A Roaring Rampage Of Revenge or A Damp Squib ?

Rating: 8/10 (8 June 2005)

How do you review a film that's a montage of so many others? You can look at Tarantino's works one of two ways either as a maverick genius re-cycling popular culture into exciting new forms or as a talent less hack ripping off the real masters of the form. I tend to be in agreement with the first, yes kill bill consistently references (and in some cases downright steals) from other movies but it is melded into something fresh and exciting. Who can fail to be exhilarated by the showdown at the house of blue leaves? Or raise a laugh at the dead pan humour? The other question mark is this a complete film or simply half of one? I would tend to view them as separate films with their own unique styles and feels with Vol 2 drawing more on Leone westerns than Vol 1's Shaw Brothers etc.
Taranatino's visual and narrative tricks are brought to the fore, long tracking shots, some strange POV shots (through a bullet exit wound, the usual car trunk shot etc.) although the fetishistic shot of Uma Thurmans feet I could maybe have done without. The story is told in the non-linear segmented form that Tarantino has made an art of since reservoir dogs. The soundtrack is reminiscent of the variety of Pulp Fiction, he recognise sound as such an important part of the medium. The brides entrance to Tokyo is met by a theme that will surely now be remembered only for Kill Bill rather than its original TV series and is as an inspired choice as his choosing of the Delphonics for Jackie Brown and Dick Dale for Pulp Fiction.
There are some drawbacks though there is very little of the razor sharp dialogue in this first instalment which before has always been a highlight of his films i.e. The banter between Jules and Vincent in pulp fiction or the Madonna discussion from Dogs, nothing here matches that but there's a reason for as this is a roaring rampage of revenge and in that it succeeds on every level. 8/10