By all rights this movie should not rule.

Rating: 10/10 (11 October 2003)

As I sat in the theatre yesterday seeing KILL BILL Vol. 1 for the second time in the same day, i could only wonder why the heck this movie is so entertaining. The plot devices, visuals, and in some cases dialogue delivery are so cliche` and stolen that they repeatedly inspired an (unvoiced) groan... but there really is little to groan about over this movie. (except groaning in sympathetic pain with the unprecedented level of violence for this type of film.) While it will probably take me years to fully come to grips with everything Tarantino has done in this film, it has become apparent that this film stands out because there has simply never been anything like it. This is tarantino doing fan-service for himself, and for every genre he invokes, he always manages to find something to push it just a little further into the light of cinematic legitimacy. Things that were corny or even absurd in their original context (i.e. kato masks) gain an air of seriousness while at the same time retaining their original novelty... Tarantino not only gives us the things HE loves, but somehow manages to 'explain' these things so we love them too. This movie has unseated Jackie Brown's outstanding dialogue as the finest example of filmmaking, and The Bride doesn't even need to say a word. 10/10