an embarrassing, artless waste of time.

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2003)

It's definitely true that you can create original, beautiful, and clever combinations and call them art. Filmmakers, above any other artform, seem most comfortable with this sort of cultural cross-pollenation and re-contextualizing. Certainly, with previous films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown (in an order of sequential creation and declining originality that cannot be called a coincidence) QT, as a film's filmmaker, assembled his work from the works of others in a combination of hipness and homage that appeased both cinema fans and your average filmgoer. However, the slope turned out to be way slippier than anyone would have guessed. His latest work fails as a cohesive mixed bag- it fails fans of the director and if anything, belittles them. It's among the worst films I've ever seen.
It's true that I'm not a fan of the Kung Fu/Samurai/Whatever genre, but I don't have any particular aversion to blood and gore. Or for that matter, maligned characters. This is a very polarizing film- trash culture masquerading as important american Art- therefore it's only natural the film's supporters seek to discredit negative reviews of the film by implying that they don't understand the films' inspirations or they they have little propensity for blood, therefore, aren't qualified to accurately judge the film. No, it's not the gore- of which, I'll add, I've seen way more horrific examples of in many better films. As for ignorance of Kung Fu cinema, negative on that too, having a taste for other things doesn't make me unqualified to judge a film when it really needed to stretch out and use the parameters of a genre to create something original, not merely rape its cliches. Quentin's main contemporary Jim Jarmusch has always had to shoulder a kind of responsibility that comes with having your original ideas tactlessly lifted and turned into international blockbusters. I was shrugging and mumbling about 'Ghost Dog' from the second I left the Kill Bill theatre. Jim Jarmusch accomplished alot with that movie- he took slices (pun intended) at the Martial Arts genre and rewrote it to accomodate an outsider interacting in the traditional Kung Fu/Samurai manner with other outsiders, while keeping the concepts of duty and honor very intact. Above all, the characters were interesting and likeable, and felt like real people. Kill Bill is more of a counterfeit (from the 70s standard issue Shaw-Scope and 'Feature Presentation' intros on) than anything approaching great cinema, or even passable filmmaking.
I didn't even feel like I was watching great cinematography, but it certainly didn't get in the way. The final fight scene, anti-climactic as it was, looked very nice in the softly falling snow. But as anyone who ever took a 35mm camera to the beach knows, it's impossible to mess up certain shots in certain settings. Furthermore, in another recent film, far less disappointing, Sofia Coppola knew that her movie in/about Japan would practically write itself. The dialogue from completely unconvincing A-List actors was awful, and even though most reviews (I'm talking major media) have referenced this, they usually push it aside to exclaim that well, it didn't really matter, this was all about the action. False. If that was truly the case, there'd be no dialogue. Hell, it got away without having a plot. The soundtrack was certainly below Tarantino's par- the old trick where you play a brutally appropriated, yet far from appropriate rock track (Nobody But Me.. originally by the Isley Bros, here in the Human Beinz version, the lamest lift off the Nuggets box set since Rushmore) contrasting with intense physical violence was clever once, 10 years ago in Reservoir Dogs (Stuck in the Middle With You). The gall of Quentin to use even other soundtracks (Truck Turner by Isaac Hayes, and then a definite forgery of Goblin's Suspiria score) is embarassing.
No doubt fans of the Matrix (the films share the same martial arts choreographer) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the film and tv series share the same moronic, plotless fightin' babes concept) will be overjoyed- here's an approachable- well-known actors and a wide release, yet contrivedly marginal (seemingly ultra-violent, hipster director, RZA/mixtape-feeling soundtrack) film that will stimulate your dumbest internal desire for watching people fight, yet make you feel like you're taking in 'good'/'high'/'learned' art/culture. It's even hard to believe that hard-core Kung Fu and Anime fans aren't calling Foul at this hopelessly Anglo-Saxon imitation. It's just a shame that people with any taste whatsoever aren't so easily fooled.