was a real anti-climax.  There is a lot less action scenes in the movie and more time for characters and dialogue but the balance isn't great and subsequently the pacing of the movie is uneven resulting in slow uninteresting parts.

Uma Thurman is the star of the movie and her cool, tough, deadly killer image is great.  She also gets to act out more emotions in this movie as her character is further developed.  She has long conversations with Bill (David Carradine) who is great at delivering the casual conversational dialogue that appears to be out of context with what is happening.  These dialogues are a real characteristic of Tarantino's movies.

The Bottom Line:  It wasn't originally intended to make two movies and perhaps this is an indication that the movies somehow lost their way and rambled on for far too long.

Reviewed by Niall Quinn, Premier Movie Reviews 2004.

RELATED REVIEWS:  SAMUEL L. JACKSON:  Changing Lanes,  Star Wars Episode II - Attack Of The Clones,  S.W.A.T.,  Unbreakable,  Twisted,  xxx.  UMA THURMAN:  Pay Check,  Kill Bill Vol. 1

Genre: Martial Arts Action

Certificate: 18's

Director: Quentin Tarantino

~ Main Cast ~

Uma Thurman

David Carradine

Michael Madsen

Daryl Hannah

Gordon Liu

Samuel L. Jackson

RATING

NOT WORTH THE TIME