Rating: Summary: One word: WOW! Review: A bride and former assassin ( Uma Thurman) has been brutally attacked on her wedding day by a gang of assassins called " The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad" led by their leader named " Bill" ( played by John Carridine of Kung Fu Fame), she gets shot in the head and wakes up from a coma after 5 years. She seeks revenge on the members of the assassins one by one, in this first volume of an action epic.A spectacular, very entertaining, hilarious and unique anthology movie that blends action, comedy, graphic violence, gore, and adventure galore all thanks to the writing and directing of Quentin Tarantino. This is a spoof on Japanese anime, Comic Books, explotation movies, kung fu movies and grindhouse action flicks with references to them as well all wrapped in a 98 minute collection of comic-book style stories. There is even a cool 10 Japanese animated story done by Production I.G.( the company behind " Ghost in the Shell"), this movie has great action and amazing stunts. The supporting cast includes two lovely ladies, Vivica J. Fox and Lucy Liu. The gore is over the top yet funny too and this is one of the most original and best movies of the year. Also recommended: The Matrix, Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Scarface ( 1983 version), Pulp Fiction, Creepshow, Heavy Metal, Reservoir Dogs, Total Recall, The Toxic Avenger, Creepshow, Akira, Perfect Blue, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Dead or Alive, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Professional: Golgo 13, Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, From Dusk Till Dawn, Wrong Turn, House of 10000 Corpses, The Punisher ( Both Lundgen and new one coming soon), Final Destination 2, Charlies Angels, Ghost in the Shell, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend, Wicked City ( Animated), Bad Taste, Dead Alive, Freddy Vs. Jason, Payback, Fist of the North Star ( Animated), Shogun Assassin, Rabid Grannies, Starship Troopers, The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Ichi: The Killer, Battle Royale, Bio-Zombie, Versus, and Cabin Fever.
Rating: Summary: Beautiful Violence Review: Movies are supposed to take you away from your inner thought process. They are supposed to be so engrossing, so thought commanding, that you simply are unable to think of anything outside the confines of the theater. Usually, a movie that can do that has done its job. At some point, however, when watching Quentin Tarantino's latest violent masterpiece, the viewer with any remaining sanity has to just look up at the ceiling and laugh. It is a joke, that Tarantino can throw so many disparate features together, can throw in absurd amounts of violence and movie blood, but still produce a film like this. It is messy, it is definetly not for everyone, but if you have an open mind, if you want to shock your system and watch something beyond the conventional, Kill Bill Volume 1 is perfect. Straight away, as Uma Thurman lays on a hardwood blood spattered Texas floor, the viewer has to recognize what they have gotten themselves into. Intense, ultraviolent, macabre, slaughterhouse epic, they cannot even describe what this movie will become. Any doubts concerning Uma as an action heroine are quickly thrown out the window. She is a wounded force, betrayed by those closest to her. Of course, you live a tough life when those closest to you are dubbed the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad" (tacky but delicious names abound). Led by the mysterious katana stroking Bill, they have left her in a coma, dead to all that matter. The world changes however, when Uma wakes up. Oh, do things change. Just because Uma was in a coma does not mean she has forgotten. Uma makes a list, and begins to track down those who turned on her. The gang, made up by homemaker Vivica Fox, Japanese crime lord Lucy Liu, Mike Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and the shadowy David Carradine are scattered around the globe, but this is not going to stop Uma. Her blood soaked rampage of vengeance takes her from smarmy American suburbs to the techno bleached world of modern Tokyo. The cold voice of Bill follows her everywhere, and Uma is working through her list to get to him. This path of death takes her through, most memorably, the Crazy 88's, a Green Hornet fan club gone mad with a decidely deadly ninja bent. As a film, this thing is jam packed with quality viscera. The fight scenes are wildly intense and extremely graphic, as Tarantino, in his characteristic way, never lets people forget just how messed up his brain is. Even though the violence, especially the Japanese gang fight, can be insanely brutal, it is so over the top as to bely its almost humorous edge. The acting is top notch, especially the performance of Uma Thurmon, who really pulls off the tough as hell Bride character, someone so defined and consumed with vengeance that it took a special intensity to make it look convincing. The plot and the writing is just spectacular, and all the quirky trademarks of Tarantino movie writing are evident, from the wacky to the horribly dark humor. Torturing its fans to a supreme degree, Volume 1 ends with a vicious cliffhanger that just kicks the air out of the viewers lungs.
