Not like the first one

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2004)

Kill Bill Volume 2
The film begins with a flashback to the wedding rehearsal of the Bride (Uma Thurman) in El Paso, Texas, that is interrupted by the arrival of Bill (David Carradine), the leader of a band of assassins and her former boss and lover. Pregnant with his child, she has decided to start her life anew. Bill's heart is broken, and he responds by releasing all his pent-up anger. As we remember from "Kill Bill," the Bride survives the massacre and a gunshot wound to her head and vows to avenge herself on Bill and his assassins who ended her bid for a normal life.
There are numerous "problems" with KB2, the main one being the simple fact that it's too damn "talky." Almost nothing happens for about the first 50 minutes of KB2. The film immediately put me off when it spent the first 20 minutes (which felt like two hours) rehashing the wedding scene, yet again!
The Bride's martial-arts clash with the eye-patched Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) provides a welcome burst of adrenaline, as the pair do expertly choreographed battle in the extremely close quarters of a trailer home. Erasing all former images of herself, Hannah provides the most venomous of the "Kill Bill" villains. But none of these fights compares with the "Vol. 1" climactic samurai battle. What's missing, and this is bound to disappoint fans of the first part, are the fights. There is very little actual swordplay, and none of the demented set pieces that gave the first film its insane energy. In all "Kill Bill 2" feels like a dull knife. (C)