Mediocre, even dull, but with great moments

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2004)

KILL BILL, VOL. 1 might be an amazing movie for someone who's never seen another movie like it. Unfortunately for me, I have, and Quentin Tarantino's latest is basically yet another tiresome rehash of worn out clichés from 70's grindhouse action flicks. This has served him well in previous projects such as PULP FICTION and JACKIE BROWN, but KILL BILL, VOL. 1 is wildly uneven, missing at least as often as it hits the mark.
I won't bother with the plot, as just about everyone knows it by now. If you haven't seen it, think HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER times a hundred. That's not necessarily a compliment -- bigger is not necessarily better -- and that's proved here repeatedly. In the wake of such astonishing martial arts movies as THE MATRIX and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, KILL BILL is old hat.
There are some good scenes, such as Uma Thurman's initial battle with former partner Vivica A. Fox, the derivative-but-still-cool battle between Thurman and dozens of Japanese mafia warriors, and, especially, Thurman's showdown with a schoolgirl assassin wielding a razor embedded flail. Another fight between Thurman and Lucy Liu is the movie's highlight.
Other than these points, however, there's just not much here. It movies along at a good pace, but has more than its share of "been-there-done-that" sequences that probably should have been left on the cutting room floor.
The biggest problem with KILL BILL, VOL. 1 (and VOL. 2 for that matter) is Uma Thurman herself. Her performance is jaw-droppingly awful, more often than not emulating a post-STAR TREK William Shatner with her contrived dramatic pauses, bugging eyes and stilted delivery. Lucy Liu plays the same character she's played in everything she's ever done, so one can't really complain nor condemn her presence here. The standout performance is Darryl Hannah as Thurman's would-be assassin. Her role here is little more than a cameo, but she is given much more to do in VOL. 2.
Overall, KILL BILL, VOL. 1 is Tarantino's weakest directorial effort. It's a bit better than NATURAL BORN KILLERS or TRUE ROMANCE, both of which it resembles stylistically, but well beneath what Tarantino fans have come to expect from the man himself.
I must nit-pick a bit here and say that the opening credits kind of p***ed me off, with all the "4th Film by Quentin Tarantino" and "1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 as the Viper Squad" crap. It's self-indulgent film geek pseudo quirkiness at its worst. At least he was kind enough to spare us the torture of watching him act.