Kill Bill - Volume Two (2004)

I was lucky last year in that I got to see Kill Bill volume 1 weeks before it was released last year. I thought it was one of the greatest things I've ever seen on film and went on to see it eight times in theaters. I even chose it as the best film of 2003. Surpassing even the mighty Lord of the Rings. Something I thought would never happen. Me being a big Lord of the Rings fan.

So with such high praise for volume 1 my hopes were very high for volume 2. And it more than delivers. Where volume 1 focused more on the action and was fast paced. This one is at a slower pace and is more dialogue driven. Which is what Tarantino does best anyway. At approximately two and a half hours it is also a lot longer than the first one. Don't worry though Kill Bill volume 2 is not without it's share with great fight scenes and memorable new characters. The most memorable is Pei Mei the martial arts master who trained the bride and the other members of the Dead Viper Assassination Squad. Played wonderfully by Gordon Liu (who also played Johnny Mo in volume 1) Pei Mei even over shadows the mighty Hattori Hanzo played by Sonny Chiba in volume 1.

Other memorable performances come from Michael Madsen as Budd a.k.a Sidewinder and David Carradine as Bill. Madsen gives another Mr. Blonde caliber performance as the former assassin turned trailer park alcoholic. Claustrophobics take caution the confrontation between Budd and the Bride is really intense and very claustrophobic. Darryl Hannah is deliciously evil as Elle Driver. She's about as evil as can be. What should be noted is the fight between Elle and the Bride. What is unquestionably one of the most knock down, drag out, intense fights ever put to film. Tarantino pulls no punches here. Huge credit should once again be given to the sound department on this one. You can almost feel ever blow. It is the best fight in the whole of Kill Bill.

Never seen and only heard in volume 1 we finally get to see the performance we've been waiting for. David Carradine is of course great in the title role. He plays the role with such a laid back ease. Both intimidating and cool. You don't know whether to sympathize with the guy or hate him.

Those who said Uma Thurman deserved an Oscar nomination last year will probably say the same thing this year and then some. Where Thurman was praised for the intense action in volume 1, in this one she really goes all out. No longer a nameless assassin out for revenge she is now with a name (to be revealed in the film) and is now seen more as a person then a nameless killer. Not that the nameless killer thing was a bad thing. It was a great action role. This time the emotions come out. Thurman really lets herself go in the emotional scenes. Well worthy of a nomination.

So is Kill Bill volume 2 a worthy conclusion? Absolutely. Is it as action packed as volume 1? No. But that's not a bad thing because we get more of the great Tarantino dialogue. Was there anything I found wrong with the film? Well, there was one little thing. The credits go on forever. So if your like me and you like to sit through the credits you've been warned. Kill Bill volume 2 will not be without it's enemies. Those who didn't like volume 1 will probably not enjoy this one. If you're a fan of volume 1 then you should be more then satisfied.

Matt Putnam

April 02, 2004

Several months ago, eclectic director Quentin Tarantino regaled our senses with a visceral thrill-ride known as "Kill Bill: Volume 1". This first half of Tarantino's epic tale of revenge introduced to the enigmatic former assassin known as the Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) and the circumstances that led her to embark on a quest to `kill Bill'. Mamba miraculously survived an assassination by Bill and his current hit squad (although her entire wedding party was murdered), only to end up in a coma for four years. Once she regained consciousness, she began to exact brutal vengeance on those responsible.

In "Vol. 1" she took out Vernita Green/"Copperhead" (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii/"Cottenmouth" (Lucy Liu). The revenge was purely physical and graphically brutal. It was a veritable assault of visual images and thrilled the audience with the completeness and thoroughness of Mamba's revenge. Fascinatingly, "Kill Bill: Volume 2" is a drastically different film even though it continues the same story. "Vol. 2" takes a more philosophical approach to Mamba's revenge, whereas "Vol. 1" was the more physical approach. While more talkative possessing less action, "Vol. 2" is no less effective than "Vol. 1". What "Vol. 2" brings is the rest of the story that "Vol. 1" rightfully left out. In this concluding episode, we now know more about the history between Bill and Mamba. We learn more about why Bill ordered Mamba's assassination. As an added bonus, after seeing a steely-eyed killing machine in "Vol. 1", we get to see a more vulnerable Mamba in this installment. The combination of the two volumes completes this story. One is the yin to the other's yang. The choice to split the film into two parts now not only seems correct, but essential.

Doubts about Tarantino still having `it' should be full dispelled by this incredible cinematic achievement. "Kill Bill" honors martial-arts films of the past while setting a standard for future films to emulate. "Kill Bill" manages to thrill the senses while challenging the mind. Tarantino showed that he had this talent when he made "Pulp Fiction". "Kill Bill" is the next step in the evolution of Tarantino's work. Where he goes from here is anyone's guess, but it has the potential to be spectacular.

Buy Kill Bill - Volume Two (2004) Now

'Kill Bill Vol. 2' concludes Quentin Tarantino's revenge saga of a femme fatale assasin that seeks revenge on those that attempted to murder when she sought her own life. Like the first volume, the story is told through chapters that alternate between flashbacks and the present action.

Uma Thurman plays the Bride, who was nearly murdered at her own wedding by her former boss, Bill, and her the rest of the members of the Deadly Viper Assasin Squad (I think I got that right). In part one, she awoke after a four year coma to take revenge on two of the lady assasins played by Lucy Liu and Vivica Fox. Now she is after Sidewinder, played by a Tarantine regular Michael Madsen, the California Mountain Snake, played by Daryl Hannah, and Bill himself, played by Kung-Fu's David Carradine.

