Bloated & Boring

Rating: 1/10 (27 April 2004)

When I first heard about Kill Bill, it sounded like a filler project, a fun exercise in which Tarrantino cold pay homage, riff and rip-off his favourite genre pics. If this had been true, I might have enjoyed this film (for it really does not not deserve to be listed as 2 films) and would not have this sense of disappointment and sadness at an obviously talented filmmaker being allowed to indulge himself so completely in what is in reality, a very, very slim premise for a a 247 min film. I can understand why the Weinsteins wanted 2 films, because it is good business, but surely Producer Lawrence Bender, should have stepped in and questioned the motivations of his Director and suggested some much-needed pruning of his "epic".
Whilst I wasn't blown away by Volume 1, I enjoyed its trashy homage to the Grindhouse pictures clearly dear to its Director's heart and I was intrigued to see how he would weave the Spaghetti western genre into Volume 2. Spaghetti Western!!! To even mention this film in the same breath a Leone et al. is the funniest thing I have heard in years. Believe me. this is no Western, this is no cool, revenge flick, this is simply an exercise in style that runs out of steam way before the inevitable denouement.
There are scenes in this film that go nowhere, dialogue that meanders and ultimately bores and action that whilst wonderfully choreographed (esp Vol... 1), has no real excitement or genuine sense of danger. The much-anticipated Pai Mei training was dull dull dull and I honestly wondered if I had experienced a micro sleep during this part, as I felt the whole sequence was under-developed and incomplete.
There are however, some wonderful moments in these films, but the poor editing and bloated direction means you have to wait and wait for so long for them to happen, that you begin to question whether you're really that interested in these shallow characters anyway. The characters in this films are supposedly the epitome of iconic cool, but they are like the sets of Old Hollywood westerns, well-dressed facades, with nothing behind, but the desert.
A disappointment on every level.