Tuesday, October 14, 2003 :::

"Kill Bill" is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Of course, I've seen very few movies recently, but still. (Intriguingly enough, I realize that the last movie I saw was "Pulp Fiction." Ha! Also very good.)

It's very violent, but most of the time it's done so comedically that you're too busy making "The Black Knight always triumphs!" jokes with your neighbor to be squicked. Most of the gore is blood, but it's more of the "spurting" variety. You won't be left with an overwhelming number of gruesome images. Any gratuity is done to black comedic effect. The fight scenes are very well choreographed. It was probably the first fight scene I've ever seen in which one person has fought against a huge number of people and I didn't get the sense that the majority of people was holding off attacking so that the girl could pick them off one at a time.

The cinematography is excellent. Especially apparent in the second half, it's shot to resemble Japanese animation. There are hints of impossible stunts, but it the fight sequences remain on the most part grounded in reality. The style of storytelling is also a treat. It has a sort of looping style -- it goes off on tangents to explain backstory, then springs back to the main plotline. It's very refreshing, very grounded, and very humorous.

My only complaint was the ending. When I went into the theatre, I didn't realize that this was Part 1 of 2. As the credits started to roll, I felt unfulfilled. The story had not fulfilled it's promise! The audience was left asking "And then what happened?" But based on the way events had transpired throughout the film, I found myself with a self-created, self-imposed sense of resolution. I had a good feeling of what would happen next, or what possibly could happen next if the story had been continued. What a brilliant choice for the director! Right then, I absolutely loved the ending. I was therefore incredibly irritated when my friends told me that this was only the first half. So is my ending not good enough for you, Mr. Tarantino? Oh well. If he wanted to finish his tale, I would rather the story be drawn out to its current pace than to have all five murders compressed to under two hours.


In sum, "Kill Bill" receives:

3 9/10 Percys out of four.
::: frowled Priscilla at 11:48 PM