Good but not great

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2004)

As a stand alone action/drama, Kill Bill Vol.2 can be held against any film of this kind & would compare favourable. Which was why I had a problem with it. The standards that Mr Tarantino set in the first volume come no where near to being matched in terms of impact, style or balls. Don't get me wrong, KBV2 has some truly wonderful set pieces (the eye popping trailer catfight between Uma Thurman's Bride & Darryl Hannah's Elle Driver standing out) and some typical Tarantino humour. The performances are top notch too. Particularly David Carradine who portrays Bill with dignity & menace in equal measures. The problem I had with this film is that it's trying too hard to be a Tarantino film. It's packed with unneccesary dialogue that is trying to be cool & snappy (a usual QT trademark) yet over does it. Lines like "wakey wakey eggs & bakey" sound contrived, as if it is someone trying to write like Tarantino, rather than the man himself. And QT seems to have taken his directing style straight from the Sergio Leone school of film making. (The camera dollying out of the church to show the 4 assasins waiting out side is ripped out of most of Leone's spaghetti westerns) It's ok to parody someone, but to pilfer someone in this fashion feels a bit cheap. That said, it's still well worth a look. Especially if you've seen the first installment, as the characters are fleshed out a bit more & aren't as cartoony as in they were in Volume 1. You also get a cracking good flash back when the Bride is sent to train with Master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). If however you haven't seen Volume 1 don't bother seeing it because it will probably confuse the hell out of you. Overall, it is a film that is peppered with genius yet falls short of expectations.