Where volume one was nearly all action as the Bride took her revenge on two of her former associates while subtly setting up the plot, volume two tones down the action while telling the rest of the story. Tarantino talks about this quite a lot in the DVD featurette. The trademark Tarantino dialogue is featured in key scenes between Marsden and Carradine (talking about revenge and the past) and between Carradine and Thurman (talking about comic book heros and the self we present to others). There are a few writers that have such a distinctive style for dialogue, and Tarantino's is truly unique.

Despite the reduction in action, this is still a great film. If you have an afternoon to spare, I recommend watching both volume one and two consecutively, and then watch the featurettes that talk about the films. Or, watch the films at your leisure, then watch the featurettes and then watch the films again. There is a lot to these films, and some of it is very subtle. Listening to Tarantino and the cast talk about the films opens new ways of looking at them.

Also on the DVD is a commentary, a live performance from the premiere, and a deleted scene. The deleted scene is an homage of sort to old kung-fu and karate movies. It is very over the top, and really had little to do with the rest of the movie. While the film itself lacks the geysers of blood from the first movie, this deleted scene has a few of its own. Watch it at your own risk. While on the subject of gore, there is still plenty of it in this movie. The squeemish will wince in a few places, but the blood is significantly less than the first volume.

This film is part kung-fu movie, part old spaghetti Western, and all revenge flick. Tarantino fans will be delighted. Those that liked 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Reservoir Dogs' should also like this film. Throw this movie in the DVD player the next chance you get, but tuck the kids in first.

Read Best Reviews of Kill Bill - Volume Two (2004) Here

In a telling moment of "Kill Bill Volume 2" Bill's brother, Budd, played in a wonderful understated performance by Michael Madsen, is listening to a recounting of events we saw in Volume 1 specifically when Uma Thuman's Bride single-handedly destroy Lucy Liu's O-Ren Shii and her bodyguard platoon, the "Crazy 88".

Budd asks "You're telling me she cut through eighty-eight bodyguards before she got to O-Ren?"

Brother Bill replies "Nah, there weren't really eighty-eight of them. They just called themselves "The Crazy 88."

Budd asks "How come?"

Bill answers "I don't know. I guess they thought it sounded cool."

There is a LOT in Quentin Tarantino movies that happens because it looks or sounds cool. I'm reminded in "Pulp Fiction" of the dialogue-less scene in the Pawn shop where Bruce Willis is upstairs selecting a weapon to use on the psychotic murdering rapists downstairs. He considers a few lethal clubs and even a chain-saw before settling on the Samurai sword and in the audience I was thinking "YEAH! Get the samurai sword! That'll get 'em!" Plus it's cool.

There is a scene where one of the characters sicks a deadly Black Mamba on another character, then whips out a notebook with pages of hand-written notes about how god-awful deadly the Black Mamba is. The character sits down, flips open the notebook, and delivers an almost pharmacologic description of the lethal venom, along with "'In the bush,' the saying goes, 'a lion can kill you, a leopard can kill you, and the black mamba can kill you. However, only with the mamba is death certain.' Hence its handle, 'Death Incarnate.'" Pretty cool, huh?"

Tarantino's movies are cool, and the characters in them know it. The smallest touches are added, sometimes for no apparent reason other than to add a "cool" factor. All of the members of Bill's Assassination team are called the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad" and they all have "Snake" Code-names. Why? 'Cuz it's cool, of course.

In the beginning, at the wedding rehearsal of the bride, we get to see Samuel Jackson portraying the piano player for the wedding, and is there anyone cooler than Mr. Jackson in the movies? He asserts his coolness by telling how he sat in with practically every R&B group that came through his little town over 2 decades.

The Bride is standing at the alter of her wedding rehearsal when she hears a flute playing a familiar refrain. She follows the notes outside where she finds her old boss and lover, Bill, playing the familiar notes on his old flute. Bill is played by David Carradine, and if movies gave out "comeback of the year" awards like sports does, Mr. Carradine would have earned it in this role, courtesy of Mr. Tarantino. For extra "coolness", the flute that Bill is playing for the Bride is the same one that Carradine played back 30 years ago in his iconic role as Caine in the wildly popular tv series "Kung Fu".

The "Wedding Chapel Massacre" that we're told about in a roundabout way in Volume 1 is set up perfectly in Volume 2, then executed with a single swooping crane shot that backs from the wedding party at the altar, all the way back through the church, down the steps, straight back through the gravel parking lot where the other members of the Assassination Squad are approaching with cool strides and lethal weapons. The crane swoops the camera up overhead and we see the flashes in the church and hear the shots and screams and we KNOW what is happening in there without being shown in gory detail. I can think of no single camera shot as virtuoso since Orson Welles' virtuoso opening to "Touch of Evil".

I haven't told you ANYTHING about the plot, but if you watched Volume 1 you KNOW where the plot is going. There's a surprise or two, but there's delight in every scene. I've read Roger Ebert say that movies aren't as important in "what they're about" as in "how they're about it".

Kill Bill is about Kung-Fu movies and westerns, and the way it's about it is..... cool.

Want Kill Bill - Volume Two (2004) Discount?

Loved part 2 because it provided a balance from the first installment. Tarantino's work is pure genius. I thought, how can Tarantino top Kill Bill Vol. 1? But what he's done in Vol. 2 is flesh out the story. Vol. 1 has incredible fight sequences; Vol. 2 does some sweet character development and gives us the whole story. Uma Thurman really throws herself into the part. You'll be amazed at this conclusion to a masterpiece.

Save 62% Off