Yar, you be here: Kill Bill - Vol. 1 > Customer Reviews

Kill Bill - Vol. 1 Customer Reviews (49 - 51 of 148 Reviews)

Its an alright
Kill Bill: VOL.1 is an all right movie, that supposedly pays homage to older Japanese flicks of the past and spaghetti westerns later on in Vol.2. However, with all the hype that was going around this movie I was not expecting it to be any good, because; A): I'm not fan of this Quentin Tarantino directior of "Jackie Brown" or "Pulp Fiction" among other movies he directed in the 1990s or earlier (I was just a kid and I didn't like them). and B): Uma Thurman is not my favorite actress, nor someone I would've chosen to be the "Bride"/B. Kiddo. So When I bought the movie I bought it for one thing; the fight scene concerning the bride vs. Gogo, the swordsmen in dressed in black suits and Copperhead vs. The bride. Aside from that, the storyline and plot for the movie is flimsy at best. I would explain it but the storyline is just to tedious to even write about (color me lazy all you want), but I'll do it anyway. The simple way is that a woman whose name is bleeped out during the movie, only known as "THE BRIDE" wakes from her four year coma and realizes she is no longer pregnant with her child and wants to exact revenge on her former partners (all codenamed after Snakes) after years of slumber for a wrong doing done to her.
The first person she goes to is Vernita Green's (Copperhead) house and starts beating the holy crap out of her. However, the Bride and Green's battle is postponed when Green's daughter arrives from school a little earlier than expected. From there, the movie becomes a bore fest, but you'll soon be thanking DVD players for fast forward. Vivica A. Fox's character (probably the best next to Elle Driver) was killed maybe fourteen minutes into the movie after a short-lived and unexciting battle between Vernita Green (copperhead) and The Bride. The movie progresses from there in the format of the Bride's flashback presented in chapters that explained everything that had happened to her after waking from a bullet induced coma (including a needless background story for Lucy Liu's character O-Ren Ishii presented in crummy cartoon art, which made me wonder why they didn't do that with all the other characters the movie focused on), her trip to Japan to talk a retired blacksmith into making her a sword for her, up to the point where she heads to Tokyo to exact revenge on O-Ren Ishii (cottonmouth) is when the movie got majorly boring. After the bride beats the living crap out of the girl in the school uniform and the swordsman in black suits, the battle between Thurman and Liu (which was supposed to be the big fight in the movie) ended up being as boring as the flashbacks before it.
However, when you compare that fight to the two previous ones --- its going to look pretty stupid (I laughed when Lucy Lu lost her the top of her head, though). And that's basically the entire movie in a whole. Most of the music in the movie is cheesy, but it has its great moments (1): The scene in which the camera is up close on Uma's face (shudders) and this strange assortment of sounds strung together is playing in the back ground: I call it "Angry music." (2): When the Bride calls out O-Ren while holding the woman who works for her hostage. That piece of music was nicely done and that was about it. Lastly the overkill with the loss of limbs and all the blood was basically the big drawer of the movie, but like someone said "You see on limb and bout of blood, you've seen it all,"; I enjoyed the movie only for its fights and two pieces of music, other than that this movie is pretty lame in terms of good writing, characters (exlcuding Vernita Green and Elle Driver), and storyline. ------- [a 3 out of 5]

Excellent movie - worth seeing a very talented film artist
In summation, Kill BIll is a great movie.

Now for the plot line: The Bride - played by Uma Thurman, goes on a killing spree to exact revenge for the act of murder perpetrated at The Bride's wedding rehearsal.

At first viewing, this movie is strange, full of fantasy - can you really fly on a plane with a samurai sword?, and it is like a western samurai movie. After getting used to seeing this movie I began to think it is one of most daringly original pieces of film I have ever seen.

Some of the reviews here say the movie is boring - perhaps they want constant action. I think Tarantino is not only a brilliant action sequence director, but a really great observer of dialogue. When O-ren (played by Lucy Liu - do NOT bring up her heritage!!) says to the Bride, "Did you really think it would be that easy?" and The Bride says "for a moment there - yeah, I thought it would be that easy!" we are hearing great stuff. What preceded that moment is a bloody but beautiful fight scene. Why beautiful? Because I have rarely seen moments on film with the kind of choreography that those scenes exhibited. It was like "Singing in the Rain," well, yeah, except for the bloody limbs flying around and the spurting blood. However, after a while it seemed that the blood was not gore but rather comic. It's like a big inside joke after a while.

This movie is different. Since the movie mimics Asian films, and the setting for Kill Bill is like many Asian martial arts movies of the 1970's, it seems natural that having an Anime segment to explain O-ren's background seems logical. It just works. But, what also works here are the little touches. The scene when The Bride fights O-ren is incredibly beautiful. This scene made me believe that Tarantino is a great filmaker. The snow wafting down in this garden, with the fountain making its sounds "ssshhhh tt tt" is a little touch that many may overlook, but the fact that its there is a little touch showing the care Tarantino gives to his films. O-ren dressed in a geisha outfit with a samurai sword in white - like a bride, and yet The Bride dressed in a yellow track suit? It sure seems to make no sense, but maybe that's the point? Damn, it is just beautiful filmmaking.

What can be funnier then the 88's attacking The Bride with those masks? What is more incongrous then the band in the club doing mediocre covers of American rock songs of the mid-60's? Who can think of the necessity of creating a myth about the Hanzo Hattori sword? Who can forget the line of O-Ren being exposed for an airhead (hehe) and saying - "you were right, it was a Hanzo Hattori sword!" Who would think of why The Bride drives in a pickup truck with a vulgar term for a woman pasted on the back? Who is Bill and why did he kill The Bride? Like may martial arts films, we aren't told the why, but the how, when and where get answered. And like many martial arts films, the point is the journey, not the end.

Basically, this movie is a homage to Asian martial arts films where nothing makes sense but they are great fun. So what? It is entertainment, and if you enjoy film as an art, I think you will enjoy Kill Bill immensely. If you are expecting a non-stop slasher movie then I say rent Friday the 13th, Part 1005 and be done with it because there are many moments fraught with thought, attention to detail and dialogue. However, to be sure, Tarantino is a major film talent. How can we be sure? Because like Hitchcock, Fellini, Peckinpah and others whose films are immediately recognized as being only the work of the particular director, you are darn sure that this film is pure Tarantino. Sure Tarantino obviously ripped off many scenes and concepts. So does EVERY artist. The trick is to rip off someones work and make it outrageously your own. Given that Tarantino is so well thought of with only four films to his credit, and his influence already so widely felt, it is no leap of hyperbole to say he has had an impact. With Kill Bill, he has truly taken another major step forward in making a genre his own.

This movie is a pleasure to watch, because in my opinion, we are watching an artist at work.



COMIC BOOK STYLE TURNED INTO GORY MOVIE
Tale of a female assassin who is betrayed by her organization and, after recovery, begins the process of hunting each individual down separately. Promises lots of gore, slick fighting scenes and Uma Thurman back on the screen.

Best scene was the fight sequence against the Crazy 88. Very kewl. :)

Unfortunately, no audio commentary from Tarantino.

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Next Page