Who is to blame for the ever-growing ego of writer-director Quentin Tarantino? There is no question his first films, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, are classics (especially the latter film), 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. 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 in this movie that are great; however, the good parts are outweighed by the many times you wish Tarantino would just cut to another shot of something else-anything else.
The sequel continues where the first movie began: Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction, Batman & Robin) 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 Vol.1, The Bride began her "roaring rampage of revenge," and killed two of the assassins in Bill's group, portrayed by Vivica A. Fox (Independence Day) and Lucy Liu ("Ally McBeal," Charlie's Angels). Now, in Vol. 2, she's gunning for Budd, Bill's brother and Elle Driver, a nemesis if there ever was one. After offing them, she will finally ... well, kill Bill-just read the title of the movie.
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, but it's much too rare in the film. The only other major actor in Vol. 2 who can make us interested is Michael Madsen, as Budd. Even the title character, Bill 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 in the world would say these lines.
Having said all of this, Tarantino certainly knows how to make his movie look good. The cinematography is lush and lavish, as is the production design. Even when the movie reverts to black-and-white (to dodge an NC-17 rating), it offers a feast for our eyes. Let it be said, Tarantino knows how to keep us interested, though we can probably predict what's going to happen next.
If you saw Kill Bill, Vol. 1, you know 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 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 basically every scene with Madsen, who steals the show, and when Samuel L. Jackson makes a witty little cameo.
One of the film's biggest problems, the sequence where Budd throws a new roadblock in The Bride's direction, ruins all suspense for the movie; it is literally the first thing we see-the opening scene. We can merely assume 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 Quentin Tarantino is talented. I will continue to look at Pulp Fiction for proof of that. And, the two Kill Bill movies have sequences and segments of pure, raw cinematic talent. But, mere sequences and segments, however, do not a good movie make, and they never will.
Josh Spiegel is an entertainment reporter for the Web Devil. Reach him at joshua.spiegel@asu.edu
