The Duke On "Kill Bill Volume 2"
Published April 28, 2004
In short, The Duke came out of the first one with a thirst, a craving for more. I wanted to see it again, and I wanted to see the next one immediately. You don't leave a motherfucker hanging after a cliff-hanger like that, man, that's just mean is what.
Kill Bill Volume 1 was a delight from start to end as far as The Duke was concerned, dishing out the ridiculous and the poignant with demented relish.
So imagine my bitterness then, that this Part 2 - The Continuation Of The Killing Mentioned Earlier, has gone and disappointed The Duke like a motherfucker.
Why, man, that's what you're thinking, right? How can that be? How can that be the case, The Duke, when it was one film in the first place just cut in two? Surely if the first half was so damn good then this next bit would be its equal at least?
Well let me tell you a story about a film by the name of Sister Act. Sure, the first hour is hilarious and there's some crazy nonsense and Whoopi Goldberg does some singing and then tells a joke about the nuns.
But next thing you know, it goes and gets rancid on us.
Well Kill Bill Part 2 isn't rancid, and in fact, chances are after I see it again a time or two I'll be saying about how this is a masterpiece and how I told y'all, back when y'all were saying it was rancid and so on, I told you how great this was.
Thing is, when I came out of the cinema back in December after the first instalment, I was thirsting to see it again. This time, it feels like a chore.
At the minute, roughly an hour after the credits have rolled, after the sneaky joke about how magpies, the thieves of their species, are really winged geniuses and how they're really deserving of your respect, after all that, I feel kinda deflated is what.
For one thing, anyone who had doubts about the whole 2-film situation will probably have them pretty much eliminated after this. Simply, this has neither the pace, the energy, the wit or the gleeful ramshackle sense of Merrie Melody lunacy that the first one had. What this has is a lot of bits lifted from Sergio Leone, a lot lifted from Lucio Fulci, a bit more lifted from John Ford, and ages and ages and ages of utterly pathetic dialogue.
The Duke (Aaron McMullan to his parents and the clergy) is a Northern Irish writer, performer and insomniac currently residing in London. He is the creator of Mondo Irlando, wherein his scribblings and hollerings can be found. He is currently working towards the completion of his first novel, and his debut "punk / country / folk / whatever" album has recently been released by Ex Libris Records . You can also pop by His MySpace Page and maybe have a coffee and a biscuit.
- The Duke On "Kill Bill Volume 2"
- Published: April 28, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Action, Video: Adventure, Video: Drama, Video: Suspense and Mystery, Video: Westerns
- Writer: Duke De Mondo
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Gee, el Duke-o, sorry there wasn't enough spurting blood and flashing lights to service your ADD, but Those Who Know will tell you that Kill Bill, Volume 2 was a much more engaging movie than the very entertaining cartoon that was Volume 1.
I'll note just a couple of things to be thinking on with a second viewing. First, the Bud character. Consider the shame and humiliation of this formerly big league assassin being treated so thoroughly like dirt in this nothing little bar. Think how consumed with guilt or something he must have felt to have been willing to endure that. Fascinating cross-motivations going through this guy.
The payoff of the whole thing was the family scene at Bills. Those precious few minutes are SO incredibly invested. It's an amazing film moment when she walks in on Daddy and daughter.
You need to think about this one some more.
Al, it wasn't the absense of flashing lights or blood. It was the absense of very much of anything. It seemed entirely hollow. Good point about Bud by the way. As i said, Michael Madsen was really quite wonderful, and you've illustrated something i may have missed. Maybe i'll "get" it next time around, but thing is, i kinda "got" it this time too, its just that i didn't particularly want it. No-one wants to hear twenty minutes of bullshit being spouted, man. The performances were flat as hell a lot of the time. But i think if i hadn't been so unimpressed by the bill/bride meet-up (and i wasn't expecting blood and gore and so on, but something, if they'd talked about something in an interesting manner, perhaps. Bill's speech, as one reviewer pointed out in Total Film, sounded like someone trying to "do" tarantino) then i probably would be a lot more postivie. Up until the last chapter, pretty much everything was wonderful. I need to watch it again, and think about it some more as you said. Incidently, my fiancee, who thought the first one was shit, loved part 2. She didn't even want to go see it, and came out with a big grin. Then she yelled at me for gettin all analytical.
You should check out Mark T. Conard's interpretation of KB, both volumes on metaphilm.com:
http://metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=200_0_2_0
http://metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=310_0_2_0_M
He gives a really interesting psychological interpretation of the movies.
Jeff B.
Thanks Jeff, i'll do that in the immediate future. I'm sure it's nowhere near as awe-inspiring as The Duke's analysis tho. As Plato said, "When it comes to the intellectual discussion of Filmic Affairs, ain't no motherfucker can touch The Duke"
Thanks Plato
Thanks Jeff
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The last funny movie Whoopie Goldberg made was the one where she gets her dress caught in a paper shredder. She then went on the pro wrassling circuit.
I really liked the episodes of "Vamprire Whisky Drinking Truck Driving Righteous Motherfuckers" but man, does Harvey Keitel One need a drink or what. Anyways, I've not seen the newest installment of the "Killing of Bill Again", really, I'm not seeing it until it comes out on DVD or I get a bootleg screener on bittorrent.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, why does Carradine get so much love for a movie he did a couple of years ago, but gets squat for a quite good appearance on "Alias"?