Rating: Summary: KILL BILL VOL. 1 Review: Here comes the bride. That is one of the greatest taglines for a movie with a plot like this. This was the first Tarantino film I had ever seen and I wasn't a fan of his til' now... I had viewed Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown after seeing this movie and all I have to say is wow. Quentin Tarantino is an incredible artist. An unbelievable artist. A grea...you know what, I don't know how to describe how great he is. He is an absolute genius.
Rating: Summary: The Best Quentin Tarantino Movie Since "Pulp Fiction" Review: "Kill Bill Vo.1" is one of the most brutal,yet insanely brilliant film ever made.I loved it from the opening sequence where a battered (but still beautiful) Uma Thurman is listening to the unseen Bill as he is cocking a gun.After he points the gun at her and she says "Bill,it's your ba..." she gets shot point blank in the head.The credits show and The Bride pulls up to a house with several kids toys in the yard and it says on the screen 4 years later.She gets out of a yellow truck and walks up to the door and knocks.Veronica Green (played by Vivica A.Fox) opens the door and looks awestruck at Uma Thurman.A knife fight between the two blows "The Matrix" films out of the water.After leaving the house and utttering very memorable words to Vernoica Greens daughter we are zapped 4 years before where The Bride lays in a coma,yet still alive miraculously.After being rudley awakened as you will find out she gets keys from a guy named Buck to his yellow truck.Hey that rhymes.She hops in the back and attempts to move her feet as she tells the story of one of assasins O-Ring Ititushi played by Lucy Liu.After finsihing this story she hops out of the truck and drives off eventually ending up in Tokyo.She goes to a restraunt where she meets a man in order to get a samurai sword to kill every member of The Deadly Viper Assasination Sqaud.She gets the sword and ends up at another restraunt/club where O-Ring Ititushi is.The next scenes which are filmed in black & white where she fights off about 100 men are one of the many highlights of the film.This film is a must see and is one of the greatest films ever made.
Rating: Summary: AGAINST THE WIND Review: Unlike everyone else, apparently, I didn't think much about this film. Uma Thurman is a retired assasin who comes out of retirement and a coma to take lethal revenge on her former team mates who tried to kill her and did suceed in killing the groom and attending guests at her wedding. In the final fight scene, Tarantino did a good job ressurecting the feel of those old samurai/yakuza films as well as a few other nice touches; the presence of Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu, Thurman decked out in the same style of jump suit that Bruce Lee wore in Game of Death, and the Shaw Brothers screen at the beginning of the movie. But that's approximately 25 minutes of about a two hour film that was, otherwise, little more than a vacum. Sure, if you like old trash movies, there's a lot you'll recognize, and maybe if you're part of the art-house crowd, it will make you feel smart being able recognize all the cinematic deja-vu that Tarantino conjures up. But for me, the final scene aside there's little to enjoy. The cartoon sequence was reminiscent of the dance/orgy cave scene in Matrix II; it seemed to go on forever and you (well, I, at least), just wished it would stop. Also, the dialog was lame and uninspired, and even though the final fight scene was pretty good, the six months of "training" Thurman spoke of getting to prepare for it must have been training in baseball, because when swinging a sword, she looked more like Babe Ruth than Miyomoto Musashi. Sonny Chiba showed more skill just sheathing a sword than Thurman did fighting with one. Obviously, I'm in the minority when dumping on this film, so you should judge for yourself, but for myself, the last fight scene aside, this movie was little more than tedious.
