Escapism of the highest order.

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2012)

Described by writer / director Quentin Tarantino as "a 'duck press' of the grindhouse cinema he'd absorbed over 35 years of his life", "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" serves as an exhilarating, wild, genuinely visionary epic tale of a character concocted by himself and Uma Thurman. Uma plays "The Bride" (whenever her real name is uttered, it's bleeped out, to help accentuate her "Man with No Name" quality). The Bride had tried to quit the organization for which she worked, and get married, but boss & lover Bill (David Carradine) sent his lethal international hit squad to eliminate her and everybody at her wedding party. We follow this character as she determinedly hunts down each and every person who did her wrong, and dishes out some thoroughly enjoyable revenge. Tarantino funnels the various martial arts pictures, spaghetti Westerns, and anime that he's admired into one distinct and potent stew, made in a great comic book style, executed with panache and divided into various chapters in a "Pulp Fiction" manner, moving back and forth in time, and the pieces are never, ever hard to put together. This is fun and exciting story telling that never shies away from the red stuff, with KNB delivering splatter so unabashedly over the top that it's endlessly amusing. Tarantino's use of soundtrack music is extremely eclectic; what original music there is, is composed by The RZA, but tracks from a rich variety of composers & artists - Bernard Herrmann, Charles Bernstein, Frank Mills, Quincy Jones, Isaac Hayes, Luis Bacalov, Zamfir, Tomoyasu Hotei, Riz Ortolani,and Ennio Morricone make for an excellent listen and a soaring accompaniment to the action, which culminates in a breathless, amazing job of swordplay as The Bride takes on scores of henchmen. The cast is just a pleasure to watch, with Uma an utter delight; it's also fun to see Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, and Lucy Liu as her intended victims. In fact, the whole cast, also featuring Julie Dreyfus, Michael Parks (once again playing Earl McGraw), Chiaki Kuriyama of "Battle Royale" fame, and Michael Bowen as sleazy creep Buck (as in "I'm Buck, and I'm here to...") is a blast. Michael Madsen briefly sets up his role for Volume 2, and Carradine is only present as a voice at this point; Tarantino having originally envisioned this as one long movie that got broken up into two parts for theatrical release. It's a particular treat to see martial arts legend Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba as the old sword maker who takes a liking to The Bride and is sympathetic to her mission. Even at an hour and 51 minutes, the pacing here never flags, and the movie is just plain fun, with a delightful contribution by musical act The 5, 6, 7, 8's who perform covers as well as their own songs. Right from beginning to end, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" kicks a whole lot of ass. Nine out of 10.