Anyone else looking forward to Kill Bill?
- Thread starter RiverStyx
- Start date
Automatic Jack
Veteran X
I hear it's a sequel, so I guess Uma is playing Mrs. Wallace?
[SHiN]AkumA
Veteran XV
i am.
I heard that it was originally going to be 3+ hours, but they decided to chop it in half, and release the second part a couple weeks or month later?
I heard that it was originally going to be 3+ hours, but they decided to chop it in half, and release the second part a couple weeks or month later?
ILL BILL: VOLUME 1
After six long years, Quentin Tarantino is back. And how. We saw the screening for Kill Bill in Los Angeles, which was exciting in and of itself given that it was essentially a world premiere. Even more exciting, though, was the fact that the man himself, Quentin Tarantino, was in the audience that night, watching the film with your humble writer about and about a hundred journalists from Japan. Quite an evening. So if we seem somewhat exuberant in our praise for Kill Bill, perhaps you can understand why.
Okay, let?s get to the film itself. The first thing we can tell you is that Kill Bill is unlike any Hollywood film you have ever seen before. If anything, Kill Bill resembles the hyper-violent pop films coming out of Japan. One obvious influence is Takashi Miike, who, with films like Fudoh, Audition, and Visitor Q (among many others) is setting a new standard for?for we don?t know what, really. He makes films that are at once compulsively watch-able and utterly repellent, ultra-violent and bizarrely erotic movies that are simultaneously as trashy as anything you might see showing on Cinemax at two in the morning and as artistic as something you might see at some snooty festival.
The same could be said of Tarantino?s Kill Bill. Uma Thurman plays The Bride, a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is put into a coma on her wedding day by her colleagues after she tries to leave the group and go straight. When she awakens four years later, she vows revenge one her former employer, Bill (David Caradine) and his minions: O-Rem Ishi (Lucy Liu), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). Over the course of this first installment of Kill Bill (the second half is to follow next year), Uma basically slices and dices her way toward redemption, or whatever her fate might be.
Okay, let?s get to that slicing and dicing, as it seems to be what everyone is talking about, The violence in Kill Bill is shocking, to be sure, but it?s also so artfully composed, and sort of abstract, that it is impossible to relate anything on the screen to anything that might happen in the real world. We don?t mean to sound like apologists for the carnage in this flick, we are merely saying that as viewers somewhat sensitive to gor ourselves, we found nothing in Kill Bill particularly offensive (in sharp contrast to, say, the tasteless Bad Boys 2). In one early scene, Uma bites a guy?s tounge off. It sounds nasty, but the guy, thinking she was still in a coma, was trying to rape her. We say he got what?s coming to him. Later, we see Lucy Liu cut off a guy?s head during a yakuza meeting, and then there?s a beautiful shot of Lucy standing there with her sword as, in the foreground, blood sprays fountain-like from his neck. More than anything, it?s pretty. The violence mostly seems either morally justified or aesthetically justified, which is certainly something rare in a Hollywood film.
But we hesitate to even call Kill Bill a Hollywood film. It was mostly shot overseas, it required the expertise of an international crew, and the cast is racially diverse. Among the many great battles Uma initiates in Kill Bill, perhaps her most memorable is with the bizarre little Japanese actress Chiaki Kuriyama, who plays Lucy Liu?s bodyguard, Go Go (you might remember the girl from Battle Royale). No one else in Hollywood is cool enough to cast a weird little Japanese chick like this.
Alas, there is much too much to talk about in Kill Bill. There?s the touching and understated performance of Sonny Chiba, playing a master swordsman who crafts Uma the ultimate in Japanese steel. There?s the innumerable beautifully composed shots (kudos to cinematographer Robert Richardson), such as when Uma sits on a commercial airliner with her samurai sword propped up by her seat as the blood red sky radiates ominously through the window. There is also the music ? everything from Karate Kid-type flutes to spaghetti western horns to Japanese enka tunes. We could go on and on and on?
Sorry, but we haven?t even scratched the surface of Kill Bill. We implore you to see it for yourself. You might or might not like it, but you?ll never forget it.
WHAT WE THINK?
One of the most interesting, bizarre and mind-blowing Hollywood films ever made.
THE VERDICT
(5 out of 5 stars)
----------------------------------------------------------
Heres from Empire Magazine
KILL BILL VOL.1 THE REVIEW
5 stars: Brilliant ? An unmissable film
Had tickets to Kill Bill Vol.1 been made available at half prize, it would be the film event of the year. Sadly, however, the controversial decision to chop in two ?the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino? has not been met by an equally bold pricing strategy and, for the second time this year, we are left with the difficult task of reviewing a partially completed work.
Vol.1 comprises five chapters, the first of which opens out of chronological sequence, a narrative tic that is so quintessentially Q.T. it now functions to settle rather than unsettle his native audience. As a pitched battle between two assassins destroys a suburban home in Pasadena, in much the same way as drug overdoses and gun deals have invaded living rooms before now, you might be forgiving for the thinking we are squarely in Tarantino territory. Ah, if only. With a sly visual wit ? watch out for the arrival of a school bus ? and trademark banter, this is the most confident scene in the entire movie.
