Not so hush hush but very much on the QT.

Rating: 8/10 (31 March 2010)

After being gunned down on her wedding day by her former colleagues, assassin Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) rouses from a four year coma with only one thing on her mind, revenge! Striking up a death list of five, she sets off for bloody retribution.
Quentin Tarrantino writes and directs what is in all truth, a homage to all the cinema conventions close to his heart. Think an amalgamation of chop-socky, sexploitation, samurai, spaghetti Westerns, anime and cop shows of years past, and you get the heart of Kill Bill. A film that was so epic in scope it had to be cut into two films. What it lacks in Tarrantino dialogue dynamite it more than makes up for with action and astute visual flair. And it's bloody, very bloody. Thurman is great as the avenging Mamba/The Bride, while the inclusion of Sonny Chiba & Lucy Liu adds a touch of class as QT revels in his East meets West berserker narrative. It could have been trimmed down, particularly in the middle section where Tarrantino deals in a calm before the storm ideal, but Volume 1 was one of the most exciting movies of 2003, and most notably it shows Tarrantino to be adept at action directing. His action skills perhaps explains why the script doesn't crackle with the wit and panache of his previous offerings? You sense he wants more than the words "fine writer" engraved on his granite mined Curriculum Vitae.
Hugely enjoyable with a neat end of film cliffhanger, roll on part 2... 8/10