See, when folks where saying about how this was all character-driven, unlike the whacky limbs-akimbo gore-fest of the first one, I was actually excited. I wanted to hear what witty shit Tarantino had come up with these last few years. I wanted to hear more speeches about the Kahoona burgers and the Madonna's and so on. I wanted the words to hit me this time with the force of that guy getting his head crushed in the door last time.
Instead what I got was a scarily accurate homage to bland, meaningless, witless piffle delivered with a droning monotone by every damn character and taking ten minutes to say things like "Where have you been all this time?".
Maybe it's a big joke that the dialogue is so bad, that it's delivered in such a monotonous manner. If it is, though, it's one that should have been kicked the fuck out of the way ten seconds later. Instead it's drawn out to two hours worth of filmic nonsense.
Volume Two fucks up things we were desperately anticipating. The extended wedding scene is here given a load of fatty bullshit in place of the first bout's simple one-shot affair (no pun intended). The stuff that delivers on the cliff-hanger is woefully misjudged. The confrontation which I don't wanna spoil, but which I'll hint at by noting that the title of the picture is Kill Bill, well, that turns out to be a wonderful five minute sequence engulfed by utter crap. Twenty damn minutes worth of utter crap, to be precise.
But this would be nowhere near as disappointing if it wasn't filled with so much brilliance as well. The guy who acts as Michael Madsen's boss in a sleazy barroom is fantastic, and the scene where he disciplines Mr Blonde's lack of punctuality is hilarious. In fact, most of the time Madsen is on screen, it's a joy to be in the theatre. Then twenty minutes of tedium.
The training sequences, glimpsed way back in the very first trailers, back in October or some such, turn out to be worth the wait. They are funny, exhilarating and wondrous to behold, as well as providing a perfect mini-cliff-hanger of their own, and the perfect resolution to such.
I don't wanna say too much plot-wise, cause its best you go in reasonably cold. But if you're expecting, for any insane reason, that this might be, oh, I dunno, Volume Two of the same type of shit that was there last time around, when styles skipped all over the place and it was packed with anime and invention and razzle-dazzle, then disappointment awaits, and it's got a whole script load of head-up-the-arse bollocks to regale you with.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
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"?
2 - Al Barger
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.
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
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.
4 - Jeff B.
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.
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
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