Pure "style", ties up unusual story started in KB: V 1.

Rating: Null/10 (22 April 2005)

I saw the first half, Kill Bill: Volume 1, about a month ago, so it is still relatively fresh in my mind. Where the first half focuses mostly on Thurman's character ( The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo aka Black Mamba aka Mommy ) going down her list to exterminate those who tried to see that she was dead, this second half focuses more on her relationship with Bill (David Carradine) and others from her past, including Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and Budd (Michael Madsen), all highly trained fighters as was she. While the movie, as a second installment, is mildly entertaining, it is ALL style over substance, and is a definite "10" for Tarantino's biggest fans, who enjoy his "style." However, I found much of it very slow-moving and bordering on "boring" to the point that I began to not care very much how it ended. It seems to me a self-indulgent film made by a writer/director who loves to hear the dialog he has written. I gave the first half a "4", I give this half a "4" too. I suppose one can add up the two scores and say I gave it an "8" of 10, and I probably would if he were to make one, two-hour movie out of it.
MAJOR SPOILERS. There is a scene mid-picture flashing back to the training The Bride received with the old Chinese master, and him insisting on her learning how to break through a wood plank with only 3 inches of room to accelerate her fist. Over and over she practices, knuckles bloody. It becomes her technique later for escape when, buried alive, she has to punch through the wooden casket. Good thing they didn't use a cheap steel casket! And, in an earlier conversation with Bill, who we find out is her husband, she is told of a finger punch exploding heart technique the old master used to defeat enemies, and in the final scenes while fighting Bill, she uses it on him, to his surprise, because the old Chinese had never taught it to anyone else. With Bill gone, mom and daughter seek to rebuild their lives.