Film review: Kill Bill Vol. 1(long)

[MyTurn2Raise]

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You're reviewing 1 half of a movie, you know.

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Skeme is correct. The movies are really one. It was just cut-up because the studios balked at the length of "Kill Bill." It should be evaluated as one whole movie, which makes it a 4 in my book on the scale previously given.

[Blarg]

It would be better seen as one very long movie, but I still wouldn't give it a 4 on that basis.

It would have to be re-cut, so we didn't have one half so lifeless and void of character and so completely outshone by the second half.

I'm thinking that the way Tarantino envisioned the film, if he did indeed originally envision it as a single very long film, was not with the editing it has now. It's far too unbalanced. I think he popped the first one full of action sequences to help make the other one still sellable, and because if you put half the plot and background in one movie and half in another, you'd have two incomplete films that both felt very confusing. Coming to the second one a while after having watched the first, especially, would have been an uncomfortable experience -- starting in the middle with half the plot hazy or forgotten. And for anyone seeing the second who hadn't seen the first, the second would be totally incomprehensible.

Thus, the unfortunate structure we have at present. I wouldn't be surprised if Tarantino re-edits them significantly when he releases them as a combined set. It's just the kind of flashy, controversial thing he'd like to do, too. If it happens, I bet the new film is much better.

[pryor15]

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For a kung fu flick fan, there are a lot of tricks Tarantino didn't pick up.

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well, he'd been stealing from Godard and Traffaut for a long time and didn't pick up too many of those tricks either.

[-Skeme-]

He steals from everything. I still love him, though. Kill Bill is one of my favorite movies.

[diebitter]

Well, KB1+2 are pretty shallow, fun popcorn flicks IMO.

To me, much of the dialogue sounds like someone trying to do QT, not him doing it. 'Wakey, Wakey, Eggs and Baccy', FFS! And that stupid speech about superman....ugg.

They are nowhere near as good as Pulp Fiction (still his best work IMO) or Res Dogs, or even the ponderous Jackie Brown.

I would dismiss him as a creative talent just yet though. He is the man behind 'Pulp Fiction', 'True Romance' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn', after all.

I just think he needs to try some different genres.

[Blarg]

I hated that wakey wakey line too, but I liked the superman speech.

Of course, it's not a topper to the speeches in Pulp Fiction and True Romance, but I do think it's a small miracle Tarantino managed to make even David Carradine look good.

[pryor15]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You're reviewing 1 half of a movie, you know.

[/ QUOTE ]

Skeme is correct. The movies are really one. It was just cut-up because the studios balked at the length of "Kill Bill." It should be evaluated as one whole movie, which makes it a 4 in my book on the scale previously given.

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i thought i read somewhere in a QT interview that it was a "mutual decision" or that it was originally his idea.

i could be thinking of something else, though

[pryor15]

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To me, much of the dialogue sounds like someone trying to do QT, not him doing it. 'Wakey, Wakey, Eggs and Baccy', FFS! And that stupid speech about superman....ugg.

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my thought while watching the first one was "this all sounds like a rough draft of scenes he couldn't fit into his other movies"

it just didn't have that same spark.

[Blarg]

"Mutual decision" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in Hollywood that it might elsewhere.

Think: "I'm not getting fired; I'm leaving to pursue exciting new opportunities!"

[pryor15]

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"Mutual decision" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in Hollywood that it might elsewhere.

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good point.