The western half.

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2004)

Firstly, If Kill Bill was supposed to run as a whole film, I think Tarantino would have re ordered the chapters so that the Oren fight comes towards the end - rather than make two identical movies with a linear plot he decided to make two diffeent ones.
The first one is a full on kung fu fightfest with spurting blood etc. (it even has the old shaw brothers logo on the front). The second one is not. Not at all. The different presentation should have set that up, at least. No Shaw logo on the front of this one. Hence; it's a completely diffent movie. The difference is a great as that between say, (excuse the simplification) "Enter the dragon" and "Once upon a time in the west". Actually this film's pacing and long shots would be a dead ringer for Leone's masterpiece, except I think it'll be a cold day in hell before Tarantino uses only a halfhour of dialogue in a three hour movie!

So, they're two completely different movies but, when it comes down to it, who cares? Surely, we all know what happens at the end of this movie, so why not appreciate the movie as it is rather then trying to fit it into some mould to make it easier to describe? I preferred the fact it's not more of the same, and despite being a claustrophobe to some extent, enjoyed it all the way through. Especially the training sequences, that were so out of left field you had to love them, and were the only real eastern influence in this (america-set) movie. I would probably have swopped the training here with the Vernita Green section in the first one to keep with the east/west divide, but that's nitpicking.
So, what's my point? Dunno, maybe we should view these films as more separate than most people seem to have done. They are completely different and as such, maybe this pair of movies are the most wildly differing original and sequel since the highlander series (though nowhere near as crap as highlander 2. So basically, don't know Vol 2 because it's different. There's nothing more boring than genre sequels (see Speed 2, Under Siege 2, even Die Hard 2 in parts) so enjoy this cross-genre masterpiece while you can. It really needs to be seen in the cinema to really appreciate how uncomfortable everyone gets when a woman is buried alive in front of them, and they're in the coffin.
Alec