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KILL BILL (VOLUME ONE) by Tom McCurrie
After six long years, Quentin Tarantino has returned with a supercool mix of Kung Fu, Blaxplotation and Spaghetti Western called KILL BILL. (Critic's Note: I'm working on a Spaghetti-Western novel myself, so I'm a little biased.) Does the Fourth Film by QT top his very own PULP FICTION? Not quite, but it's still the best flick of the year so far.
(Warning: Mega-Spoilers Ahead!)
KILL BILL has a plot as streamlined as its title. The Bride (Uma Thurman) gets shot and left for dead by her former co-workers, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (they're all named after various killer snakes -- very cool). Riding herd on these reptiles is head honcho Bill (played by David Carradine's voice in Volume One), who personally head-caps Uma just as she tells him she's carrying his baby. (Grasshopper, how could you?) The baddies also slaughter Uma's entire wedding party. Four years later, comatose Uma wakes up to deliver payback on said Vipers and anyone else who happens to cheese her off.
Now revenge stories are pretty familiar, and KILL BILL's is no exception. Hell, the hook is practically lifted from HARD TO KILL (minus Steven Seagal, Thank God). But the big problem with revenge stories is monotony, especially when you have a list of baddies to knock off. Once you see the hero smear the first heavy, you realize you're just gonna get more of the same the rest of the movie. This gets kinda repetitive, and kinda boring, after awhile.
QT being QT however, he avoids the monotony trap big time. First of all, like PULP FICTION, he jumps back and forth in time to wicked effect. We start out with Uma smoking Viper No. 2 (Vivica A. Fox), then leap back to how she came out of her coma, then forward again as she takes out Viper No. 1 (Lucy Liu) and her band of thugs known as the Crazy 88s. This scrambled structure keeps the audience off-balance -- and interested.
Secondly, Tarantino uses plenty of offbeat touches to enliven his yarn. There's the hospital worker who hires out Uma's comatose body to every horny guy in sight, there's Vivica's young daughter coming home from school in the middle of her mother's knifefight, and there's Uma allowing her defeated enemies to escape -- although they have to leave their hacked-off limbs behind as trophies! Cool! Best of all, Lucy Liu's backstory is told through breathtakingly designed anime. The shift in visual medium further juices the story's energy level.
Finally, there are the top-notch action set-pieces. No boring shoot-em-ups here. Both Viper "retirement ceremonies" are shot and edited with dazzling flair. The climactic swordfight in the House of Blue Leaves is the pic's highlight -- a tornado of blood and gore that has to be seen to be believed (and enjoyed). There haven't been this many severed limbs since the Battle of Antietam. (The shift to Black and White during the slicing and dicing is a tip of the hat to a similar scene in SWORD OF DOOM [1966], a "bloody" good samurai film starring Tatsuya Nakadai.) All in all, Tarantino has dramatically improved his skills as a visual stylist. Though dismissed for his static camera early on, this dude can now direct action with the best of them.
Still, KILL BILL falls short of PULP FICTION in this Tarantino fan's humble opinion. It's missing the left-field twists that made PULP so surprising -- and entertaining. In PULP, Travolta and Thurman's growing attraction doesn't lead to an affair, but to an overdose. This creates a delicious sense of unpredictability. In KB, Uma gets her payback exactly as we expect, which is a bit of a letdown. We do get a twist at the very last second, however -- Uma's supposedly dead kid is still kickin'. Hopefully this portends further twists to come in Volume Two.
KB also lacks the supremely quotable dialogue of PULP. Instead of getting medieval on someone's ass, we get a cutesy reference to Trix cereal. The lines get the job done, of course (it's impossible for QT to write bad dialogue), but they're disappointingly unmemorable.
Two final points. First, why doesn't Bill just waste Uma in her coma? His explanation that it's not sporting doesn't wash. After all, he led the attack on Uma and her unarmed wedding party. This was nothing if not unsporting. More importantly, why did he attack her in the first place? Hopefully these plotholes are filled in Volume Two.
Still, imperfect Tarantino is better than ninety-nine percent of the dreck currently in theatres. This guy brings a passion -- and a personality -- to his movies that very few directors are able (or willing) to do. For that alone, I'm chomping on the bloody bit to see what Tarantino has to offer next February.
Responses, comments and general two-cents worth can be E-mailed to [email protected].
(Note: For all those who missed my past reviews, I've just archived them on Hollywoodlitsales.com. Just click the link on the main page and it'll take you to the Inner Sanctum. Love them or Hate them at your leisure!)
A graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television, Tom McCurrie has worked as a development executive and a story analyst. He is currently a screenwriter living in Los Angeles.
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