A Missed Opportunity

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2004)

If any other name had been attached to this movie, it wouldn't have gone through because no one would let it. Tarantino has been awarded every freedom to indulge himself, and dear god, he uses every last one.
The movie is drenched in style. It's loaded with very impressive cinematography and art direction, and it's well directed for what it was going for. But I find the major disappointment to be with the writing. Particularly the dialogue. The story was very good, but almost all conversations between characters were just horrible. The Bride & Vernita's conversation in the kitchen was just embarrassing to listen to. Their lines were so cliched that it must have been impossible to say them with any passion without hamming it up, so they hammed it up.
The blood spewing from every open wound was also a little overdone, and just looked fake. Even without knowing the physical problems with it, the blood didn't look good in almost every fight scene. I mean, if you're going to have THAT much blood in a single movie, I'd take steps to see to it that the blood actually looks decent.
And then, there were a lot of scenes, or, at least, shots, that were too long, and pointless. They added nothing to the film, and if it was any other director, would've been on the cutting room floor. Unless Vol. 2 is substantially different, this movie did NOT have to be cut in two.
WHile it's certainly worth seeing, it's not nearly Tarantino's best, nor is it worthy of all the praise it's been getting. There are way too many instances where useless content or ridiculousness was just shrugged off with, "Well, it's Tarantino."