Movie Review Kill Bill Volume 2

Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu

Release Date April 16th, 2004

Published April 15th, 2004

Much griping ensued when Miramax decided to cut Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus Kill Bill into two pieces. I was amongst those who were dismayed by the choice, but now that both halves of the film have been released it's clear that Miramax did the right thing. As one three-and-a-half-hour film it would have been brilliant, but as two films with a total combined length of more than four hours, we see Tarantino's vision uncompromised. The fact is, Miramax could not release Kill Bill as one four-hour film, and they did us a favor by cutting it. Because of that, we get two brilliant films for the price of one.

When we last saw our vengeance-seeking heroine The Bride (Uma Thurman), she had wiped out her former associate O-Ren Ishii and 88 of her henchman in a bloody brutal martial arts sword fight. Now, she is back on the road and on her way to Bill (David Carradine). But first a revision of history. In voiceover, the Bride explains what really happened in "The Massacre at Two Pines" where she and her wedding party were wiped out by Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. In one of many scenes of brilliant Tarantino dialogue, we get the backstory of Bill and the Bride.

Back to the future, the Bride is on the trail of Bill's brother and fellow assassin Budd, code name Sidewinder (Michael Madsen). Budd has given up the assassin game and has taken a job as a bouncer at a strip club. Bill has warned him that yhe Bride is coming for him, and regardless of Budd's current state of mind, he's still very dangerous. Budd is more than ready when the Bride arrives which leads to a torture scene that is like a film school class in sound editing and building tension. After knocking the bride unconscious, Budd loads her in a coffin and buries her alive, but not before yet another brilliant but of Tarantino dialogue as Budd offers the bride a flashlight. Claustrophobia has never been so well rendered on screen.

This leads to another flashback, this one taking us back to the Bride's training with the legendary master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). The master is a brutal taskmaster who, we are told hates Americans, white people, and women. This, of course, makes our hero's training that much more difficult. This series of training scenes have been rendered in any number of classic kung fu movies and Tarantino manages to evoke the look, feel, and sounds of the films he is sampling from.

Needless to say, the Bride escapes from her premature grave and is soon back on her quest for vengeance with Budd and Elle (Daryl Hannah) standing in her way. Budd's end is a little disappointing, but the Bride's fight with Elle is arguably the best of both films. Daryl Hannah gives a comeback performance worthy of Travolta’s in Pulp Fiction. Elle's habit of writing everything in a tiny notebook is the kind of little quirk that most screenwriters neglect; the kind of quirk that makes an average character a memorable character. Hannah has a terrific monologue that she recites directly from her notebook.

Of course, the film’s centerpiece is the confrontation with Bill and to describe any further is to describe too much. Suffice it to say that it lives up to and in fact exceeds expectations with a legendary Tarantino dialogue exchange. The words between Bill and The Bride are better than most fight scenes and the finale is quick but very satisfying.

Where the first film was an exercise in style and direction, with little of Tarantino's trademark dialogue Volume 2 makes up for lost dialogue by providing some of the best screenwriting we have seen since Pulp Fiction revolutionized the art form. Kill Bill is proof that the auteur, the director whose vision is complete from script to screen is where film d'art still lives. Say what you will about great screenwriters, it takes a director to create art and Tarantino is the pre-eminent artist of our time.

Mixing genres from a noirish opening credit and direct-to-camera black and white sequence, to Sergio Leone-style western vistas, to more of the first film’s kung fu grind house vibe, Tarantino is like a club DJ, but instead of mixing Elvis Costello into Public Enemy, he mixes Michael Curtiz into Sergio Leone into Kurosawa. Call it film sampling if you want; the result is a work of art that belongs solely to Tarantino.

Movie Review Kill Bill Volume 1

Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino 

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A Fox, Michael Madsen

Release Date October 10th, 2003 

Published October 9th, 2003 

It's been six years since Quentin Tarentino last graced the big screen with his considerable directorial presence. In his time away, his existence was pondered in ways only J.D. Salinger could relate too. What was the preeminent auteur of his generation up to all that time? His name was attached to every film that even vaguely resembled his style and, for a time, that seemed his only context. Then finally after a number of delays, Tarentino went into a production that would be the most analyzed, textualized, and criticized film since Kubrick's 2001. How could any film live up to this kind of hype?

Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as an assassin who survives an attempted assassination by her former friends and employer. The employer is Bill, and her former friends are a group called the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. There is O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) --codename Cottonmouth--Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) --codename: California Mountain Snake--Bud (Michael Madsen) --codename: Sidewinder--and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) --codename: Copperhead. Our heroine's own codename had been Black Mamba, but we only know her as the bride.

The reason why the bride was targeted by her friends is unclear; what we do know is that she survived a serious beating and a bullet in the head before awakening from a four-year coma. Once awakened from that coma, she is ready to seek her bloody vengeance on the friends and former employer who not only tried to kill her but also murdered her wedding party and her unborn child.

Kill Bill has been called the most violent film in history. I doubt that such hyperbole is justified but the film is very violent. Beheadings, de-limbings, and buckets of blood drop all over the screen as Tarentino choreographs his violence to match the ultra-violent Hong Kong martial arts pictures that inspired him. This is no mere homage; however, Kill Bill is HK cinema raised to an artistic level that the original HK masters could never achieve on their miniscule budgets.

Often, I criticize films for their lack of plot and characterizations, but in the case of Kill Bill all that is missing is forgiven. Kill Bill is one of those films that is not about character and story but rather an exercise in pure style. Where some films are showcases for actors to show off the craft of acting, Kill Bill is the rare occasion where a director showcases his ability to direct. Kill Bill is Quentin Tarentino's film symphony, with actors as his orchestra acting at the wave of his baton.

