One of my all time favorites, Tarantino at his best.

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2009)

Kill Bill Volume 1 was a very enjoyable and fun film for me, but one of my main complaints was the same complaint many others had- The movie relied on vicious action, and told little of a story. Quentin has always been my favorite director, but even I thought that the only reason Volume 1 received so much praise was because it was a Tarantino film, and that fact somewhat blinded people of its true essence, and that was a standard action film with gallons of blood, although in fairness, it had one of the greatest action scenes of all time featuring The Bride vs The Crazy 88.
But Volume 2 on the other hand is much different from the original Kill Bill film. You can truly see what Tarantino's purpose was when making these two movies, and he did not disappoint. Volume 1 set up all of the questions, and gave vague reasons why exactly The Bride wants to murder her former boss and ex-lover, Bill. And now, Volume 2 answers all of those questions, and goes into deeper detail as to why Bride feels such a strong need to kill Bill. To use an analogy, Volume 1 opened the box and dumped out all of the pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, scattering them all about, and you know very little concerning where to go from there. But Volume 2 joins up all of those puzzle pieces, and by the end of Volume 2, all the pieces are together, and it creates a beautiful picture.
If you are one of those people who only enjoyed Volume 1 for the action and the actual storyline does not concern you, don't expect to enjoy Volume 2 as much as the previous installment. The second is much more intriguing and tells a much deeper story, as well as developing the characters much more. Don't get me wrong, there a few fantastic fight scenes in this film, but this is by no means an action-packed splatterfest.
As for the acting, in a word, extraordinary. Uma Thurman outdid herself as The Bride, Michael Madsen did great as the character Budd (one of the best characters in all of films, might I add. He's so mysterious in a sense), and Daryl Hannah was fantastic as Elle. But folks, let me tell you- the late great David Carradine stole the show. He is nothing short of ideal for the character of Bill.
Tarantino's Kill Bill movies are not for everyone, but then again, none of Quentin's films are for everyone. But I found this a very enjoyable film, and I think everyone who enjoys an intriguing story with heartpounding action, and a touching ending should without a doubt watch this film.
Oh, and did I mention that the musical score Robert Rodriguez did was incredible? The only thing I can think of that was better was the score Ennio Morricone did for Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. But let's be honest, will that score ever be beaten? You bet not.
But back to Kill Bill. Awesome movie, watch it.
9/10