Rating: Summary: A teenager master in his forties Review: The fourth Tarantino's movie is a pleasure to watch and a banality to think; Tarantino as a filmmaker has become a kind of a little genius, but think twice before you claim that he is a master of the medium. It's true that the five chapter of this first volume is almost a masterpiece for its own right. But again, a formal brilliance without any direction, it does not make Kill Bill a consistent movie. Formally prodigious and intellectually immature as its best, Kill Bill is a hollow exposition of vengeance as an interesting feeling which is cool enough to follow and portray in order to practice filmmaking. A nonlinear narrative in which we get to know how Uma the bride Thurman got angry is so irrelevant that nothing can't be said about it. Yes, we know that Tarantino is the father of the intertextuality, but he fails as usual to point out that textualitiy towards any social or human subject. A master, perhaps, at least if cinema is just a formal medium; nevertheless, a master without any originality (though honest) because Kill Bill is a juxtaposition of films that Tarantino love. Five chapter pays the price of your ticket, but I think it is a better choice to look for the films Tarantino love. If you watch, for instance, Seijun Suzuki'Pistol Opera. Takeshi Kitano' Sonatine, Kinji Fukasaku'Battle Royale, and Kin Hu' Come drink with me, you will learn that they master their medium, but they also have something to say. Tarantino shows, he is a show; an artist whose main subject is himself doesn't have anything to say.
Rating: Summary: Baffled by the unstinting 5 star reviews Review: I have to confess to being a little dismayed by reading all the reviews here. No question, KILL BILL, VOLUME ONE is flashy as it can be, but it is an extraordinarily superficial film. One of the reviewers below indicated it was all style and no substance, and I think that is a dead-on assessment. The reason the reviews depress me is that it shows how easily people can be duped by presenting a brilliant surface despite nothing existing beneath it. Compare this with John Woo's Hong Kong films, in which there is also brilliant surface with significant content underneath. The truth is that this is a solid, fun to look at, gorgeous film, but it isn't anywhere near the level that PULP FICTION, RESERVOIR DOGS, or perhaps even TRUE ROMANCE (which was scripted by Tarantino). Look folks, if we keep accepting films like this as masterpieces, Hollywood will think we have no standards, and that they can fork anything over to us and we will accept it for what it isn't. Let's get pickier! If we don't, Hollywood isn't going to give us better films.
Rating: Summary: bloody incredible Review: This is definitely one of the bloodiest films I have ever seen - yet after the film ended, I was already anxiously awaiting Volume 2's debut in theaters. Like all things Tarantino, "Kill Bill, Volume 1," is unlike any movie you've ever seen - even though it borrows elements from every B movie ever made. Unlike the seat-squirming ear-removal scene in Tarantino's "Resevoir Dogs," the ultra blood-spattering violence in"Kill Bill" is less disturbing simply because it's more flashy and less intimate in nature... not to mention that everyone who ends up on the wrong side of a bullet, blunt instrument, knife or Samuri sword has it coming in a big way. The film opens with Uma Thurman's heavy breathing... she is about 8 and a half months pregnant, wearing a white wedding dress... and she is the only surviving member of a wedding party that has been mowed down by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (note the acronym would be "DiVAS"), including Lucy Liu, a Chinese American who is now a king-pin in the Japanese underworld. Thurman's character (whose name we don't know, because it's always bleeped out) is shot in the head by the unseen Bill (David Carradine) but miraculously survives, albeit in a coma, for four years. She bolts up 4 years later, realizes what has happened to her, and she goes on a globe-trotting rampage, exacting justice for the unborn baby she lost and the injustice of a wedding day gone bad. When I say this movie is bloody, I don't mean that you see a few people get shot... people are dismembered left and right to such a degree, you would need to pause the film and get a calculator to count the severed limbs. People get disfigured, decapitated and otherwise really eviscerated. Despite this unbelievable level of violence, the film has a grotesque kind of beauty... those who get dismembered or killed appear to have it coming (as awful as that is to even fathom), and the choreography, intelligence and humor are an incredible, palpable blend of yummy film. The film leaves many unanswered questions about what made Bill put the hit on Thurman's mysteriously yet-to-be-named character, what happened to her unborn child and how she got so skilled at butt-kicking and sword wielding... leaving the viewer pining for the conclusion in the next volume. Due to the mature themes, excrutiatingly horrific violence and language that can peel rust off old tools, this film isn't for children, victims of violent crime or those with weak constitutions.
