Kill Bill: Volume Two: 6/10

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2004)

Most people waited six years from Jackie Brown to see Kill Bill: Volume One, the next eagerly awaited movie by Quentin Tarantino. I did not have to, since I had seen none of his previous works. I did, however, see Volume One, and loved it, making this six month wait for Volume Two almost unbearable. The two films, originally to be fused together as an epic, could not be any more different. While Volume One was relentlessly and gleefully violent, without much in the way of plot or characters, a truly entertaining movie. Volume Two, however, was a complete 180: it's mainly a talking heads movie, with a few (generally) non-violent fights, an over development of characters and plot, and a style that Tarantino seems to be stealing from his own classic movie.
The Bride (Uma Thurman), a deadly assassin, after having been put into a coma in a wedding chapel by her employer Bill (David Carradine), awakens four years later and swears to kill all involved in that massacre. By the opening of Volume Two, she had already gotten two of them. Next on her list is Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Budd (Michael Madsen), and, of course, Bill.
I would have loved to see one four-hour long version of Kill Bill. The series just doesn't work as two parts. They're completely different; if they were one, then, being fused together, it would work perfectly. The first half wouldn't be this extremely entertaining part and then suddenly switching over to drama. Basically, though, that's what the movies are if placed side-by-side. There's not even much material to link the two. Events mentioned in Volume One are shown, but the only repeated scene was the opening scene in the first one, one that wasn't needed to be repeated. Why not show some of the fight between The Bride and O-Ren Iishi (Lucy Liu), or, when The Bride's daughter comes into play, a flashback for when she killed Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) in front of the latter's daughter? They seem like two completely different movies (when they're supposed to be one complete movie separated into two parts).
But enough comparisons between the two. Let me go into the specifics of Volume Two. Almost everybody, if not everybody, loves Pulp Fiction, understandably. It's Tarantino's masterpiece. The trouble is, we've come to expect Pulp Fiction from everything he does. Now, Volume One was no Pulp Fiction, but it was just as entertaining, if not more so. I was at least hoping as much for Volume Two. Tarantino has become so cocky in his directing that he believes that any well-written dialogue is entertaining dialogue. This movie's dialogue is well-written, but has nothing to do with the plot and isn't entertaining. It's not funny, nor amusing. In Tarantino's script, we get backstory on people who don't need backstory, which always annoys me. I must admit, however, that the eyeball thing is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
The fight scenes (though few and far between) were amazing. The obvious training that everyone went through must have been quite rigorous. That was always fun to watch and always entertaining. I must also comment on the cinematography. Oftentimes I found myself wondering how they managed to do that. It amazed me in Volume One, also. Its sweeping views, long shots, close-ups, etc. were simply spectacular. Something not so spectacular, however, was Tarantino's "stylish" choices. A few scenes were shot in black-and-white for no reason, others in partial color for no reason, and others in 1.33:1 aspect ration (the size of your TV screen) for no reason. Why? Because he can, I suppose. The black-and-white sequences meant something in Volume One-the difference between an R and an NC-17. But they were completely worthless here.
Volume Two is an entertaining movie for the most part. Some of the dialogue became repetitive and was unnecessary, but for the most part it was a fun watch. Thurman is great, as usual, and was even better here than in the first. Carradine had more to do, but I found him rather flat. Hannah, as Driver, was very good, because her character was more interesting than Madsen's Budd. Madsen, to me, will always be Mr. Blonde, the best part of Reservoir Dogs, to me. I must say, I am disappointed by how this chapter of the killing of Bill is as a whole, but in fifteen years or so, we can look forward to a Volume Three. I'll be first in line there.
My rating: 6/10
Rated R for violence, language and brief drug use.