can't believe I got a sitter so I could go see this

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2003)

To be blunt, this film is one of the worst I've ever seen.

I enjoy Tarantino's work, and really wanted to like this movie. However, Kill Bill has major flaws:
1 - Appalling lack of dialogue and narration. This movie went for incredibly long stretches of fight sequences and gore, allowing little time for the storytelling. What has made other Tarantino films work so well is that the storytelling was compelling and pulled together in a surprising way. This movie feels more like a vehicle for blood and action where the story had to find a way to be fit in around that. The story definitely seems like window-dressing for the action, whereas in other QT films, it seemed as though the action and gore were integral parts of the story.
2 - Limited appeal of the characters. While you feel sympathetic for the Bride and what she has endured, it is really hard to care about this character or any of the others. Really, they are not characters but are instead caricatures. I have so little interest in any of them that I have no desire to see Vol. II to find out why Bill tried to kill The Bride in the first place or if she gets her revenge on him.
3 - Unfocused editing. Quentin Tarantino must have sat in a room one day and said, `What's the most disgusting thing I can do in a film that will have the least amount of purpose? Wouldn't it be even better if I did it a dozen times?' If at least half the over-the-top fight scenes (preferably 75% of them) had been cut, maybe this Vol. 1/Vol. 2 nonsense wouldn't have been necessary. Someone should have stopped QT, because he apparently couldn't stop himself.
To call this film `genius' and `a masterpiece' really belittles films that are. An artist can defecate in a museum, but just because it came from an artist and is in a museum doesn't make it art. This is the case with Kill Bill.