Uninspiring mess with abscence of Quentin's writing skills

Rating: 4/10 (19 October 2003)

Quentin Tarantino (QT) has a big interest for asian cinema. His debut film `Reservoir Dogs' was influenced by Ringo Lam's `City on Fire', Bruce Willis wields a samurai sword in the award winning `Pulp Fiction', and Patricia Arquette watches `A Better Tomorrow 2' and `Street Fighter' in QT's script to `True Romance'. With `Kill Bill' (KB), QT's fourth feature film, he sets all eyes on the asian school of filmmaking. In KB, QT sums up all things in he likes about chop socky films from the 70/80s, and adds a small dose of spaghetti westerns and blaxploitation themes as well. Boy, has he watched many films during his life time! Perhaps too many, I'm afraid.
KB is about the female killer (played by Uma Thurman) waking up from a 4-year coma after she was betrayed by her associates. Her task is to take revenge on them, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and - especially - kill their leading mystery man Bill (hence the title). The simple revenge story leaves much to be desired from a man of QT's calibre, since this he surely knows how to write stories and scripts. But if we leave the main story aside and interpret it as homage to the typical action film genre (where revenge often is a classic motif) KB needs to rely on QT's fantastic dialoguewriting. But also this leaves me empty. There are no classic and memorable lines like Samuel L Jackson's `Royale with cheese'-monologue or nifty stories like the ones told in `Reservoir Dogs'. His way of storytelling was so superior that it spawned a zillion QT wannabes, most successful probably being Guy Ritchie's gangster films made by and for pint heaving lads. The coolness that once was QT's trademark is gone, well at least most of it. Because in the middle of this somewhat empty film are some highlights. I'll now present the pros and cons of this movie:
[ + ]
* Uma Thurman is a good cast, her fine, soft appearance contradicting the typical roughness and hard-edged sterotype of an avenger. Here we have a real femme fatale in action. Although the character is as thin as paper, she does a good job portraying this anonymous Bride With No Name (her name is bleeped out for some reason, hopefully revealed in KB Vol.2). The use of female characters is also welcome since worldwide action cinema needs female heroes to ascend from Cheng Pei Pei in `Come Drink With Me', through blaxploitation films from the 70s and all the way to Carrie-Anne Moss of the `Matrix' fame. Also take note that apart from two killings in the film, all of the bodycounts in KB is put up on the women's account. Judging on the brutal finale, that's about a 90 - 2 lead for the gals.

* This film is oozing with style. The camera work is top notch at times. There are split screens, kung fu-close ups, reversed timeline, an animated section, unrealistic stylizations of violence and homages to films galore, which.

[ - ]
* .at the same time makes the movie rather shallow. Yes, I have also seen `The Lone Wolf and Cub' series. Yes, I know Sonny Chiba was a bad ass in `Street Fighter'. Yes, I get the Shaw Brothers references. Yes, I've seen a lot of anime. In other words: I've witnessed many films which in their original form was stylized and worked perfectly by its independent self. What KB does, is that it takes (steals, borrows or any verb of your choice) all those neat, little details or trademarks from those films and goes over the top, to a point where you grow tired of the so obvious references that you yearn for something original instead of a homage. The most relevant film in KB's case is `Lone Wolf and Cub' or `Lightning Swords of Death' or `Shogun Assassin' or whichever version you prefer. The spectacular but somewhat overlong finale of KB echoes the massive slaughterhouse endings of several Hong Kong action movies and has Uma Thurman - dressed in Bruce Lee's yellow track suit from `Game of Death' (`ho ho ho, another neat reference' I hear the 13-year-old, pimple faced action nerd chuckle) - battling off The Crazy 88, basically a bunch of mad Japanese killers hired to protect Lucy Lui's character, in a manner reminiscent of the `Lone Wolf and Cub' series. In those movies violence was extreme, blood spurted like water from a fire extinguishing hose and limbs were easily dismembered by razor sharp swords. KB is not original in that sense. QT just want to do a film that looks like those cult genre movies he (and therefore indirectly also his fans) has been watching himself for years. Too bad it just falls flat like his friend Robert Rodriguez' `From Dusk till Dawn' - another shot at doing a crossover genre film with a high quality cast.
* Another trademark of QT is his choice of music in his films. But, really, haven't we grown tired of this cool, hip surf/rock n roll/funk music in his productions? Even the usage of an edited, short version of The Human Beinz' classic garage song `Nobody But Me' seem extremely misplaced in the context of a ferocious sword battle. And The RZA's original music is at times uneven too. Take for instance the climax battle between Lui and Thurman where the
old Wu Tang Clansman uses a spaghetti western style song (another homage, off course) to minimal effect. That scene would profit from no music at all.

* The violence in KB is extreme by western standards. This is explicitly marked out for the viewers when the huge sword battle suddenly turns black and white as an eyeball is ripped out of its socket, Sonny Chiba style. This may not only tone down the colors of gore on screen but also have a certain style effect. In asia however, the scene is in full color. Obviously, the asian audience have got the stomach for that sort of thing. Sometimes the violence is comical, sometimes it's stylized. And sometimes it's downright dumb, and we don't really need that stupidity.
The intent of KB surely has to be to pay a tribute to an inspiring movie scene that in the last couple of years has influenced the Hollywood way of making action films. I bet QT wants you to buy/rent the real deal after seeing KB. It's a shame though that the real deal is much better than KB and it's quite a mystery that a master screenwriter like QT doesn't have the talent to fill a movie with a decent script. And originality. What KB is at the moment is more like `a late night pizza kinda movie'. And is that really what we wanted or expected from QT? Is this the same person that won a Palme d'Or some years ago?
Rating: 4 / 10