Revenge of the Nerd

Rating: 5/10 (25 April 2004)

Having not seen the first installment of this two part series, I was curious to see whether or not "Kill Bill, Volume II" could stand on its own as an entertaining and interesting story. The short answer is no. Most bad films have bad writing, bad direction, bad photography and bad acting. KB II is actually quite strong in each of these departments, but it is in general so bizarre that each of these elements is overcome in what is some type of twisted homage and loveletter from Director Tarentino (a kung-fu movie nerd is his youth) to star Uma Thurman. Perhaps with the well known rampage of blood and gore of its predecessor having been accomplished, KB II apparently is filling in the blanks on some of the issues raised in KB I. Knowledge of the first part might make the second part more intrinsically interesting, but KB II drags along with long sequences of essentially pretty and clever, but dull movie-making, punctuated by occasional outbursts of exceptional violence and stark ugliness. If you have some sort of fetish for Uma, and an unnatural fascination with martial arts films, KB II is definitely a must-see. For the rest of us, however, living well, and seeing another movie, might be the best revenge.