Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Vol. 1 is blood and fun, Vol. 2 is a memorable piece of art.

When I first heard that this film was going to be split into two movies instead of being presented as one as originally planned, I was angry. I accused the powers that be of trying to squeeze two box office triumphs out of a single project. But after having seen both 'Kill Bill' and 'Kill Bill Vol.2', I am glad because both films are extremely different even though the stories are tied together with primarily the same actors and having the same director. Containing less action than 'Kill Bill', volume 2 is intelligent, bizarre and extremely engrossing. It absorbs all of its elements equally and David Carradine's performance as Bill is the best thing to happen in movie villain history since, well, I'll leave that up to individual interpretation.

In my brief, initial review of 'Kill Bill Vol. 1.' I made the regrettable mistake of dismissing it as exceedingly pleasing yet unsubstantial stylistic masturbation, lacking the profundity and characterizations of Tarantino's previous works. Rarely have I been happier to be proven wrong.

What once seemed like somewhat incoherent cinematic recklessness has, after viewing the second part of Mr. Tarantino's saga, revealed itself to be wild, imaginative and brilliant filmmaking. As a whole, 'Kill Bill' is utterly unified (not despite but because of the radical shift in tone), possesses a strong, dramatic ark, and, above all, stands as quite possibly the most passionate, loving tribute to cinema I have ever seen. While part one pays homage to Brian De Palma, Dario Argento and the Shaw Brothers, part two cites, among many others, Jean-Luc Godard, Sergio Leone, and Robert Siodmark.

But that's far from all.

In his critical essay 'The Cinema of the Cool', Kevin Murphy suggests that Tarantino must move on and grow up to fully realize his potential as a filmmaker. In my opinion, with this piece, he has done so. Those merely seeking the blood-splattered, broken-bone action of Vol. 1 will be severely disappointed by Vol. 2, which is infinitely more thoughtful, pondering the nature of violence, both in cause and effect. While the action in the first installment was great, comic book fun, here it becomes severely unpleasant, cringe inducing, and never without consequence. If anything, it reminded me of the great Akira Kurosawa's work. Remarkable.

Over the last 40 years, I've seen a lot of movies. All types. Some great, some good and some mostly inedible; most left my breath with a sour smell. Westerns, sci-fi, comedies, dramas, etc. After seeing Kill Bill Vol I, I assumed that any sequel would pale to its predecessor. I, of course, was premature in my prediction. The movie was, by all means, a classic. I feel Taratino was really trying to make a great movie versus making money for his producers. To build his tasty sandwich, he took the lessons he learned from life as a movie maker and cleverly managed to meld some slices of meat from Sergio Leone (subtly), Akira Kurosawa (very subtly) and, I'm stretching it here, Ridley Scott, to create a great sequel to an excellent first movie. He used some great, almost forgotten actors (Daryl Hannah, Micheal Parks, and David Carradine to create a memorable meal. It was only a sandwich, but what morsel it was. I was full and wanting more. Very rare to find this type of film in our corporate world. He must wield some real power in the movie world. I don't know of anyone who has saw this movie who hasn't given it great feedback. And I know all types of viewers. My wife, who really doesn't like anything that is not overly melancholy or dripping with sentimentality, actually liked the whole movie. That in itself is an endorsement. Well done. Mr. Tarantino, you will be hard placed to match this gem.

The second half to Tarantino's Kill Bill movie, Volume 2 gives us an adequate ending to The Bride's quest for vengeance. I'm not blown away by Vol. 2 and it feels like a weaker version of the first Volume. Gone is the caliber of character and flair that blessed the first volume. Gone is the sense of mystery carefully cultivated in the first volume, replaced by backstory that's wholly acceptable but ultimately uninspired. The dialogue is fine as well, it's Tarantino dialogue, but still not as good as the first volume. Soundtrack is fine, but definitely not as iconic as the soundtrack of Vol. 1.

Volume 2 doesn't take itself seriously, a continuation of the same signature demeanor of the first Volume, but while Vol. 1 pulled it off in an irreverent manner, Vol. 2 comes across as goofy and slightly overdone, and not goofy in a positive way.

It's an OK movie, my critique sounds overly negative but 7/10 really isn't a terrible film. I just don't think this lives up to the preceding volume. I'm sure there's some deep film-lover layers of meaning that flew over my head, I saw another review waxing poetic about how this was the best thing Tarantino's ever done and talked about all the homages to other film inspiration layered into the film that I very much did not pick up on. So if that's your demographic, this might be the movie for you.