3 hours 50 minutes | Rated R18 (Graphic violence & offensive language)
Kill Bill Vol. 1: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” – Old Klingon proverb. Uma Thurman is The Bride, left for dead after a wedding day massacre kills everyone in attendance. Awakening from a four-year coma, The Bride sets into action a plan of revenge on those responsible. She will travel to Japan, procure a very special sword, and commence battle with the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS), her former colleagues. The last name on her death list is Bill, her former employer, and lover, and the man responsible for the brutal attack.
Split over two films, Uma Thurman’s roaring rampage of revenge is one of the most purely entertaining films in years, perhaps since Tarantino’s own Pulp Fiction. With Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, and David Carradine as Bill.
Kill Bill Vol. 2: The Bride (Uma Thurman) had five on her list. Now there are three. O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green were the first to fall, now The Bride is out to finish the job by killing Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Budd (Michael Madsen), and last of all, Bill (David Carradine). Whereas Volume 1 drew on the influences of, among others, Asian martial-arts and manga cinema, Volume 2 changes gear stylistically as the southern US setting pays homage to the dual pedigree of Italian western director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone in Tarantino’s self-described “macaroni western”. Thurman is terrific in a physically demanding role, Carradine gives the performance of his career, and Samuel L. Jackson contributes a cameo.
