Playful and with even more outrageous and preposterous action. 77.5%

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2016)

Tarantino seems to be in an even more playful mood with "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" than he was in the first one, after opening his sequel with a replay of the dying bride sequence of "Kill Bill: Vol. 1". For instance, The Bride narrates straight to the camera and at the audience. She even ups the ante with comments like: "What the movie advertisements refer to as 'a roaring rampage of revenge'". Is she talking about the movie "Kill Bill"? or merely likening her situation to that of such movies in general? Such playfulness seems to me to take the edge off some of the disturbing imagery in this movie...like the kinds of horrors that you only see in cartoons...the kind that is parodied in The Simpson's cartoon within a cartoon "The Itchy and Scratchy show". Such horrors are rendered dreamlike or, more accurately, perhaps, like a daydream or fantasy. Where to draw the line between what is in real in the movie and what is fake becomes more fraught when The Bride makes the viewer an accomplice to her "roaring rampage" by saying "the one I'm driving to right now, the only one I have left". Again, this seems to erase the line between film and reality...movies don't talk back to you, do they? It's the film purporting to be real...you are there, with The Bride...sitting on the bonnet of her car...as she drives along a highway to mete out her next act of revenge!
The other notable thing about this movie, going on my notes, are the inside jokes. For instance, Tarantino had me going with the books one of his characters was reading, i.e. "The Carrucan's of Kurrajong". Like me, Tarantino has a mistaken apostrophe. Anyway, I looked up this book just now and learned its provenance. The books just sounds like a real book...I'm pretty sure that there would be an Australian book with a not dissimilar title!
Self-referential humour also plays a part in this film. For instance, Bill has a brand of bread called "Blanco Bimbo". The Bride is sometimes addressed as "kiddo" too...which has a payoff later in the film.
Watching the movie and the end credits, Tarantino seems to be providing the viewer with a syllabus to follow-up on: two characters watch "Shogun assassin" together, for instance. A Charles Bronson movie poster adorns one character's caravan, I think. Not sure if it's this movie or the first one (perhaps both?) which also gives a nod to Charles Bronson in the end credits. Some nostalgia was brought up for me too...I'd forgotten that the cartoon series "Heckle and Jeckle" existed, but Tarantino reminded me!
For those who enjoy Tarantino's pop cultural riffs, he has a good one concerning superheroes and their alter-egos.
Some notes to self:
* Bill says "Ah so" a couple of times in the film, I think...not sure if that is a nod to David Carradine's starring role in "Kung fu" many decades ago.
* The pianist at the church is described as a "drell"...I've only heard that word with relation to a character in the sci-fi game "Mass Effect 2", the word "bar-kay" is also used. Not sure what they mean here! Just looked up the latter phrase...the pianist was in a real life band of that name? Hmm...see my point earlier about blurring the line between fiction and reality!
* Bill makes a comment to the effect that B wears the costume of Arlene...and...I shouldn't have used an abbreviation in my notes! Not sure who the "B" refers too...probably The Bride...and I'm guessing that "Arlene" was a fake name she used at her wedding rehearsal.
As with the first movie, from memory, I was toying with what score to give this movie...I think scoring this sequel 75% was on the cards but I liked how it played out, so I settled on a higher score so that I'd give it 8 out of 10, since this site doesn't give half stars.
Lastly, if you like playful movies like this, I'd also recommend the horror movie "In the mouth of madness" and the sci-fi movie "The thirteenth floor".