You want to see some Tarantino? Well, you got it!

Rating: Null/10 (24 October 2003)

This film is unlike the three previous films by Quentin Tarantino, but it also has the 'Guaranteed Tarantino quality' -label on it. There are the familiar Tarantino-like dialogues (with lots of dirty words, of course), perfect songs for each scene, also a few surprises and of course, cool and classy atmosphere the whole time.
The first thing that sticks to your eye is the blood, the excessive amount of blood and violent images. I've seen some gory films before but this one also brought back up the kebab meal I had just before the movie. The fight scenes in this movie don't hide any details although they are lightened a bit in different ways. For example a long and bloody fight seen is shown in black and white and another part is in animation. The whole film is a very interesting mix of styles. There is a constant Japanese feel in the movie, much because of the martial arts theme, but at the same time there is also a touch of spaghetti western. The music in the duel scenes could be straight from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly or some other Sergio Leone flick. Even with all the different styles, they are matched perfectly together.
Watching this movie I had the same feeling as I had when I saw Pulp Fiction for the first time. Like Pulp Fiction, this one was something different from what I had seen before and that's why it was a pleasure to watch it. I had no idea what I would see in the upcoming scenes and that's a nice feeling nowadays. The cast was good, although only a part of it is seen in the Volume 1. Uma Thurman does her job well in her second Tarantino-film and Lucy Liu was nice in her role of a different kind of angel. The idea of a dark counterpart of Charlie's Angels popped in to my mind a few times during the film. The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (just say Bill's Angels), mostly consisting of women with ultimate skills in weapons and martial arts... and Lucy Liu as one of them. Do I need to say more? Well, I have to say that this is a much better movie than the two new Charlie's Angels -films together.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is a very good movie. I can't say, how good it is in a Tarantino-scale, because it's not really comparable to the previous ones. This is more fantasy than the previous, more realistic crime movies, but it doesn't make it any worse (or better either). If you expect to see a good Tarantino-style movie, this is definitely it, no doubt about it. It's a shame that Kill Bill was cut in half and is now shown in two volumes. It's not so long that it wouldn't be possible to watch it from the beginning till the end non-stop. But, this is such a good film that it doesn't hurt so much to pay two ticket fees to see both volumes. Though, I haven't seen the second one yet, so I can't really say anything about that. Anyway, with Uma Thurman there's one very good improvement made since Pulp Fiction. She really looks better as a blonde. ;)