A cinematic masterpiece... but...

Rating: 9/10 (11 October 2003)

A very shallow story compared to Tarantino standards. Although it could be possible that the story really picks up in Volume 2, so far from what I saw, the story is what it is with no twists (expect at one point), turns or serious story development, "4 assassins were sent by Bill to kill 'The Bride' and now she wants revenge."
However, that aside, this movie is one of the best movies of 2003 so far. The directing is superb (as always by Tarantino), the cinematography is jaw-dropping, the same can be said for the stunts and visual effects, the score is fantastic and the acting is top notch.
A note about the stunts and visual effects. Since very minimal CGI was used (and I mean minimal), it made the movie even better. Directors and producers should take a page out of this movie and cut down on the use of visual effects, because it can seriously kill the appeal of a movie such as The Matrix: Reloaded did. If you go back to movies in the early 90's when CGI was just coming of age, it made those movies appealing and even better then present day CGI overloaded movies because it was amazing to see what was done without the use of CGI, and you start thinking "how did they do that?" Examples; Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, Batman, Back To The Future: Part 2, etc.
If you're a definite fan of the genre of old Hong Kong and Japanese action movies, go see this ASAP. If you love sword fights, watch this now. If you're a Tarantino fan, what the heck are you waiting for? If you want to watch something different for once in the action movie genre, this is it.
Final Rating: 9/10
Oh BTW, this movie DEFINITELY deserves it's "R" rating!