Who is it, I wonder, to blame for the ever-growing ego of writer-director Quentin Tarantino? There is no question that his first films, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, are classics (especially the latter film). I can't comment on Jackie Brown, having only seen parts of it, but his last two films, Kill Bill, Vol.1 and his newest, Kill Bill, Vol. 2 are the works of a man who thinks he is one of the greatest directors of all time. I wish someone would dissuade Tarantino of such ideas, since it's obvious he's letting his success with Pulp Fiction go to his head, and it's screwing up his other movies.
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 is a movie in search of a good editor. There are many moments of this movie that are great. However, the good parts of this movie are outweighed by the many times when you wish Tarantino would just cut to another shot of something else, anything else.
If you've seen the first film, you're already familiar with the plot. Uma Thurman plays the Bride, a woman who was shot and left for dead at her wedding while carrying the child of the man who shot her, Bill. In the first part, the Bride began her "roaring rampage of revenge," and killed two of the assassins in Bill's group, portrayed by Vivica A. Fox (always the sign of a bad movie, in my book, with Independence Day as the exception) and Lucy Liu. Now, she's gunning for Budd, Bill's brother and Elle Driver, a nemesis if there ever was one. After them, she will finally...well, just read the title of the movie.
It's not fair to place any blame with anyone aside from Tarantino or his editor, Sally Menke. The acting in the film is...well, I won't say "good" because there was a problem that runs from the first installment to Vol. 2 and I finally put my finger on it. For some reason, the actors, with the exception of a few, never get into their roles very well.
There are points when Thurman digs deeper than Tarantino would probably have liked her to, and we get some emotional depth. Ah, but it's much too rare in the film and the only other major actor in the second part who can make us interested is Michael Madsen, as Budd. Even the title character, played by David Carradine, can only do so much with his frighteningly small role. I kept trying to figure out why the Bride (and, yeah, you find out her name in this movie; it's, unsurprisingly, not that big a deal), or any woman, would fall in love or lust with a guy like this. Only once or twice does Carradine sport a quirky charm that would make him the least bit attractive. Frankly, watching the actors speak Tarantino's words is like watching a monotonous script reading. There are very few moments where you can actually believe anyone would say these lines in any world.
Having said all of this, Tarantino certainly knows how to make his movie look good. The cinematography, courtesy of Robert Richardson, is lush and lavish, as is the production design. Even when the movie reverts to black-and-white (all to dodge the NC-17 rating), our eyes are offered a feast. Let it be said that Quentin Tarantino knows how to keep us interested, though we can probably predict what's going to happen next. The music didn't seem nearly as intrusive or important to the second part as it was with the first, but the melodies are toe-tapping.
And then there are the fight scenes. If you saw Kill Bill, Vol. 1, you know that the fights are the central point of the movie. Here, they are the film's greatest asset and the greatest flaw. Whenever there is a fight scene (and there are only a couple), the film comes truly alive. I felt myself flying to the edge of my seat during the action-packed bits. But that's all they are. Bits. Bits and pieces. Vol. 1 was all fight scenes, but here the fights start and end, seemingly, in the same instant. Just when I kept thinking that Vol. 2 would come alive, bloodily and viciously, the fight scenes would end. The only non-action points of the movie where things get crackling are when Samuel L. Jackson makes a witty little cameo and basically every scene with Madsen.
Madsen is the one who steals the show, all things told. He's able to imbue a bit of empathy into his character, a man who's warned to watch out for the Bride but refuses to change his destiny, which is to die at her hand. He acknowledges that she deserves to get her revenge, and seems to sleepwalk through the final days of his life. Even when he tries to stop her, you get the firm feeling that this is a guy who's just trying to stay his own execution.
The other female character in the film, played by Daryl Hannah, is not really a full-fledged role; it's more like a stereotype, which is what both movies are. She's just a vividly drawn cartoon character who's only meant to be a mini-villain for the Bride to truly hate. I realize that Tarantino is trying to pay homage and tribute to the grindhouse movies, but there's a reason those movies didn't get wide releases; Kill Bill, Vol. 2 is proof.
The sequence where Budd throws a new roadblock in the Bride's direction leads to the film's biggest problem. The opening scene (the very first thing we see, seriously) ruins all suspense for the movie. We can merely assume that the Bride will kill Bill by film's end, but the beginning of Vol. 2 kills any hope of tension in the following two hours. Why not just show Bill getting killed at the beginning if we want to ruin things?
I am sure that Quentin Tarantino is talented. I will continue to look at Pulp Fiction for proof of that. The two Kill Bill movies have sequences and segments of pure, raw cinematic talent. Sequences and segments, however, do not a good movie make, and they never will.
Two and a Half Stars out of Four
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at Joshua.Spiegel@asu.edu
