Kill Bill, Volume 2



The next great geek event after Hellboy has to be the second half of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, his wide ranging homage to the exploitation cinema of the 1970s. While I really enjoyed the Kill Bill, Volume 1, I didn't think that it was that much better than the films it was paying homage to. Having now seen the whole thing, I no longer have that problem. The last third of Kill Bill, Volume 2 contains an incredible emotional pay-off which, along with Tarantino's audacious style, raises the whole Kill Bill to another level.


"I do believe Marsellus Wallace, my husband, your boss, told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. I wanna fight, I wanna win."

With two of the five people she needs to kill out of the way, Kill Bill, Volume 2 picks up the Bride's quest with her going after Bud (Michael Madsen), Bill's brother and a bouncer at a particularly low class strip joint. Bud actually gets the drop on The Bride, resulting in a "Texas Funeral" with the Bride buried alive in a flimsy coffin. I've noticed that a lot of people got really creeped out by this, but I guess "buried alive" fears aren't something I can relate to. Now the bit a little later where she has to cut through a rope around her hands with a straight razor, that I didn't like very much.

The action highlight of Kill Bill, Volume 2 is a down and dirty brawl between The Bride and Elle in a single-wide trailer, but don't expect the second film to look much like the first. Where Volume 1 was based largely on Japanese and American exploitation films, Volume 2 takes its cues from Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks and Italian westerns. I don't want to talk to much more about the end of the film, but David Carradine essentially gets to do a 20 minute soliloquy, a series of scenes that will make you wonder why this guy has been stuck in direct-to-video hell for so long. (Watching one of his direct-to-video movies will probably remind you.) I was also amused by the prominent use of Shogun Assassin (1980), the compilation of first two Lone Wolf & Cub movies.

In the end I'm glad they broke the movie in two. I'm not sure what Tarantino was thinking when he shot all this material, but there was no way this could have been one movie, unless Tarantino could have thought he would have been allowed to release a gory four hour long action movie. I just don't see it. At the original announced length (2.5 to 3 hours) there is so much great material that would have almost certainly be cut, I hate to think about it. I would imagine the origin of O-Ren Ishii would be gone, and probably a lot of the fight in the House of Blue Leaves. Even with the movie being cut in two there were scenes that were filmed but didn't make the final edit, notably a scene with Michael Jai White that would have introduced Bill. That scene must have been a late cut, because it was still in the last trailer.


Bill, as not seen in Kill Bill, Volume 2.

Posted: Sun - April 18, 2004 at      

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