Kill Bill - Vol. 1

Rating:
Summary: Style and Gore
Review: Quentin Tarantino is insane - But definately my kind of insane. This movie has moments that shine like some of Quentin's best work, but the other parts fall short of the perfection of Pulp Fiction. I understand that you cannot compare a masterpiece to something that is just a fine piece of film making, like Kill Bill is. It's just the unbeliveable gore that is shocking. Not only does the spraying blood start to become humorish (which had to be the intention), it also is distracting from this outstanding thriller. This is not something, the faint of heart should watch, but for those thrill seekers out there...Quentin wants to take you for a ride. I cannot wait for Vol 2.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece!
Review: First off, don't go to see this movie if you can't stand violence or blood (read all of the reviews here that don't like it and count how many don't like the gore or violence, etc). Secondly, don't expect this to be anything other than a "grindhouse" movie (read all of the reviews here that don't like the "cheap" aspect,etc). If you go into this film with those expectations (a hard thing for the American film-going public to do these days) then you are in for a treat. This is a modern masterpiece by anyone's standards. The film is essentially a film about women, or one woman to be exact, and her revenge on one man and his cronies. My wife, who happened to not like the gore a lot, thought it was the best role written for a woman since "Gone With the Wind". That is saying a lot, but Quentin and Uma ("Q and U" in the credits) have done just that. Throw away your moral ideologies and immerse yourself in genius - go to see "Kill Bill".

Rating:
Summary: Don`t Belive the Hype
Review: In my opinion Kill Bill Vol.1 manages to be pompous, pretentious, fetishistic, sadistic, clichèd, uncool and overlong.

SADISTIC in the way Tarantino uses violence; which is disturbing in a way that is reminiscient of horror directors such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci -completely unproblematized. It is a way of glorifying human suffering that can only be defended by denying any connection between film and reality. Large parts of the films violence is higly realistic and Tarantino mercilessly lingers on the sufferings of human beings, in a way that is absolutely devoid of broader implications -unlike for instance Gaspar Noes "Irreverible", which problemitized the taliòn-principle(an eye for an eye). Horrificly, Tarantino does everything in his power to create violent scenes as gruesome as possible (twice mothers are killed in front of their children) and uses cinematic devices to make the viewer take pleasure in it, and without making him or her feel quilty about it. It`s "Baise Moi" with flare. And also a naive homage to exploitation, not a critique of it.

CLICHÈD in a way that makes the script seem like it was written by a thirteen year old, when in fact it`s by a 44 year old teenager.
UNCOOL in a way that would make the the wachowsky brothers proud.

OVERLONG in 95 minutes is quit a feat. In a way the film really was divided in two for artistic reasons: The self absorbed Tarantino can`t stand to cut any of his images out -no matter for how long they drag on in all their uninspiredness. Thus a 20 minute sequence that does nothing to further the "story" and takes comodity fetishism to the point of exhaustion, is left in. Any slightly self critical director would have cut it, along with other sequences.

Sure, the film is technically brilliant, but form is an expression of content. There is no deliberate content in Kill Bill, other than its implicit detructiveness.

Rating:
Summary: we need more films like this!
Review: Tarantino has my respect because he makes movies that are different from the mainstream. He was paying tribute to the martial arts genre in this film but he has shown restraint in the fight scenes and kept it realistic. The violence makes it more riveting and believable. I got more fun from this than all the movies I watched this year combined.

Rating:
Summary: A second opinion after a second trip to the theatre
Review: THe problem with Kill Bill, Volume I is that it is a tease. Its an interrupted journey. Its a massive coming attraction. Originally intended to be one three-hour-plus film, someone made a rather brilliant marketing decision to cut the film in two and release Volume II early next year.

And therein lies the only major flaw with the film. Just when Tarantino has gotten our juices flowing with one wild, kinetic battle culminating in a face off between "the Bride" (Uma Thurman) and O-ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), in a snow covered Japanese garden, the movie comes to a somewhat abrupt ending.

Everything is set-up for a coming face off between the Bride and her arch nemesis, Bill. But we're forced to wait. Maybe its not such a bad thing since after Uma slices through an uncountable number of Japanese henchmen and henchwomen wearing Kato masks and then faces off against Lucy, we do kind of need to pause and catch our breath.

The plot? Well for reasons unknown, Bill and his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (read DiVAS), of whom Uma was apparently once a member, kills everyone at the wedding of the Bride and leaves believing the Bride is dead. Instead, it turns out she has been left in a four year long coma.