Rating: Summary: Magnificent BloodFest Review: I truly enjoyed this film. Uma Thurman looks great,... and slices and dices with ferocity and style. The film is filled with humor, buckets of blood and uses every spaghetti western/ kung fu movie cliche known to man. It does it in a very entertaining way however and I highly recommend this film. It's got one hell of a good soundtrack as well. Can't wait for the sequel.
Rating: Summary: Tarantino's Fourth Movie!!! Review: Quentin Tarantino does not fail to amaze. How, oh how, does this film geek achieve such spectacular perfection on the silver screens? How can this blabbermouth, who can't stop showing off his extensive film knowledge, keep realizing his visions so beautifully on the screen? There have been quite a few influential auteurs/directors whose stylistic trends influenced generations of filmmaking; to my opinion, Tarantino "the high school drop-out/video store clerk" has already positioned himself amongst the classics. 'Reservoir Dogs', as a debut shot for less than $2 mil., are you kidding me? 'Pulp Fiction' has instantly achieved cult status, and I'm not going to delve into how nuanced and examplary this motion picture is...'Jackie Brown' remains the best Elmore Leonard adaptation, where Q.T. displayed his mature side, successfully keeping the audiences' attentions glued due to the intricacies of the plot. And now, after a mysterious 4-year disappearance which spawned off endless rumors as to Q.T.'s whereabouts (one of the rumors involved the director, depressed, smoking pot and watching B-movies this whole time), the man delivers again. "Kill Bill" ("Q.T.'s 4th movie", as it's advertised - once again proof of the director's amazing substantiation in the highest rank of auteurs) is a representation of Tarantino's love for filmmaking - this film is ALL about style, and nothing but, and it does not dissapoint. Uma Thurman had her successful roles before ("Pulp Fiction", "Gattaca", "Hysterical Blindness", "Tape"), but this is clearly her finest hour yet - the film belongs to her, for she blends in perfectly with its flabbergasting energy, style and wit. Just like the movie, her character never comes off as funny, but rather as an extremely determined individual, sometimes to extreme measures. Yet the film is all extreme measures. Uma Thurman's Bride's existence was viciously shattered at her wedding, when her organization turns against her. She is shot, but stays alive to find Bill, and kill off her enemies in the process. Without revealing too much, that was the plot. How else to make it work but to incorporate it into a surreal anime/B-movie/Japanese homage bloody mess of a film, where the protagonist, along with all of her opponents, except Bill and future rivals in Vol. 2, are sexy young women who love to fight? Qunetin Tarantino's infatuation with filmmaking is evident from shot one, and you will know what I mean when you see it. As with 'Pulp Fiction', I am hesitant to delve into thorough discussion of all the subtleties that Taranitno inserts into "Kill Bill" without lessening the viewing interest of the reader. Constantly changing visual styles - from the aforementioned anime to grainy realism to black-and-white to a fairy snowiness of a backyard - each set is almost like a level that the protagonist has to pass, but what levels, and how she does it is portrayed unconventionally. Take the sequence where The Bride fights off dozens of samurai. With a custom-made Sonny Chiba sword, she majestically flies over them, as blood sprays in typically excessive amounts. Though it's all basically Quentin Tarantino's huge homage to either the numerous directors he loves or his own adoration for their work, "Kill Bill" astounds, and the main reason for that, apart from the relentless action, style and protagonist, is the fact that this film geek once again tops himself, despite the enormously high expectations after his three masterworks. P.S. Some argue Miramax's decision to cut the orginal four-and-a-bit hour version in half is unfortunate. I, personally, disagree - people saw Vol.1, there was mad gossip about how great it was, and now the anticipation of Vol. 2 is borderline unbearable.
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