Better when you see both

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2004)

Possible spoilers.
The Kill Bills really need to be watched one after the other for the best effect. I saw #1 a while back and was less favorable to it than after seeing them together.
I knew there were tributes to Asian martial arts movies in #1, but I'm not a big follower of those, so it wasn't until I saw #2 that I realized that there must have been quite a lot of references, because #2 is filled with Western tributes, mostly Spaghetti Western tributes. #2 has Leone written all over it, with even a dash of Peckinpah and Eastwood in the way scenes are staged, and you can hear Morricone's haunting epic music a mile away. I love catching on to references like that and Tarantino has gotten real good at it.
#2 is probably the better half. There's much more dialog, the sort of dialog that Tarantino does so well. and enough action to keep things going, including another Battle of the Bad*ss *itches with Thurman vs. Hannah, as well as a claustrophobic segment that I didn't know about that also worked as a good tie-in to Uma's martial arts training. #1 has some classic scenes besides just fights, though, that entertained me. The whole big scene leading up to the Crazy 88s battle has all kinds of things going on that you don't see the 1st time. 9/10 for both when seen together.
Both DVDs have extras, but #2 has the best with a Making Of and some premiere night music. I'm tempted to buy a movie just because it has a DTS soundtrack so the fact that both of these do is icing on the cake. Thus the DVDs also get a 9/10 but perhaps a bit weaker 9. You can see a combined Ultimate Special Edition coming with this duo as there must be more stuff they're holding back on, milking the DVD buyers with multiple releases I'm happy with these so it would have to be really something to tempt me.
I read some of the comments so-called professional critics made panning these movies. They just don't get it. Most of the discouraging words are about the blood and guts, but I thought segments like the Crazy 88s were cartoonish, just like the wirework in that segment, and was deliberate overkill to keep it from looking real. How can you take those blood sprays seriously? At least I think thats what Tarantino was up to, but I didn't ask him. Maybe he just likes to gross out wimpy movie critics. I mean so what if Lucy Liu gets a real deep buzzcut Some dissed him for lifting characters from old movies which is really a dumb*ss comment since he did it on purpose.