Isn't this the ultimate definition of 'cult film'?

Rating: 10/10 (20 October 2003)

I'll make this short since no one wants to read another acting/cinematography/tone/story/direction recap...Kill Bill is so fantastically vibrant and different from most (all) American action movies today that it's no wonder so many people (arthouse snobs *cough*) DESPISE it. I mean, being neutral to it is fine, disliking it, sure, but to hate it on the level some people do...well, I question their priorities, it is just a movie, after all.
The film is one big homage, like it or not. It's all style, cold stares, quirky humor, dizzying fight scenes. A wee bit of editing might have helped a tad I guess, but this is Tarantino, for god's sake...yes, naysayers have established time and again that he's often self-indulgent, but who cares? He's good at what he does. And to endlessly compare him to Kubrick (demigod to many film buffs) or any other director is pointless.
Quentin wanted to make a film that was a sort of lovechild of all his fond memories of watching old-school martial arts and samurai epics...that means minimalist dialogue (and any dialogue has to have some sense of self-aware homage), buckets of spraying blood, and fighting, lots of fighting. If QT had put his usual prophet chic into Kill Bill, it wouldn't have worked...like he said in several interviews, KB takes place in a twisted universe different from our own, even different from the 'magical realism' of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction (by the way, Jackie Brown is not his best work, as so many non-fans love to espouse for some reason. It was a misfire, a well-intentioned one though).
To be fair, I think the fact the movie was 'split in two' does lessen the overall story somewhat...it had to be done, I know, but hopefully once Vol. 2 comes out, there will be a splicing together of the two films similar to the Godfather Epic for the DVD.
So people (esp. Tarantino fans!) should stop comparing this to his other work, because he wasn't trying to 'top' his previous films, he wanted to do something different, and the result is a movie that I think is the epitome of 'cult-appeal'- you like it or you loathe it. I loved it: it's not trying to whittle us down with unbearably asinine philosophy like Matrix Reloaded, because that's, quite simply, not what Kill Bill is...believe it or not, every movie doesn't have to have an omniscient morality permeating through it, if they all did when would we ever just enjoy ourselves at the theater? Aren't movies, first and foremost, an escape? And although I guess I'll be labeled an idiot by the snobs, I honestly don't care. Let them wallow in the self-congratulatory crap they usually do, often just so they can affirm themselves as smarter than everyone else, I mean that is human nature, after all. I personally like movies of all kinds...and if every movie tried to be American Beauty, I think this would be a pretty bleak and downcast world, wouldn't you?
Equally horrendous are those people who call themselves 'true' grindhouse fans and then bash QT's film as 'lacking': the fight scenes are crap, Uma can't handle a katana (this smacks of subtle racism against non-Asian female action stars, methinks), there's too much blood...even if those claims were true (they're not), why nitpick? Anyone who really is a fan of these genres should be thanking Tarantino, not spitting in his face. Or maybe you want your hobby to stay buried under the mainstream public's radar, because otherwise you won't be so unique? In that case, shame on you.

Kill Bill IS cult, just like Master of Death and Street Fighter (Sonny Chiba's, not Capcom's) are cult, just like The Evil Dead and Pink Flamingo and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert are cult. And it's damn good cult, too.
Eh, that wasn't so short, oh well. Go support this movie if you like the genre is the summation. Because if you don't, QT will fade away and lesser filmmakers will take his place, crapping out cookie-cutter remakes of the A-Team and Rollerball and God knows what else. And then we really are in trouble.
Bring on Vol. 2.