The rest is a curate?s egg. Chapters two to four include and origin story told entirely in anime, a largely subtitled sojourn to a sword-maker which aspires to the gruff humor of Kurosawa?s samurai classics but falls short, and a flashback to The Bride?s escape from hospital which is pure pitch-black comedy.
The final chapter, meanwhile, is a climax so bloody that ? at least for western audiences ? much of it takes place in black and white. Accounting for a full third of Vol.1, you could argue that Chapter five (and Chapters Two, Three and Four!) could have been trimmed to make Kill Bill work as single, two-hour-plus movie. However, since debate will remain speculative until Vol.2, we urge you to just sit back and enjoy the splatter.
And what fine splatter it is. If, as rumoured, both parts of Kill Bill were shot for two-thirds of the SFX budget on The Matrix sequels, Tarantino has succeeded in making the Wachowski brothers look very, very silly indeed. Compared to Q.T.?s slice?em, dice?em deli, the much-hyped Neo versus 100 Agent Smiths showdown appears unforgivably gutless and soulless. Moral guardians may be outraged, but, after a build that most audiences will find slow it is the bloody geysers Tarantino uncorks here that will have them joingin the queue for the very next showing.
There is much to admire in Vol.1, not least a performance from Uma Thurman as steely as the plate in her character?s head and a knowing soundtrack that effortlessly smears the boundaries between east and west. And yet, there?s not quite as much to enjoy as in the breakthrough works; indeed, with Vol.2 still to come, the appropriate reference might be to Radiohead?s difficult albums ? Kid A and Amnesiac ? which divided critics and cut the fanbase in half.
The loss of limbs features highly in Vol.1, but the most notable missing appendage belongs to Tarantino himself. At times, the writer-director seems to be working with one hand ? his writing hand ? tied behind his back. Perhaps he was so fed up of having quotable dialogue thrown back at him that he decided to write a movie without a single memorable line. Or perhaps, after being lauded as an Oscar-winning writer, he wanted to prove himself as an action direcor. Kudos to Q.T. ? painting like an old master (even John Woo will piss his pants!) first time out is an astonishing achievement, but most people will still miss the signature flourishes of his trusty ?write hand?.
Colin Kennedy
Any Good? Well it?s a worthy addition to Q.T.?s 24-carat canon and one of the most thrilling movies of 2003, but the real question is, does it stand alone? To which the answer is ? just about. But only Vol.2 will determine if Bill has a heart to go along with all the guts.
From Empire Magazine UK - November 2003
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16184
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16186
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,98244,00.html
lux good.
After six long years, Quentin Tarantino is back. And how. We saw the screening for Kill Bill in Los Angeles, which was exciting in and of itself given that it was essentially a world premiere. Even more exciting, though, was the fact that the man himself, Quentin Tarantino, was in the audience that night, watching the film with your humble writer about and about a hundred journalists from Japan. Quite an evening. So if we seem somewhat exuberant in our praise for Kill Bill, perhaps you can understand why.
Okay, let?s get to the film itself. The first thing we can tell you is that Kill Bill is unlike any Hollywood film you have ever seen before. If anything, Kill Bill resembles the hyper-violent pop films coming out of Japan. One obvious influence is Takashi Miike, who, with films like Fudoh, Audition, and Visitor Q (among many others) is setting a new standard for?for we don?t know what, really. He makes films that are at once compulsively watch-able and utterly repellent, ultra-violent and bizarrely erotic movies that are simultaneously as trashy as anything you might see showing on Cinemax at two in the morning and as artistic as something you might see at some snooty festival.
The same could be said of Tarantino?s Kill Bill. Uma Thurman plays The Bride, a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is put into a coma on her wedding day by her colleagues after she tries to leave the group and go straight. When she awakens four years later, she vows revenge one her former employer, Bill (David Caradine) and his minions: O-Rem Ishi (Lucy Liu), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). Over the course of this first installment of Kill Bill (the second half is to follow next year), Uma basically slices and dices her way toward redemption, or whatever her fate might be.
Okay, let?s get to that slicing and dicing, as it seems to be what everyone is talking about, The violence in Kill Bill is shocking, to be sure, but it?s also so artfully composed, and sort of abstract, that it is impossible to relate anything on the screen to anything that might happen in the real world. We don?t mean to sound like apologists for the carnage in this flick, we are merely saying that as viewers somewhat sensitive to gor ourselves, we found nothing in Kill Bill particularly offensive (in sharp contrast to, say, the tasteless Bad Boys 2). In one early scene, Uma bites a guy?s tounge off. It sounds nasty, but the guy, thinking she was still in a coma, was trying to rape her. We say he got what?s coming to him. Later, we see Lucy Liu cut off a guy?s head during a yakuza meeting, and then there?s a beautiful shot of Lucy standing there with her sword as, in the foreground, blood sprays fountain-like from his neck. More than anything, it?s pretty. The violence mostly seems either morally justified or aesthetically justified, which is certainly something rare in a Hollywood film.