With help from Hong Kong martial arts master Yuen Wo Ping, Tarentino coordinates one of the bloodiest and most enthralling fight scenes ever. First, though, The Bride travels to Okinawa where she acquires a sword from a master sword maker Hattori Hanzo played by HK legend Sonny Chiba. The sword says Hanzo could slice God. Then it's onto Tokyo and the films centerpiece battle where The Bride battles O-Ren and her henchmen the Crazy 88. In an expertly choreographed and stylishly over the top sequence, The Bride maims and kills the 88 and then claims their severed limbs as a trophy. Then it's on to her revenge against Ishii, another well-choreographed and especially well acted sequence by Thurman and Lucy Lui.

My sister gave me a CD called The Roots of Hip Hop and on it are some of the most sampled songs in history. As fans of hip hop know, a great piece of sampling can become an artwork all its own and much like great hip hop, Quentin Tarentino turns his sampling from HK martial arts movies, spaghetti westerns and Japanese anime (the film’s best chapter, O-Ren Ishii's bloody back story is told in an exquisite piece of anime) into a work of art that can stand alone as a work of art.

Admittedly I would rather see the film in its full three-hour length instead of its current chopped-in-the-middle-release, but, nevertheless, I was satisfied with seeing half now and half in February. If the second half lives up to the promise of the first half, then even the angriest detractor will be satisfied with the latest Tarentino master work.

Movie Review: Bloodrayne

Bloodrayne (2006) 

Directed by Uwe Boll 

Written by Guinevere Turner 

Starring Kristanna Loken, Michael Madsen, Matthew Davis, Billy Zane 

Release Date January 6th, 2006

Published January 5th, 2006 

Critiquing a film directed by Uwe Boll on its filmmaking merits--artistry, narrative, acting--is, as my grandfather might say, "like arguing with a dog about being a dog." An Uwe Boll film is an Uwe Boll film, and no amount of money can turn a Boll film into a real movie. So, in reviewing Boll's Bloodrayne, I attempted to put myself in Mr. Boll's shoes and try to understand what his vision of the film was. This lasted about two minutes before unstoppable giggling set in.

Bloodrayne is possibly Mr. Boll's most amateur and accomplished film at the same time. The movie is riotously unintentionally campy and yet features a stellar cast--well beyond the talent of the director. That these actors are well beneath their parts is a given, but that each manages to look worse than they have ever looked in a film is an Uwe Boll given.

Bloodrayne stars Terminator 3 vixen Kristanna Loken as Rayne, a sideshow circus freak whose talent is that she is burned by water and healed by blood. Rayne is a vampire, sort of. Rayne is the offspring of a vampire--her mother was raped by a powerful vampire named Kagan (Ben Kingsley) and Rayne was the result of the unholy union.

Rayne has the weaknesses and strengths of a vampire but is not technically a vampire, I think. See, here's the thing about an Uwe Boll film, pausing to logically assess why his characters are as they are or do what they do really is not anything Mr. Boll is interested in doing. Thus, we get Rayne who is burned by water--not holy water mind you, just water. Rayne drinks blood for survival and cannot be out in the sun but, according to a fortune teller/plot device, she is not a vampire but a Dhampir--a human/vampire offspring. Think Blade minus anything remotely entertaining.

The legend of Bloodrayne reaches a group of vampire hunters from the Brimstone Society led by Vladimir (Michael Madsen) and his partners Katarin (Michele Rodriguez) and Sebastian (Matthew Davis). Vladimir's protégés are skeptical of the prophecy that surrounds the Dhampir, they’re looking to take out Rayne and garner any reward that might come from her violent end. Vladimir on the other hand, believes Rayne may actually be the key figure in the war between vampires and humans.

Naturally, everything comes down to a final showdown between good and evil, and a series of inept action sequences that only a director as incompetent as Uwe Boll can deliver. The dialogue is a bit surprising, as it was written by the talented Guinivere Turner who wrote excellent scripts for American Psycho and her own directorial effort Go Fish. Working outside of her comfort zone in the fantasy/action genre Turner has delivered a script that only Uwe Boll could love. Then again, Boll probably didn't care about the screenplay. 

Filled to overflow with ridiculous battle scenes and nonsense character motivations, Bloodrayne is actually a real hoot if you can step away and appreciate the unintentional camp. As Tara Reid playing a scientist was a big laugh in Boll's previous film Alone In The Dark, Michael Madsen playing a character named Vladimir and delivering portentous speeches about vampire lore is one of the funnier things in any non-comedy I’ve ever seen.. You have to respect Madsen's ability to keep a straight face in these scenes. Madsen's lethargy is all that keeps Bloodrayne from being a legendary camp farce.

The only entertaining aspect of Bloodrayne is the enormous volume of unintentional laughs it draws. I nearly had to leave the theater as my fellow filmgoers shot me dirty looks for my loud guffaws. Not that I was the only one laughing, but some people actually seemed to follow the film, which I also found hysterically funny. Ben Kingsley is a true unintended riot as the vampire king. Only Eddie Redmayne’s legendary over top performance in Jupiter Ascending can match the screen chewing of Kingsley in Bloodrayne. It is  a tour de force of unintended camp.  

Finally, pushing the film's camp quotient into the red is the cameo appearance of the brilliantly over-the-top Billy Zane. As the mysterious leader of the Brimstone Society, Zane's character Elrich is locked away from the main characters in a far-off castle, leaving him to speak aloud to himself and belt every ridiculous line of dialogue all the way to the back of the room. Zane gives a comedy cameo in Bloodrayne that blows away any comedy cameo you have ever seen. That it is not meant to be funny only makes it funnier.

Bloodrayne is nearly so bad it's good. In fact, if you are a brave filmgoer, with a strong sense of camp fun, I might just recommend Bloodrayne.