Roused fom her coma, the Bride escapes from the hospital she has been in and sets out to kill those who sought to kill her. Along the way, we learn that Uma has really ugly feet (unless they were stand-in feet), that she is one very determined lady, and that Bill apparently has a very special sword that he wields.

We initially witness the Bride squaring off against Vivica Fox's character, only to learn, sort of in flashback after she has dispatched Vivica, that she had earlier journeyed to Japan where O-ren Ishii has come to rule the Japanese underworld. Along the way, she makes a stop in Okinawa where she obtains her own personal special sword.

The movie mixes styles throughout, sometimes shifting to black-and-white and, in one sequence, even shifting to anime (Japanese animation). The violence is very much over the top, sometimes even cartoonish (every time someone has a limb or head lopped off, blood spurts Monty Python and the Holy Grail-like; actually spurts doesn't go far enough, its more like blood comes showering out of bodies). I kept waiting for someone to mutter, "It's only a flesh wound."

Its a great set-up for Volume II, but you do feel somewhat cheated. Why do we have to wait until February to see how David Carradine (Bill) is doing these days? The hints of things to come ending would be a great stopping point for a TV series ending its season, but for this film, its kind of a cheat.

Still, this is can't miss cinema for lovers of action films. If you're not particulary a fan of such cinema, or if you can't stand the sight of rivers of blood flying everywhere, you might want to stay away.

Rating:
Summary: Not as dumb as it looks. Very Satisfied
Review: Okay the previews looked very dumb, but believe me this ended up pretty decent. Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is trash for connoisseurs of violence, gore, and stupid senseless fighting. That be me. Yes the plot and story are direivative, but since he injecting his own oft-copied, never-duplicated style into what is, quite simply, a revenge flick, beginning with the near-murder of the Bride, pregnant on her wedding day and left for dead by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad including Lucy Liu and the unseen David Carradine who become targets for the Bride's lethal vengeance. Culminating in an ultraviolent, ultra-stylized tour-de-force showdown, that will please gore hounds and action/kung-fu buffs. It's just a fun movie. Haven't had this much fun since Pirates of the Carribean.

Rating:
Summary: Overated, But I'll still be going to Vol 2
Review: Quentin obviously thinks he's the most clever brat boy in Hollywood. How else do you explain the overbearing pop culture jokes all over this overlong, over-bloody cheeseball of a revenge flick? Lots of them are just stupid (the "Ironsides" theme) and then one of occasional brilliance (like the cereal box of Ka-Boom) to make up for it, but most are just of the overbearing clever-clever variety. And gory. REALLY gory. I mean, really really REALLY gory. Was this some kind of attempt to make up for the past 5 years of bloodless mega-fights (see "Matrix Reloaded")? The fight in the Tea Leaves room is nothing but severed body parts and so much blood that you imagine firehoses pumping the goo from just out of camera range as Quentin giggles with glee..."yeah, that'll make 'em squirm! More more! Hee hee hee!"

Well, aside from the opening setting of The Bride in black and white and the anime sequence, there was little here to suggest that Tarantino was once being heralded as genius. In fact, aside from The Bride tracking down her "kill list," there ain't much of a plot or development of character. Uma Thurman is stunning as the bride, however. And the cliffhanger was just enough of a neck snapper to make me likely to see "Kill Bill Vol 2." Just don't expect me to put this in the same category as "Reservoir Dogs" (still one of my all time favorite DVDs).

Rating:
Summary: absolutely awesome!
Review: There no words to describe this, its just the BEST movie i have ever seen since pulp fiction and i have seen alot.
but there is no question: you gotta like tarantino (like) movies, otherwise youll probably leave the cinema right after 10 minutes... if you cant handle shocking reallife made blood scenes, this movie is not for you - dont ever watch it.
the movie consists of different parts, just like pulp fiction, they are presented by chapter 1, 2, etc. screens.

tarantino made himself a class of its own and movies like terminator3 and badboys2 look like 3rd class low budget tv-productions... by directing never known camera viewing angles, a story as hard as it can get and action from hell... also he integrating anime scenes.
uma thurman performs high class in long directors cut like personal scenes - unbelievable hard and impressive - both you will never see and have never seen in one mainstream movie ever before...i cant wait the vol2!

i dont think this movie will make alot money in cinemas but uma thurman will probably make history... 15 or 20 years ahead this movie will not be forgotten.

tarantino made one virtuos action drama never seen before!
as i said, if you can handle it - and you better think about that - go to the cinema, its worth twice its money.

