Kill Bill: Volume 1 Reviews

The fight scene a the end of this movie was just amazing, The Bride versus the Crazy 88's. What a great film.

A former member of The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad is betrayed and left for dead on her wedding day and sets about revenging herself upon her erstwhile colleagues. Quentin Tarantino has often been accused of plagiarism in the past, and Kill Bill not only happily acknowledges his many homages it positively revels in them, right from the "Shawscope" intro screen. His films are clearly a labour of love and every reference, every shot, every song on the wittily compiled soundtrack, even every sound effect has been carefully selected. Tarantino's films are not, as many po-faced critical snobs suggest, style over substance because the style IS the substance. This is a movie for the movie lover and Tarantino's skill is in his ability to seamlessly blend so many genres, from anime to martial arts to samurai to film noir to spaghetti western to blaxploitation and create something entirely his own. If his audience dried up, I'm in no doubt that he would continue making films even if it cost him his last dollar, for the sheer pleasure of it and if it ever came down to that, I'd happily chip in.

Revenge and style blended together and its best. Tarantino is my favorite director and this film (along with vol 2) is a huge reason why. Watch if you haven't and if you have.......well then watch again! It's that good.

I truly think Director, Quentin Tarantino is a fine talent with great vision and a love for dialogue, but i truly think Kill Bill is a over done piece of work filled with too much as his mixed genre piece of spaghetti westerns, kung-fu martial arts and samurai films. The Japanese animation scene was a little weird, especially trying to tell the background story to one of the villains that took way too long to tell. It was filled with some ridiculous action that was fun from time to time and has fun soundtrack.

Pop style of revenge and kung fu film.

Quentin Tarantino has done it again. Excessive violence (to a point to where the screen is black & white) crafty dialogue, simple storyline/plot, but fantastic visualization. Kill Bill is to die for especially in the hands of it's leading blade-swinging heroine Uma Thurman. 4/5

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a pure fun from director/writer Quentin Tarantino. It certainly lacks the depth and the well written dialogue of his best film Jackie Brown, which is still to date his best film, but serves a bucket full of craazy stunts and far out visual ideas.
Volume 1 mixest martial arts and kung-fu films into exploitation films and throwns in even some well concieved touches of anime and Brian De Palma. Tarantino is very good in mixing these elements together but as a filmmaker he is lacking his own style. He is too clearly borrowing from other maestros here and ends up being something closer to a n DJ than a director with own voice. His own cinematic laguage is sadly lost in the middle of all the mayhem and visual razzle dazzle.
Uma Thurman is in one of her best performances here and there are juicy supporting roles from Daryl Hannah, Julie Dreyfus and Lucy Liu here.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 might not be nothing more than a pure entertainment, but at least it is very well made entertainment with style and eye for nice details.

When my uncle said this was his favourite film I knew to expect something good and I wasn't dissapointed. The best way to describe Kill Bill: Volume 1 is as a love letter to Japanese Chanbara movies, you can strongly see Quentin Tarantino's influences (which is a good thing) and his love for what he has created, and God dammit I love it too.

O-Ren Ishii: Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with Samurai swords. 

"Here Comes The Bride"

Kill Bill is a signature Quentin Tarantino film. It's got everything that makes his films so fun. It's got snappy, quick dialogue. It's got violence on violence on violence, which is shown in a stylish way. And it's cool. Tarantino's Kill Bill is a smart, quick moving, highly involving, samurai sword toting, revenge film. There are a shit load of revenge movies out there. Some are good, but most are bad. Kill Bill is definitely on the good side, and will be a genre staple for a long, long time. 

The Bride was supposed to get married, but was viciously assaulted and left for dead. Nine people did die, including her fiancé, and the baby inside her. She goes into a coma for a while. When she awakens, she puts a list together. On it are all the people who were to blame for her predicament. Last on the list is Bill, her former employer. There's a lot of sword fighting in Kill Bill, which could be a good thing, but could also be a bad thing. Here, it is good. The sword fighting scenes are choreographed great. There's high energy in them and a ridiculous amount of style, as well. 

I don't think this is Tarantino's best film out there, but it is a hell of a fun time. He tells the story, again out of order. The first woman we see The Bride kill, is actually second on the list. When she goes to cross the person out, number one is already crossed out. Don't worry though, you'll se how that happened in all its bloody glory. The film jumps around from situation to situation, never linearly though. The films scenes still play out in Tarantino's signature style, where scenes are long and epic.

Kill Bill is all the fun you've heard it was. It's fast and grand. Tarantino knows how to make his movies come alive. It isn't like we are merely watching them, but more like we are taking part in them, as they seem to leap of the screen. Uma Thurman is a blast to watch as The Bride. She's everything her character called for. She's athletic, intelligent, and a little sexy, but not too sexy. It's not up there with his masterpieces like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, but it certainly is a great movie in its own respects. 

Quentin Tarantino never seizes to amaze me, and the first instalment of the Kill Bill duo is jaw-droppingly awesome! Uma Thurman gives an unbelievably realistic performance as she portrays an unnamed character who is only in pursuit of having a new life. We follow "The Bride" as she is in pursuit to murder the people who tried to murder her at her on her wedding day, but failed, killing her unborn daughter in the process. This film is crazy, gory, creative, inventive, story-driven, and performance-based. I love this film and I cannot wait to see the conclusion. This is probably one of my favourite martial arts films of all time. "Kill Bill" is a well-constructed masterpiece!

Good times

Quentin Tarantino. A masterful artist that created "Kill Bill Vol. 1" to be a pitch-perfect spectacle. The entire picture flows so smoothly. This is what cinema is all about. The pacing is great until the very end; I found the ending fight scene to be a bit tacky but other then that, almost everything about this movie is perfect.

Pretty awesome.

My FAVORITE film of all time. When I saw this in the theater for the first time it was like Tarantino came through the screen and kicked me in the mouth. The blending of style, music, and performances is perfect.

A fun movie that alludes to Samurai films of old. It has ones of the best fight scenes of the decade.

Tarantino's ADD brainchild...but I'm not complaining.

You know, there is one thing that makes me always sad when I ever ask people about this film. It would be that they think they know everything about this film by thinking that it is nothing more then a complete gore fest. Well, looking at the last forty five minutes, I do not blame them. But, why this makes me sad is because they are only seeing half of the film. Not the entire movie. When this film was originally made, it was meant to be like The Godfather, Once Upon A Time In America, films that were giant, epic tales that had a rather large running time. Now, originally when this film was made, