Difficult to admire, almost impossible to love

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2004)

Quentin Tarantino has become for movies what Radiohead are for rock music. He had two big movies loved by everyone in the 90s and since then continuously put out eccentric pieces of work that somehow managed to be arty and successful at the same time. When you walk into a Tarantino movie you know that you're about to see something special. "Kill Bill Vol. 2" is another highly original movie, and yet it was terribly hard to sit through at times. The difference between "Vol. 2" and Tarantino's previous works (including "Vol. 1") is that you could enjoy the earlier movies without having the director's massive background knowledge, without understanding the numerous references to old b-movies. "Kill Bill Vol. 2" puts style over matter. The dialog is stretched to extremes, the characters and the ending seem ridiculous, if you don't understand Tarantino's intentions (and I don't allege that I did fully understand his intentions). The overall feeling here is constrained as if Tarantino tried to match people's expectations and at the same time surprise his audience anew. The result is so wacky that I wouldn't be surprised if Tarantino had finally shooed the masses away with this movie. But then again, that's the same thing I say every time I hear a new Radiohead album. And they have had no flop, yet.