Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting.

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2004)

Films like "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" rock your otherwise normal and conformist world with death-defying elements that will keep you tense, excited, interested and definitely intrigued. Quentin Tarantino's fourth feature-length production is a blood-bath of whacked situations reminiscent of 1950s-styled Asian action flicks and 1960s/70s European film noir pulp garbage that all mixes and meshes to one of the most invigorating and intense cinematic experiences of the past three decades. An assassin (Uma Thurman) is gunned down in a desolate church just outside of El Paso, Texas by five fellow killers (the never seen, but always heard David Carradine in the titled role, Michael Madsen, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah and Lucy Liu) for unclear and unexplained reasons. Thurman, about to be married, also watched helpless as everyone else in the church was killed mercilessly. Four years pass and Thurman has been stuck in a coma and actually dodged death as an attempt on her life was strangely aborted. Of course Thurman pops out of it at the most convenient of moments and her only thoughts are of revenge on those aforementioned players who tried unsuccessfully to take her down. Thurman's quest takes her to suburban America (where she finds housewife/mother/little league coach Fox) and even to Tokyo (where she tracks down underworld crime boss Liu). Keep in mind though that Tarantino has never cared for chronology or production order so naturally he would rather leave those methods at the door. Thus the film goes forward, back, pauses and even goes from color to black-and-white on occasion. The effects may be dizzying, but may also win you over in a wickedly intelligent way. "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" is a thrill-ride that matches very well with Tarantino's earlier works (even though this is arguably his weakest effort). Tarantino also smartly took a page away from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy by splitting this saga into two parts (this project began as one very long epic film). Samuel L. Jackson once said that Tarantino was the best he had ever seen at stealing other people's ideas and changing them just enough to make a completely new concept. This is very evident here as Tarantino even uses that cheap-looking exploitation angle and further advances the picture with a crazed Asian-styled Toonami sequence that somehow seems more poetic than pathetic. The movie is ultra-violent, but does not fall to shock value or silly teenage-styled slasher clichés. The main reason is the dynamite performance by Thurman and Tarantino's second-to-none direction. Tarantino is kind of like the Dennis Rodman of Hollywood. Everyone either loves or hates him. You can either let yourself be sucked in by his brilliant creativity or you can be repulsed by his risk-taking and obvious bad boy attitude towards the medium. While still not a perfect movie, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" delivers a darkly funny and exhilarating experience that will keep you awake if nothing else. 4.5 out of 5 stars.