Welcome back to your favorite review series and mine: THE QUENTIN TARANTINO EXPERIMENT! On today's very special episode, we'll see what happens when Oz watches Kill Bill: Vol. 1.
WARNING: IF YOU BITCH ABOUT SPOILERS YOU WILL BE GETTING THE SAKE FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS.
So, its time for the boring ass back story on my first experience with this movie. I was in high school. A friend said "this movie is so awesome we have to watch it!" I had somehow managed to have just me and her in the house and I drank my 3rd or 4th rum and coke of my life out of a bottle of Captain Morgan that had been in the pantry for years. I didn't like the movie whatsoever. Done? Done.
Let us fast forward 9 years. I now have two degrees, can legally drink, and way more life experience than I ever wanted. This time I'm watching the movie with a new friend who had told me to just give it another look.
As a kid, I used to love action movies. If there was fighting and things blowing up, odds are I'd bond with my dad over it. Now I never got into the Bruce Lee/Bolo Yeung type stuff, but I definitely ate up some Jean Claude Van Damme, Stallone, and Swayze in Road House. So when I first saw this movie, I didn't get the homage. After college, I've seen enough clips of the 70s kungfu genre in a drunken stupor to get it. Hell, I enjoyed the shit out of some Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) movies in college.
So I get it now. Did I like it? Well let's find out.
We start out with a bleeding bride on the floor a church in her wedding dress. Bill says some weird shit, then shoots her in the head. Credits and Coma time!!! We find the title of the flick is Kill Bill (as if you didn't already know), and that this is volume 1!
Amazingly QT doesn't do a long take of the coma. We jump towards the end of her four year coma to find out the Bride has been getting pimped out by Buck who likes to fuck while in her coma. There's that QT sense of unnecessary! Does her getting raped while in a coma really add anything to the movie other than means for her to steal a car?
Anyway, the story on this one is only told slightly out of order. The Bride is getting revenge on the people who tried to kill her on her wedding day. One dick and cunt at a time. Straight forward, no interconnecting stories with seemingly random characters. 1 Character, 1 story, 1 purpose. My God. Are we sure this is a QT movie?
All the QT trademarks are there. Excessive swearing, violence, 70s cereals, surf music, bare feet, trunk and corpse view. Even the snappy banter between the Bride and the victims on her hit list is more reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction than the awful, stilted crap that was in Jackie Brown.
The action scenes, while absolutely fucking ridiculous, are fun and don't feel choppy. There's not a bit of shaky cam to be found and you can actually see the fights. The anime bits are well animated and interesting to look at. Many are even set up beautifully. The bright colors, soundtrack, and scenery make the violence have a lighthearted quality for most of the movie. Then when it matters: a final showdown (2 of which we see in this movie) the score becomes dark and the scenes juxtapose with beauty (the snow scenery) and the american dream (house, kid, and a kitchen). Wait..that's...good filmmaking.
Another overlooked element to balance out the sheer weight and drama of the horrors done to The Bride and the horror's she's committing, is the sound. As is his usual schtick, QT sets everything to music from the 50's-70's and its often happy go lucky surf music. Something minor you may not notice is the cartoon sound effects throughout the movie. These are actually really well timed and pretty damn hilarious once you start noticing them.
The characters, even those that are barely in it, have an aura about them that make you want to hear their backstory. Gogo was freaking awesome and it's a shame so little of the movie focused on her. How did Copperhead go from assassin to housewife? Whats the relationship between Bill and Hanzo? Who the fuck is going to get the sake? Not since Reservoir Dogs have I actually been interested in the characters before the movie and what brought them to this point.
Dear God, I think I liked this movie. Is it perfect? Far from it. I'm going to bullet my issues here just because its quicker and I don't think depth is really needed.
-You absolutely CANNOT think during this movie. Don't think about any science you know. It will destroy your suspension of disbelief. Not that I have a problem with ridiculousness, but being able to get in a car after 4 years in a coma even though she had just fallen out of bed was insane. Also, how'd she get in the wheelchair and why were her arms strong enough to slam that door and wheel that chair around? Those fuckers are heavy.
-By letting people know this was volume 1, everyone one knew there was no threat to the Bride. At all. You knew she wouldn't die or otherwise it wouldn't be titled Kill Bill since Bill is only seen by his hands and heard in this movie.
-A few lingering gross-out shots are completely unnecessary as they add nothing to the movie other than just to make you roll your eyes at QT's desire to be a 12 year old boy again.
So final verdict? This movie's fun and actually has elements that show thought and strategic filmmaking from Tarantino. Is it the best thing ever? Nah. Is it even the best movie he's made? Nope. But it sure as hell was entertaining. It was almost refreshing as I watched it this time around. And I'm as surprised as you guys are.
I give it 7 out of 10 Uma Thurman's nasty ass toes.
I just googled Uma Thurman's feet for you people. I can't wait to see what my next recommended for your interests ads say.
The score is tied up. Its 2-2 folks. Tune in next time for Kill Bill Volume 2.
Likes swords and baseball,
-Oz
Very,very,very,very,very,very exciting feet.
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