Puts the 'no' in 'Tarantino'

Rating: 3/10 (24 April 2004)

What a letdown. After months of waiting, we're left with a drawn-out, badly written, undercharacterised anticlimax. The action scenes are poor, the plot developments predictable, the characters uninteresting and even QT's supposedly legendary ear for dialogue is revealed to be made of solid tin - was there ever a worse last line for a major movie? And were there ever so many poor performances in one film from a supposedly major director? Carradine shines only because he rises to the giddy heights of being average in such poor company (Uma is especially bad, and the extremely unflattering photography doesn't help).
KB 1 was an okayish but wildly overlong actioner, but there's nothing here to match the silly but mildly exciting House of Blue Leaves finale. What that means is the big action climax actually happened at the end of another movie or halfway through this one when it's put together. After that, imagination deserts QT, but he just keeps on going like an irritating tin toy that has outstayed its welcome. A poor show, for purists and geeks only. THE disappointment of the decade.