Plot
Four years after surviving a bullet in the head, the bride emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her former master and his deadly squad of international assassins.
Analysis It's been six long years since Tarantino last put his undeniably talented Writer/Director head on to bring us the twisting plot of 'Jackie Brown'. A few distractions have presented themselves along the way in the form of his Producing duties on the ever diluting 'Dusk Till Dawn' series, but his elusive new creation seemed along way away. But, just like buses, we not only get one new action movie to drool over, we get the follow up a few months latter, fabulous.
To our benefit it would appear that Tarantino has spent much of his six year sabbatical sitting on his couch watching old spaghetti western, Italian horror and martial arts movies as the influences these cinematic styles have on his new movie 'Kill Bill' is overwhelmingly obvious. The plot is basic at best involving the attempted murder of Black Mamba, an ex female member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. On the day of her wedding and heavily pregnant the blushing bride is turned into the gushing bride as her fellow assassins coldly murder everyone in the little church finally putting a bullet into the head of The Bride to be. Four years latter she awakens from her deep coma and begins her long journey of revenge.
Teaming up again with 'Pulp Fiction' smack head Uma Thurman we are treated to a playfully vengeful performance as the bitter killer, carving her way through anyone who gets between her and Assassin big cheese Bill. She pulls off one of her most memorable roles to date even, in my opinion, out stripping her previous iconic role as Mia Wallace in 'Pulp Fiction'. Standing proud complete with day glow yellow track suit and Samaria sword, she looks every part deadly cool sexy assassin.
Tarantino's attention to style has never been more omnipresent than it is here going that extra mile to ensure that the Japanese martial arts influence is kept as close to the original source as possible. Digital effects were strictly forbidden and the use of squibs or pumps for the gore effects were replaced with an old technique made popular in old Kung Fu films which involved condoms full of fake blood. Speaking of fake blood, instead of a single generic red colour, Tarantino insisted on different shades of blood colour similar again to some older Japanese movies. In addition to this level of detail we also have several relatively unique and effective segment styles including a mixed up story chronology with the middle part first followed by the beginning, now a typical Tarantino flare. Also we have an absolutely fabulous 10 minute animated section mid flow telling the story behind the character that our revengeful heroin faces off against at the end of the film. This animation is uber violent and allows the boundaries to be pushed just a little further than the censors would have allowed if it had been film footage. Finally we get a moment when the film changes to black and white during the final fight scene that see's The Bride up against the forces of the Crazy 88 gang.
From a genre fans point of view, this has to rank as Tarantinos most outstanding work to date with the almost perfect balance of horrific Manga style gore and chop shop action. His passion for the type of films that most mainstream media look down their noses at is a breath of fresh air and places many so called high-brow film reviewers in the awkward position of saying "It's a Tarantino film so it should score well, but it's mindless action and gore so it should score down". Keep your eye's peeled for double standards galore!
Key Area |
Rating (out of 5)
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Comment |
Action
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The action and violence has never been so closely bound as they are here, as every sword fight is followed by a gush of plasma and every punch is followed by a cracking of bone. Interestingly for an action film, you never actually see a gun even though they are used a couple of times during key scenes.
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Tension
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This isn't a horror film and as such draws it's tension purely from the atmosphere surrounding the action scenes.
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Violence/
Gore
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The comic book violence is brought to bloody life with no holds bared fight scenes that depict multiple limb severages, decapitations, gapping slashes and other such gruesome acts. There has been no dilution of the blood soaked scenes that play out like a cross between 'The Matrix' and Peter Jackson's 'Dead Alive'.
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Bare Flesh
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None
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Tarantino has never been overly bothered with unnecessary nudity and this movie is no exception.
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Plot
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The plot is a very effective show ground for the films stylish violence and mayhem, but ultimately its a basic plot of deceit and revenge.
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Verdict It's a good kick in the balls for Hollywood when a director with the global industry respect that Tarantino has, releases a violently gory and brash movie that takes no prisoners and makes no excuses for itself. He has basically crafted a film for passionate genre movie fans and has done an outstanding job of it, but don't get me wrong, if you liked his previous films then you might like this but it is with horror and action fans in mind that 'Kill Bill' has been created.
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Facts, figures and boobs
1.
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Quentin Tarantino delayed the start of the production because Uma Thurman was pregnant.
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2.
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Uma Thurman's yellow track-suit is a direct homage to the one worn by Bruce Lee in 'Game of Death'.
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3.
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In order to achieve the specific look of Chinese "wuxia" (martial arts) film of the 1970s, Tarantino gave director of photography, Robert Richardson, an extensive list of genre films as a crash-course in the visual style they used. The list included films by genre-pioneers Cheh Chang and the Shaw Brothers. Tarantino also forbade the use of digital effects and "professional" gags and squibs. As such, he insisted that bloody spurts be done in the fashion made popular by Chang Cheh: Chinese condoms full of fake blood that would splatter on impact.
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4.
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During filming of the swordfighting scenes, actress Uma Thurman accidentally cut open the arm of fellow actor David Carradine. He however, bruised frequently in the past from recording so many other films, didn't really seem to take much notice of his arm hanging in shreds.
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5.
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The members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are all named for snakes: Sidewinder, Black Mamba, Cottonmouth, Copperhead, and California Mountain (King)snake.
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6.
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When the Bride said the word "square" to Copperhead, she draws a square in the air with her finger. Uma Thurman's character in 'Pulp Fiction' did the same thing.
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What other people thought of this film: - |
Drew |
This movie couldn't have come at a better time - Hollywood forgot what draws an audience; crazy action and martial arts WITHOUT Steven Segal. Rock on, can't wait for the next one!
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Fouad Yammine |
Definetely No1 Tarantino movie to date ! Beautiful soundtrack too ! |
Steven Tompson |
The movie is real good, I evin love the action through out the movie. But is all that blood necisary?
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Josh Rivers |
Best Tarantino movie ive seen so far action and bloody love the actors in it good stuff. |
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