Rating:
Summary: "Kill Bill" kills itself...Sadly so...
Review: I find it seriously hard to be fair to this movie as a reviewer.
On one hand, you have to consider "Kill Bill" for what it is and on the other for its functionality.

"Kill Bill" is very obviously nothing more than a tribute to the 70s Hong Kong martial arts film scene. A very expensive tribute at that.
But, this would be more accepted for what it is if it were filmed by another filmmaker other than Tarantino. Having said that, and being a Tarantino fan, i find it impossible to forget that Tarantino himself has "conditioned" me (and most of his fans for that matter) to other standards. I've been conditioned to the stunning catalogue of Pulp Fiction and to the unmistakable "indy feel" of Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino's fans have learned to expect things.

These "expected things" are in Kill Bill (for the most part) NOT delivered. Sure, Kill Bill has quite some things going for it. It has spectacular camera work and is overwhelming visually, it has the usual cult Tarantino characters, it has a very succesful retro touch, and when the action arrives on the screen it does so with a vengeance.

Now, all this should do for a great flick, correct? Yes, it should, but sadly the negatives outweigh the positives. And the negatives are as overwhelming as the positives, this resulting and in a spectacularly unbalanced film.
For starters there is practically NO dialogue. And, when there is dialogue, you wish there wasn't. Remember, this is a Tarantino film. You can have hordes of cult characters (and Kill Bill does) but if you dont put some appropriate dialogue in their mouths (and in KIll Bill there isnt any) all the "cultness" goes to waste, check that, the whole film might go to waste. The attempts at humor are lame at best and grand failures at worst. I'm focusing at humor because Kill Bill can NOT be taken seriously, therefore, anything any character utters in the film HAS to be funny. But it isnt. It comes out silly overall, and it spoils the positive credits of the film.

Then, to move on, even if you're going to make an on purpose over the top film, you still have to maintain some coherence and logic in the plot, you know. Otherwise, why shouldnt i go and rent an original C-movie of that kind straight from the 70s? The reward would be much bigger because the originality would be there.
A character wakes up from a coma and has atrophy in her feet but not in her hands??? Gimme a break. Then this same character, walks out from her room after murdering two people, and for 13 hours tries to get her limbs to work while (mysteriously) NOONE looks for her even though she's only in a car at the parkng lot of the hospital??? Gimme two breaks. The top of the head of another character gets chopped clean off and yet the brain is miraculously protruding off the top of the skull? Please.
And so on and on, as there are plenty of such "little" plot mishaps.

You could say that Quentin was counting on the rest of the film overwhelming the audience. It seems (if one looks at most reviews here) that Quentin is right. You can have audiences loving in their majority a film and that said film still being mediocre though. The examples of this are countless.

Tarantino doesnt reach past greatness with Kill Bill, certainly not with this Volume 1. It's no Pulp Fiction and no Reservoir dogs. More sadly though, one has the suspicion that Tarantino is trying to ride on his great past assuming that evereything everafter will be revered beyond belief automatically. Might be.
Tarantino as a filmmaker is irresistible and this is a concrete fact. I will go to see Kill Bill Vol. 2 as well. You cant easily deny Quentin especially if you're a movie buff (or junkie) yourself.
That's exactly the secret.
But that cant force me to see "greatness" where there isn't any...

Rating:
Summary: Tarantino returns with an instant classic
Review: Kill Bill, the long awaited fourth film from Quentin Tarantino, is an instant cult classic. Why is it a cult classic? For one thing, it's easy to see that this film can be quite a turn off for some (Kill Bill is definitely not for the squeamish to say the elast), but when you get down to it, this tribute/homage/ode/whatever to Hong Kong action films, spaghetti westerns, and splatter flicks is a true labor of love for Tarantino. When the Bride (Uma Thurman) wakes up out of a four year coma, she sets out for revenge against Bill (an unseen David Carradine) and his assassination squad (Vivica Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, and Darryl Hannah), we are treated to some of the pulpiest storytelling and action and graphic ultraviolence to be seen in a mainstream film in quite some time. But even with the ridiculous amount of bloodshed and the gambles that Tarantino has taken with how the film is presented, you've got to admire that a film lover like him has gone all out to make a very worthy tribute to the genres mentioned earlier. It doesn't strike the same type of chord as Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but this is modern day mainstream movie making at it's finest and most imaginitive. I personally can't wait for Volume 2.