Kill Bill
I liked Pulp Fiction a lot more the day after I saw than the when I left the theatre. The same thing’s already happening with Kill Bill.
Tarantino’s love of movies is infectious. But what he loves about them isn’t their literary capabilities, the way they can show us people and events changing each other, and the rest of that important yada. No, QT loves their syntax, their rhetoric. And that’s what Kill Bill is great at: a samurai sword being re-holstered, a nod that launches an attack. It’s like a “That’s Entertainment” that shows not the greatest tap dance sequences in the history of movies but the greatest gestures.
It’s also disgustingly violent. I don’t have (much of) a moral issue about the gruesome deaths fully shown. It’s simply that it made it hard for me to watch, which is too bad because otherwise Tarantino is a genius at watchability.
What is also great about it is the homage it pays to classic anime, demonstrated by the insertion of the anime sequence of Oren-Ishii’s origins played against the rest of the film and cinematography. There are many different styles of anime – The Matrix series demonstrates one such style and set of themes – and Tarantino takes another for his story arch. It is wonderful to watch Tarantino’s artistry at work in what otherwise would be nothing more than a chop-socky slasher flick.
Eh? On the other hand, what sucked about it was: who cares? I couldn’t tell whether Uma Thurman’s character was good or bad and that didn’t bother me at all. It was like watching a bunch of action figures being moved around by a kid. Amazing action figures, insanely deterious kid — but not really good for anything more than a short. I found myself repeatedly looking at my watch near the end.
Over the top Grand Guignol video game violence and adrenaline for those (like me) too old to twitch game controllers, punctuated with beautifully nuanced moments and perfectly timed humor, all capped off with a last line of dialogue that will make the wait until February’s second volume excruciating.
“Pulp Fiction” was a disgusting violent mess, an adolescent masturbatory fantasty of interest to the supressed Dahmer in all of us, or as so imagined by Tarentino, who mimics genre films with gratuitous violence and snappy dialog that no one really speaks; “Kill Bill” more of the same. I walked out of “Pulp Fiction”, then waited five years, started to watch it on telly, then turned it off at the cab head explosion. Pointless student fare.
Perhaps the best and worst thing about it is that it, as has been mentioned before, is adolescent. It’s as if it’s unembarrassed to sit up and say “isn’t this cool!?” I can appreciate that on a certain level. I also got the feeling that the violence was being done wrong. The special effects were over-the-top-funny, but the acting was very, very straight. I don’t think you can have that both ways. If it’s over-the-top you have to pull an over-acted Bruce Campbell a la Evil Dead or something. Either that or tone down the special effects to realistic levels.
I did not hate this movie. But I have little desire to see Pulp Fiction now that I’ve seen this. Didn’t hurt me any that Lucy Liu was in it though. And they didn’t hide her freckles with makeup either. Bonus.
Kill Bill
Kill Bill ruled! It was awesome, fucking awesome. I can’t even describe how much it rawks! I got to see the Return of the King trailor. I can’t wait to see it. At TinselTown they are supposed to be having an all day (1 P.M. – 3 A.M.) viewing of all thr…
I think Quentin made a wonderful movie called Kill Bill. But you have to realize that Quentin’s style, like a fine dark ale or a fine dry wine, is an acquired taste.
In other words… don’t bitch about his movies or even watch them at all if you don’t even like or get Tarantino’s style.
His work speaks to me and I have to say that Kill Bill is all the action movie I would expect from Tarantino.