Quentin's masterpiece?

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2005)

i have long been a fan of writer/director Quentin Tarantino. after i saw the first film he wrote, true romance (which i strongly recommend), i knew that Tarantino was destined to go far. that he did. he proved with reservoir dogs and pulp fiction that brilliant acting and outlandish violence can go hand in hand. i was immediately hooked to his work, i awaited his next film.
about 5 years after pulp fiction, Jackie brown was added to Tarantino's resume. i entered the theater hoping for another bloody tale of criminals. to some extent, i got what i had hoped for. yet i was not satisfied. i was very impressed, yet something was missing. to this day, i do not know what it was.
this did not decrease my obsession with Tarantino's work. i was eagerly anticipating his next film. in 2003, he made what i feel is his best work. kill bill.
the weeks before the much talked about opening brought out the doubters of the film's quality. the plot was simple, too simple many thought. a former assassin seeks bloody revenge on her attempted murderers from her wedding day. i almost began to agree with them, until i saw it.
the opening scene is possibly the best in the film. "Do you find me sadistic?" are the opening words from the faceless Bill to a bloody women (uma Thurman) in her wedding gown. after a short monologue, bill shoots the bride in the head after she says something so shocking, it was make an audience completely surprised if it had been at the end of any other film.
and it just gets better from there. after waking from a coma which took 4 1/2 years of her life, the bride goes on a revenge rampage unmixed in any film to date. the violence is shocking, yet it is one of the main reasons of the film's greatness. Quentin Tarantino creates a style of sword-play in which an area of the body that has just lost it's attachment (neck, shoulder, etc.) will shoot gallons of blood straight up several feet like a fountain. this tackiness makes the movie so much fun to watch. you almost want to jump up and cheer in the theater after a head is chopped off.
several months later, when kill bill vol. 2 came out, the doubters were nowhere to be found. it was somehow the same movie, yet completely different at the same time. Tarantino fans attended showings of the film expecting another sword fight in the garden with oh ren ishi, but were treated to another side of the bride. a compassionate side who will stop at nothing for those she loves. and the fearless samurai who slaughters hundreds with no remorse? say bye-bye, because the bride will be afraid.
but perhaps the best performance in the film is that of Michael madsen, or Budd. of the former colleagues f the bride in the deadly viper assassin squad, he is the first one to seemingly have a conscience. "that women deserves her revenge. and we deserve to die". this truly brings out the character of Budd. he is sorry for all the people he has killed and wants to start a new life. he has even gotten rid of the one thing that represents his past.
Tarantino is able to make us take pity on the sworn enemy of the heroin, and you might even hope for a second or two that Budd doesn't die. but don't worry, because he soon proves that he is nothing but evil and all he knows is brutal murder.
Tarantino, in kill bill, has created a whole new genre of film. it's a little bit of martial arts, comedy, drama, and spaghetti western. he has even added a few things from his old movies (uma fingers a square in the air, like pulp fiction; Samuel l. Jackson even makes an appearance in vol.2, but you'll have to look real hard for him).
kill bill is by no means a family film, but if you are looking to be entertained, kill bill is the best place to go to.