Thursday, June 16, 2005

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Eeee! there's fighting all over the place!

Genre: Samurai Action Crime Drama Thriller

Starring: Uma Thurman (The Avengers; Be Cool), Lucy Liu (Three Needles; Charlie's Angels)

Directed By: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction; Reservoir Dogs)
Overview: After a failed attempt on her life at her wedding, The Bride is after her assailants, a team of highly skilled assassins, led by Bill.

Acting: The acting by everyone was impressive with that hint of Kurosawa melodrama. The Bride, O-Ren, Vivica, Sonny Chiba, Daryl and Bill seriously deliver. It's quite obvious that Quentin did a great job directing them and all their supporting cast. Good times to be had all round, even Buck.
Rating: 9

Cinematography: Black and white scenes, silhouette fighting, even a really sharp and unique Anim? sequence make sure that the look of the film is visually stunning. As for the camera work, framing and the settings, from living room fight scenes to one with light snow in a Japanese Zen Garden... Again Quentin really outdid himself.
Rating: 10

Script: The writing in this film tends to be superbly clich? with rare moments of commonplace. Impressive lines such as, "Those of you who still have your lives may leave, but leave your limbs, they belong to me", and "Sometimes her cooch gets dryer than a bucket o' sand". Sometimes it seemed a little forced, but Quentin has always been a good writer, even back in the days of True Romance.
Rating: 8

Plot: The story is one worthy of a sequel. Not only does Quentin do the wonderful job of bringing back the vengeance plot with ... a vengeance, but he throws in the O-Ren Ishii story of vengeance on top of it, in animé? format even. Simple enough to be comprehensible and fun, while still being deep enough to touch us all, and as always, full of original scenes.
Rating: 9

Mood: The film is all about the old Kung Fu style ninja battles with insane odds and giganto blood spray and limbs all over the place and costumes and posturing, and Holy God does Tarantino ever know what he's doing. Yes he's gory, but so would all those Kung Fu movies be if they had better budgets! This is the dream of so many fans, to have a good production of a nostalgic tale of "YAKAMUZA HAI!"... for lack of better words... and that intro cracks me up every time!
Rating: 9

Just a flesh wound!

Overall Rating: 90% (A Masterpiece of Revenge)

Aftertaste: You haven't seen this? Are you living in a cave or are you a Born-Again Christian who snubs your nose at high art because there's a little blood spray in it? What the living hell are you waiting for? As for the rest of you, you know how good this is, why haven't you shown this to your ignorant friends? If you're going to see 10 movies a year, this should be one of them, period... And maybe then you'll have to see the sequel (but you don't have to).