But we hesitate to even call Kill Bill a Hollywood film. It was mostly shot overseas, it required the expertise of an international crew, and the cast is racially diverse. Among the many great battles Uma initiates in Kill Bill, perhaps her most memorable is with the bizarre little Japanese actress Chiaki Kuriyama, who plays Lucy Liu?s bodyguard, Go Go (you might remember the girl from Battle Royale). No one else in Hollywood is cool enough to cast a weird little Japanese chick like this.
Alas, there is much too much to talk about in Kill Bill. There?s the touching and understated performance of Sonny Chiba, playing a master swordsman who crafts Uma the ultimate in Japanese steel. There?s the innumerable beautifully composed shots (kudos to cinematographer Robert Richardson), such as when Uma sits on a commercial airliner with her samurai sword propped up by her seat as the blood red sky radiates ominously through the window. There is also the music ? everything from Karate Kid-type flutes to spaghetti western horns to Japanese enka tunes. We could go on and on and on?
Sorry, but we haven?t even scratched the surface of Kill Bill. We implore you to see it for yourself. You might or might not like it, but you?ll never forget it.
WHAT WE THINK?
One of the most interesting, bizarre and mind-blowing Hollywood films ever made.
THE VERDICT
(5 out of 5 stars)
----------------------------------------------------------
Heres from Empire Magazine
KILL BILL VOL.1 THE REVIEW
5 stars: Brilliant ? An unmissable film
Had tickets to Kill Bill Vol.1 been made available at half prize, it would be the film event of the year. Sadly, however, the controversial decision to chop in two ?the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino? has not been met by an equally bold pricing strategy and, for the second time this year, we are left with the difficult task of reviewing a partially completed work.
Vol.1 comprises five chapters, the first of which opens out of chronological sequence, a narrative tic that is so quintessentially Q.T. it now functions to settle rather than unsettle his native audience. As a pitched battle between two assassins destroys a suburban home in Pasadena, in much the same way as drug overdoses and gun deals have invaded living rooms before now, you might be forgiving for the thinking we are squarely in Tarantino territory. Ah, if only. With a sly visual wit ? watch out for the arrival of a school bus ? and trademark banter, this is the most confident scene in the entire movie.
The rest is a curate?s egg. Chapters two to four include and origin story told entirely in anime, a largely subtitled sojourn to a sword-maker which aspires to the gruff humor of Kurosawa?s samurai classics but falls short, and a flashback to The Bride?s escape from hospital which is pure pitch-black comedy.
The final chapter, meanwhile, is a climax so bloody that ? at least for western audiences ? much of it takes place in black and white. Accounting for a full third of Vol.1, you could argue that Chapter five (and Chapters Two, Three and Four!) could have been trimmed to make Kill Bill work as single, two-hour-plus movie. However, since debate will remain speculative until Vol.2, we urge you to just sit back and enjoy the splatter.
And what fine splatter it is. If, as rumoured, both parts of Kill Bill were shot for two-thirds of the SFX budget on The Matrix sequels, Tarantino has succeeded in making the Wachowski brothers look very, very silly indeed. Compared to Q.T.?s slice?em, dice?em deli, the much-hyped Neo versus 100 Agent Smiths showdown appears unforgivably gutless and soulless. Moral guardians may be outraged, but, after a build that most audiences will find slow it is the bloody geysers Tarantino uncorks here that will have them joingin the queue for the very next showing.
There is much to admire in Vol.1, not least a performance from Uma Thurman as steely as the plate in her character?s head and a knowing soundtrack that effortlessly smears the boundaries between east and west. And yet, there?s not quite as much to enjoy as in the breakthrough works; indeed, with Vol.2 still to come, the appropriate reference might be to Radiohead?s difficult albums ? Kid A and Amnesiac ? which divided critics and cut the fanbase in half.
The loss of limbs features highly in Vol.1, but the most notable missing appendage belongs to Tarantino himself. At times, the writer-director seems to be working with one hand ? his writing hand ? tied behind his back. Perhaps he was so fed up of having quotable dialogue thrown back at him that he decided to write a movie without a single memorable line. Or perhaps, after being lauded as an Oscar-winning writer, he wanted to prove himself as an action direcor. Kudos to Q.T. ? painting like an old master (even John Woo will piss his pants!) first time out is an astonishing achievement, but most people will still miss the signature flourishes of his trusty ?write hand?.
Colin Kennedy
Any Good? Well it?s a worthy addition to Q.T.?s 24-carat canon and one of the most thrilling movies of 2003, but the real question is, does it stand alone? To which the answer is ? just about. But only Vol.2 will determine if Bill has a heart to go along with all the guts.
From Empire Magazine UK - November 2003
-----------------------------------------------
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16184
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16186
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,98244,00.html
lux good.
