Better Than a Game of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2004)

(MINOR SPOILERS)
As The Bride (Uma Thurman) takes her vengeance quest back to the States, the nearly unlimited violence of the first volume is overtaken by story in 'Kill Bill: Volume 2'. Following the new trend of multiple films completed at the same time (a la 'Back to the Future', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'The Matrix'), it is a true continuation of the movie that was released last fall, and is a sequel only as far as the title is concerned. It is rumored that cinemaphile director Quentin Tarantino had originally wanted to create the experience of putting out 'Kill Bill' as a single film with an intermission between the halves. It would have been a moviegoer's dream to watch both parts in the same evening with a run time totaling over 4 hours. However, economics would not permit the artist's vision to be the way he had intended, but the sheer joy of witnessing the completed experience is a rewarding payoff for the wait.
'Volume 1' was about The Bride's (Uma Thurman's) rage at being left for dead. It wasn't important how she got these other assassins to turn on her or how she herself was part of the gang. It was all about the action of bringing violent karma to a full and bloody circle. 'Volume 2' is all story. The whys and hows are put up for discussion, and Tarantino's characters all love to talk. In nonlinear style, we're back to the wedding chapel where the whole mess started and where everyone is alive and kicking. The emotion of the moment is what everyone is concerned with when Bill (David Carradine) shows up (deceptively alone). Because Bill is such a calm and seemingly reasonable figure, we hope against hope that the massacre will not occur as foretold. Unfortunately, nothing changes from the story we were told in the first movie, and The Bride is the only survivor. With the first half of Bill's former of assassins gang (played by Lucy Liu and Vivica A. Fox) dispatched in 'Volume 1', the film picks up with assassin number three, Bud (Michael Madsen), who is also Bill's estranged brother. When Bill comes to warn him of the vindictive heroine, Bud is living in a trailer on the fringes of small-town Texas and taking a great deal of grief at his job bouncing at the local strip club. The Bride moves in for the kill with her new Hatori Honzo sword, only to find the tables suddenly turned. Bud sets up her demise, and calls the fourth assassin, Elle (Daryl Hannah) offering to sell The Bride's priceless Honzo sword. In this time, we learn about how The Bride became such a star pupil in the lethal arts. The sale between Bud and Elle goes sour, and The Bride (who does eventually get a real name) dukes it out with the winner before moving on to Bill. Revealing how she gets to the object of her lethal affection and what happens when she gets to him is simply too well done in film to do it justice in print. It is full of Tarantino's trademark dialogue and tension, and in its own way, this steps above the masterful swordplay of the first climax.
Revenge has never been this much fun, and it is Tarantino's lust for 70's pop culture and cinema that make it possible. (The recently style-less and dry 'Punisher' could take a note or two from this work.) The characters move in their own world and with their own story, but it is a world that we see through the filter of every other tacky revenge movie made in the 1970's. The movie envelops the audience into a camp world of retro pop culture thanks to director of photography Robert Richardson's exhaustive use of varying film stocks and obvious camera moves. In the flashback where we learn of The Bride's training, it is chemically washed out and aged to mute the colors. There is a wildly out-of-place shot where The Bride and Pai Mei train in silhouette against a red background, and it beautifully matches a shot of sword-fighting silhouettes against the blue background from the first half. Director and cinematographer pile on the homages to different directors and films like a kid at an all-you-can-eat make-your-own-sundae bar. It's a dizzying achievement that is all the more enjoyable because you know that Tarantino has done it because he loves it and wants to share that with the whole world. It's the approach Andy Kaufman took to comedy. 'Who cares if the rest of the world thinks its good or not? I think it's great.' 'Kill Bill' is all the better because of that carefree attitude. It's Tarantino's ability to convey that feeling which keeps everything from being just a collection of miscellaneous nods to other directors.
Even if you haven't seen the first half, 'Kill Bill: Volume 2' is a giddy treat of cinema. Rarely does a movie come along and make you feel like a kid in awe while also appealing to your adult sensibilities. Go and see this. Leave the kids at home, and make sure you have enough time to get popcorn. This is a movie experience that just won't be complete without it.
9 out of 10
PS: Stick around until the end of the credits for the rumored blooper reel.