review: kill bill 2

I had the whole rest of the day ahead of me with not too much to do, so I gave Ben a ring to see if he wanted to go see Kill Bill 2. He was actually going to the 2:00 PM EST showing, so I decided to meet up with them.

I'm pretty sure I did a reveiw of Kill Bill 1, but the search isn't turning up the results.

Almost in everyway, Kill Bill 2 is better than the first. It's more complete and not as pretentious.

I'm still a bit split on Uma Thurman's performance as Beatrix Kiddo. Part of me wants to say she did a really good job, but there's something plastic and artificial about her performance. It might be the cheesiness or the overdramaticness in the way she delivers her dialogue. But towards the end when she finally gets to see her daughter, you see her really open up, allowing the viewer to see a different side of her. She's not just raging vengeance machine, but she's a caring thinking mother who wants the best for her child.

David Caradine is amazing. He gives the perfect performance for the "villain". There's an aspect where he seems very cold, but at the same time, you don't hate him. You know what he did was wrong and when you find out the details about everything that transpired, you continue to believe that what he did was wrong. But the final scene where Beatrix confronts Bill gives a whole nother dimension to him. Making him fuller, more real. He's still mean, but he's not the archetypical villain.

The film itself is laid out more traditionally. Tarantino still uses creative cuts and edits to present his piece, but it's not as pretentious as the first one. At times, I actually missed the manicness and the over the topness of the first one. And I kept thinking, if Miramax hadn't forced Tarantino to cut his movie in half, it would have been a masterpiece.

It's hard to revie Kill Bill 2 because what makes it good is so subtle. There are tons of references to old Hong Kong flicks and pays the proper homage to them. The film unfolds at a decint pace, at times, it feels as if some parts were unnecessary, but not as much as the first. Again, the flaws come from the first film. You can't help but think of everything that transpired before and how it could have been laid out or how it could have been spliced into the second one and would have been so complete.

There's a lot less action in Kill Bill 2, but that doesn't make it worse. If anything, the action in Kill Bill 2 is just enough. There were times where I thought there could have been a bit more, but again, it should have come from the first film.

The biggest nag in my mind was how I felt cheated. Not because it was a bad movie, but because I had to pay twice to see it. The main thing is that I could have seen Kill Bill 2 without seeing the first one and still would have understood everything. This makes me feel as if I wasted my time on the first one.

All in all, this is a very good movie. I would go so far to say it's Tarantino's best work.

4.5/5