Girls With Ginsu's

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2003)

IT SLICES!!! IT DICES!!! IT JULIENNES!!!! Ron Popeil's latest kitchen invention? No, we're not talking infomercial here, but the 4th film by tyro filmbuff-turned-filmmaker Quentin Tarantino: "Kill Bill."
If the opening line of this review made you chuckle even a little, then you are already in the right frame of mind to watch this movie. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then every director from Woo to DePalma to Scorsese, Leone and at least half the working directors in Hong Kong, will get a major case of "swelled-head syndrome" watching this movie. Quentin has begged, borrowed and stolen from the best with this, and what he has wrought is one of the best examples of live-action anime ever done...even with a top-notch short anime feature thrown in, that would've been powerfully effective all by itself.
Unless you've been living in a cave outside Iran for the past month, you already know the basics about the story: The Bride, a.k.a. Black Mamba (Quentin's muse, Uma Thurman), was once the lead member of the DiVAS, or Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Once she got preggers, though, it was all over but the garroting, as she decided to retire from the business of butchering, settle down and become a nice little housewife.

Unfortunately, her former boss and lover, the "Bill" of the title, (the barely visible but very sinister David Carradine), doesn't have a very rewarding retirement plan, as Mamba finds out to her chagrin, when Bill sends her associates to the wedding rehearsal to give her a real sendoff. As in PERMANENT.
But this Bride takes a lickin' and keeps on kickin'. Even after being brutally beaten, bludgeoned and even shot in the head by Mr. Bill himself, (not to mention having her comatose body sold into sexual slavery), Mamba has the wherewithal to survive for four years after the fact, get back on her feet, and go after her would-be killers one by one.

Volume One finds her pursuing the first two targets on her "Death List": Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox,) who herself has become Little Miss Suzy Homemaker (and you oughta see the way she has around the kitchen!), and probably her most formidable opponent, the deadly Queen of the Tokyo Underworld, O-Ren Ishii, superbly played (of course!) by "CHARLIE'S ANGELS" alum Lucy Liu. And take my word for it, she's no "Angel" here. What her character is, though, is the subject of the startlingly good 'anime' portion of the movie, a revenge story in itself as brutal and disturbingly beautiful as the one that surrounds it.
And no, as a now-often run scene from the preview suggests--the goal of The Bride's quest is not as easy to achieve as it may sound. Before the well-earned dessert of O-Ren's bloody demise, there is still the appetizer: an incredible battle with insane schoolgirl and Ishii's bodyguard/assassin, Go-Go Yubari, (Chiaki Kuriyama), who has a way with a ball-and-chain that no mere parochial student should. And the main course: one of the most violent setpieces ever commended to celluloid, Black Mamba's epic battle with O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88's (at which point, those not well-versed in anime, uncut samurai movies, or the skittishly squeamish should leave the theater IMMEDIATELY.) If anyone was wondering why there were so many audible chuckles during the credits, when the words "Special Makeup Effects by KNB Studios" flashed across the screen, this scene will solve the mystery for you.
Welcome to FanBoy Heaven. We have always known about Quentin's love of the art and artifice of "grindhouse" classics, the kung-fu action and exploitation films that were the staples of a lot of Saturday mornings for red-blooded American moviewatching males. What makes "Bill" so special is what drives the film so relentlessly: Tarantino's unbridled, and thoroughly un-jaded enthusiasm, which its beating (and yes, bleeding) heart. All the excited, long-after-midnight discussions about the fantastical images every fanboy would love to see if THEY could only make the "ultimate" movie, is exactly what Quentin has done, and those audience members who just don't get it, probably never will.
Witness all the homages on hand, from the themes resurrecting the dusty ghosts of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," "Ironside" and "The Green Hornet," to direct lifts from Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive," Brian De Palma's "Dressed To Kill," and Scorsese's "Casino." And you couldn't possibly miss the cackles of glee that must've echoed across the "Bill" set, as he directed scenes with yet another legendary childhood idol: the Toshiro Mifune of the ninjitsu grindhouse drama, Sonny Chiba, who stars here as the reincarnation of his most beloved character, Hattori Hanzo, "the Man from Okinawa," and a pivotal part of The Bride's quest for bad blood.
So for those who would whine about the lack of thorough character development, and deftly written plot points, LOOK ELSEWHERE. "Kill Bill" is more style than substance, because that's exactly what it's all about. Personally, the intellectual in me who loves "Rashomon," "Knife In the Water," "The Piano" and "Day For Night," had a really difficult time respecting myself in the morning after seeing this.
But the Mr. Hyde half who loved "Death Machines," "Flying Fists of Fury," "Enter The Dragon" and "Cleopatra Jones," grinned maniacally back at me from the mirror, already capering with glee at the prospect of "Kill Bill, Volume Two." (Next on the Death List: Ellie Driver (Darryl Hannah), the sexy nurse with a blood-curdling bedside manner, Budd, a.k.a Sidewinder (RESERVOIR DOGS alum Michael Madsen), the only male DiVA in the group, and of course, Big Bill himself.)
So whether you take that as a recommendation or a warning, is completely up to you. The effect that seeing this may have will be no different.