| Kill Bill Volume 1 | | Cast : | Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen | | Director : | Quentin Tarantino | | Studio : | Miramax | | Format : | Color | | Released Date : | October 10, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | January 25, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Japanese (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Absurd carnage! YEAH! | Content
 | "Kill Bill" will have you pining for the days after school when "Kung Fu Theatre" came on. That's not all, though-Uma Thurman pretty much singlehandledly kills upwards of 150 people with a katana. Certain people right now are clicking the "Add To Cart" button just for that alone. This is savagery and camp gore elevated to high art. Those of you who didn't tolerate this deathfest too well, I have no idea why you wanted to watch a Tarantino film in the first place...
Anyway, to return my attention to the um, target audience(the people who can handle a little creative video violence...but man, there is ALOT in this particular film) it's a ballet of death that will easily meet or transcend your expectations if you know what you're looking for from this movie. But really...if you don't like violence in movies for its own sake, don't go near this thing. You will be insulted, revulsed, and wonder what the world is coming to when people are getting off on 2 hours of nonstop decapitations, stabbings and lopping of limbs. I'm afraid some of us have been dreaming of it. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Either it's a tribute to film genres or the biggest copying job I've seen | Content
| Self-proclaimed film geek Quentin Tarantino has had the idea for Kill Bill since the days of Pulp Fiction. So he finally releases his film, split up into 2 halves, either for money reasons or for length(I'd say both). And you're watching it with almost a sense of parlor game: was that a shot from an old japanese movie? Isn't that split screen a Brian de Palma thing? And yet the film entertains despite the fact there's many things that you would think would stop you from being entertained.
The plot of the film and the second can accurately be described in one sentence: a woman and several others are killed during a wedding rehearsal only she's not dead and she vows revenge on those that did her in. That's it. You're not going to get any more complicated than that. What fills in the film and the second one is how she's going to accomplish it. Whether it's through getting a sword made by a legendary swordmaker or getting training from a cruel teacher(seen in part 2).
The film does contain many memorable moments. There's that big long shot as we follow Uma into the washroom then follow 2 people down a hallway then into the main hall then follow a different woman back into the washroom in a single take. There's that beautiful snow garden at the end, and the anime sequence which goes into detail about one of the assassins(and oddly enough, the only one of 4 assassins to get anything resembling a backstory).
As usual, Quentin doesn't like to follow typical storytelling laws. Reservoir Dogs was in flashbacks and Pulp Fiction was told out of order. Here it's divided into chapters. So we open the film with the Bride getting her would-be fatal bullet, then we fight one of the assassins in the home which actually took place after the assassin at the end of the film. And it would make sense since the first assassin is more movie-like in it's grandeur than a simple house fight.
One problem is that there's parts where it just seems like they're really piling on "the cool". Many of the famous and oft-quoted lines from Pulp Fiction were just general conversations like the royale with cheese line and even the "say what again!" part. Here the whole thing about the Trix rabbit line just seems to be put there for no particular reason but to be a little pop culture-y in the film.
I'd like to recommend the film because it does entertain if you can get past certain issues but be warned: most likely there's going to be a Super Duper Special Ultra Edition someday with both movies edited into one big long epic with extra bonus stuff instead of what we do get(oooh, a concert by that annoying japanese surf-pop group in the film, what fun!). But still, it's a film made by a guy who knows his stuff, just doesn't know how to make it his own. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 05, 2005 | | Summary | Fun and spoofing of all the old westerns | Content
| The first thing you must know about the Kill Bill movies are that they are spoofing all the old westerns and martial arts films. the blood and gore are kept at a relatively decent rate mostly because the gore scenes are in animation. When watching this movie you will see the sherrif and his son, black and white scenes for some of the flashbacks and some martial arts that are reminders of Charlie Chan mixed with Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon. All in all it is a fun movie to watch but don't let any kid age 14 and under see it, they won't understand it and might find it a little scary. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Art, mayhem, vision, and violence: Know what you're getting | Content
| I find the Kill Bill series at once artfully and skillfully made and horrifically violent. I like action movies, suspense movies, and movies with strong female leads, so I thought I might like these. I was wrong. I hated these films. The relentless, over-the-top violence and gore was mind-numbing and repugnant to me. If anything, these films are proof that an NC-17 rating will never be given for violence.
No one can argue that these films are not well-made, creatively plotted and presented, and painstakingly choreographed. But the violence is far greater than I was prepared for in a film that wins such praise. Some argue that the violence is so extreme that it can be thought of as "cartoonish" and therefore not problematic in the way that watching, say, only a tenth as many blood-spurting murders would be. But be warned: Kill Bill careens from brutality to brutality. Technical skill serves up savagery.
Whether the art makes the splattered blood less soul-searing and more uplifting is a decision you have to make. I found myself deeply disturbed during the films and long afterward. Caveat emptor. Although these films have received extremely positive reviews, they are only for those who, for better or worse, can be numb to scores of brutal hand-to-hand murders portrayed on screen. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | RUBBISH. | Content
| You know, The Curmudgeon must be psychic. I'm a big Tarantino fan; loved Pulp Fiction et al (hell, I even sat through Four Rooms with a smile) but somehow I knew, the ol' Spider Sense was tingling.. this was a stinker.
And guess what? I was right. Now, here's what The Curmudgeon wants from a Tarantino movie; excellent performances, layered characters with depth, a crackling, punchy, ultra-quotable script.
Maybe I'm being unfair? But everything Tarantino has delivered so far has had just that. And then this nonsense comes out.
There is not one likeable character in this entire movie. Uma Thurman looks nice, but CANNOT carry a movie, especially on this unconvincing performance. The script is BORING, a basic revenge movie of no worth and, for all it's fancy gimmicks (ooh, an Anime segment, how post-modern) little class.
I know this was raved about when it first came out, but that was just hype. If Kill Bill didn't have Tarantino's name blazened across the top, this movie would sink without trace.
Trust me, when the sheep stop bleating about how good this movie is, someone somewhere will go, "hey.. you know? It wasn't that good was it?" and everyone will agree with THIS review. Cool huh?
The_Curmudgeon_Hates_You@yahoo.co.uk |
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