Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I think I’m seeing this soon. I hope I’m seeing this soon. After reading this exceptionally well-written review for VOL. 2, I can’t wait another goddamn minute. Let me just throw this last story up, and then it’s off to the airport for a trip that just might distract me from how freakin’ great this movie sounds...
Konnichi wa, Harry-san! I bring you an early review
of KILL BILL vol. 2...post if you like.
Ok, it's late and I'm tired, so I'll skimp on the
fancy talk and lay it out straight. This is not a
perfect movie - at least, not the first time around -
though Tarantino fans (and movie geeks) will
definitely get their kicks.
Bad news first: It's long. 9 reels long, in fact. I
remember seeing some little blurb from QT about how a
3-hour exploitation flick smacks of pretension, but
two 90-minute exploitation flicks smacked of ambition.
So help me do the math here - what does one
111-minute movie + one 130-ish-minute movie smack of?
Whatever it is, it's more than three hours.
So what, right? It's just more movie to love, right?
Well... the problem is it FEELS long. The first
volume had a great pace - it was a lean, mean,
fighting machine. This one, though, feels bloated.
Self-indulgent. At times, it even starts to take
itself a little too seriously. And this hurts the
film. Though I'm sure multiple viewings (and what
Tarantino film doesn't get better every time you see
it?) will somehow make all those extra minutes more
endearing, at first glance at 2 in the morning... it
drags.
Ok, that's about it for the bad news. Here's the
rest.
The action scenes, though few and far between, kick
ass. The flashback to the Bride's training with Pai
Mei (Gordon Liu again...in disguise!) is one of the
best training sequences ever, right up there with
SNAKE IN EAGLE'S SHADOW. Everything's just right,
from the student's cocky cleverness to the master's
humbling display of whup-ass to the grit and
determination in the Bride's eyes. There's an
excruciating scene (one of many lengthy, excruciating
sequences in the film; see above note about
self-indulgence) where she has to use chopsticks to
eat but cannot force her bruised, cramped fingers to
hold them... Cool stuff. And Liu is FANTASTIC -
probably the only guy who could possibly make Sonny
Chiba's Hattori Hanzo look like a pussy. Kung-fu fans
will giggle everytime he strokes his beard and glares.
Then there's the killin'... There's an early face-off
with Budd that's just plain nasty, a lengthy,
claustrophobia-inducing live burial sequence (serious
claustrophobes may need to take a breather - for
real), and then the fight with Elle Driver... which is
so kick ass it'll take your breath away. Possibly the
film's greatest scene. So much wit, emotion, and raw,
visceral adrenalin-pumping glee went into this scene
it's almost too much. And of course, there's still
Bill to contend with... The violence, though not as
fountain-spurtingly extreme or prevalent as in vol. 1,
is still pretty heavy. Tarantino's camera has a
Fulci-esque fetish for eyes, and gorehounds will
certainly read this as a sign of things to come... and
in a few cases, they'll be right (it's no accident
that Fulci gets a shout out in the credits).
Anyway, all this leads up to - du-du-duh! - the final
confrontation with Bill. But before we get to Bill
(and during, and after) there's a lot of talk. A LOT
of talk. Seriously, I love Tarantino's dialogue as
much as the next guy, but enough is enough. Thank
Eris he's got a great bunch of actors to get us
through. We finally see some of Bill and the Bride's
history, and eventually learn more about her daughter,
and of course the aforementioned Pai Mei flashback; we
also learn more about the relationships between the
characters (including how Driver lost her eye).
There's a deliriously enjoyable (but narratively
unneccessary) scene with Michael Parks as a suavely
dangerous Mexican pimp. Bill has some great scenes,
though his Pai Mei story goes on a little too long.
His Superman monologue is fantastic, though. There's
a lot of stuff with Budd that seems (unfortunately)
cut around Michael Madsen's slow, rambling delivery.
If you're cool with Mr. Blonde, then sit back and
enjoy. If not, you're in for a rough time. I said it
before and I'll say it again - the key word here is
self-indulgence. QT clearly loves his actors, loves
his characters, and can't bear to part with anything
he deems precious, whether it benefit the film or not.
A lot of these talky scenes could have been trimmed
down, and some could have been tossed entirely. But
they do make the action that much sweeter.
Oh, and speaking of self-indulgence, nearly all of the
final reel is credits. There are essentially three
credit sequences, and while it would have been
criminal not to have credited all these fine people,
once is enough. It feels like 2 music videos that
have been tacked on before the final crawl.
If I sound like I'm being too harsh, it's because it's
late and I'm cranky. Really, if you have a little
patience, the rewards will be pretty sweet. The
actors save really save the day. Carradine plays his
entrance scene like he's the ghost of Johnny Cash, and
the harsh, high contrast black and white (complete
with classic John Ford doorway shots) of his openening
scene gives it all an ethereal, almost ghastly, glow.
We've had a whole movie of just talking his character
up, and I have to say, he doesn't disappoint. He's
suave, smooth, tacky, and utterly, completely
dangerous. Just watch the way he handles the toy gun
toward the end. It's just a toy, but in his hands...
you know he knows how to use the real thing. It's
eerie.
The real winner here is Uma Thurman. It's a bit early
to be saying this, but there could (and perhaps
should) be an Oscar nod for her this time. We see a
lot more of her this time... with Bill, with her
would-be husband, with her daughter...and at different
ages. Her character is considerably younger when she
trains with Pai Mei, and you see it - Uma looks like a
college girl. And acts like it - so naturally it's
not even acting. We see so many sides to her this
time: killer, mother, victim, lover, student, etc.
And Uma is every one of them. And it's a huge credit
to everyone - Tarantino, the DP, the editor, and of
course Uma - that she gets sexier and sexier as the
movie plays out. Even when she's covered in dirt and
mud and blood and freshly risen from the grave you
want to lick her clean and fuck her. I don't think
I've ever seen a performer who's so completely ALIVE
in every way, and she was a marvel to watch.
So, Uma fans, dig in. Kung-fu fans, you might
considering waiting for DVD so you can fast forward.
But really, if you're a true cinema geek, this is a
remarkable film, a great piece of compressed cinema
history, and when Tarantino's on, he's motherfucking
ON, and you'll feel the hairs on your arms stand up
and KNOW that you are in the middle of glorious
cinema. You might have to sit through some
overly-long scenes to get to those yummy moments, but
there are little treats to get you through (like Sid
Haig, for no particular reason...like he needs a
reason; or Rufus - "Rufus is the man!"). I seem to
remember a funny rumor that Tarantino had grown so
fond of these characters he was considering building a
career-spanning franchise out of them... doing some
other things, then dropping in on them in a decade or
so... well, not to give too much away, he's certainly
left himself open for that possibility, and you know,
I think it would be kinda cool. I'm also really
interested in seeing how vols 1 and 2 would cut
together... I have a feeling that with a little
rearrangement, the indulgences of part two could be
smoothed out, and form one huge juicy dripping
masterpiece of cult exploitation cinema... So let's
hope that sometime down the road we'll get to see KILL
BILL as it was originally intended... But for now,
this'll do.
Ok, now it's definitely past my bedtime, so... adios.
-MonstaZero
No matter what gripes that guy had, he sounded like it was a great ride, and I can’t wait to take it.
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