Entertaining conclusion to Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' epic

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2017)

With this film Quentin Tarantino concluded his 'Kill Bill' epic. The decision to do this as a two-parter was because the material he amassed for the project soon became so sizeable that it became impractical to release as a single film; both movies combined clocked in at over four hours. At the time, Tarantino was such a powerful director that he could essentially do what he liked and this two volume offering is certainly self-indulgent. I've always wondered if, with some editing, there was maybe one excellent film in here as opposed to two good ones. But that is strictly by-the-by now and what we have is two entertaining, if uneven, films. For my money, part one is the superior entry but I still think vol.2 still offers a lot of enjoyment. Where Tarantino's 90's films integrated their movie references and numerous homages into their overall crime stories quite seamlessly, his post-millennium efforts have tended to include them often just for their own sake. This has tended to make his films from this later period feel like the sum of their parts outweighs the whole and overall I have usually felt that they, while often exhibiting directorial and screen writing excellence, often include frustrating moments of inanity. The 'Kill Bill' films display these faults too I think but also the considerable directorial, and to a lesser extent, screen writing skills of its creator. With this entry the Bride continues on her revenge mission against her former colleagues from the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. We learn more about the infamous incident where they carried out a murderous assault on her and her wedding party. We also finally meet Bill for the first time and better understand his relationship with the Bride.
In this entry Tarantino specifically pays homage to the action films of both the east and west, specifically the chopsocky and spaghetti western sub-genres. To this end we have an extended training sequence where the Bride is taught by a martial arts expert, while we also have much Ennio Morricone music on the soundtrack and a cowboy villain to boot. The 'Kill Bills' were probably the least interesting dialogue movies Tarantino has ever delivered, they are much more minimal in this department and much more interested in visuals and action. The writing is still good enough though and more important in the second part than the first certainly. David Carradine finally appears as Bill, I remember thinking at the time that it felt like an eternity before we finally saw him which was as much to do with the idea of this film first being mentioned shortly after Tarantino completed Jackie Brown (1997), so it was a good six or seven years between then until we finally saw Bill on screen in this movie. It was an epic amount of time but Carradine is certainly a good choice in the role and it was nice to see a true b-movie actor get such a prominent billing (no pun intended). The rest of the cast do fine but this is less of an actor's movie than Tarantino normally delivers, it's far more about the overall spectacle and set-pieces. I would probably be inclined to rank this one as the least of Tarantino's movies so far, although that is admittedly a relative statement as I still was very entertained by it.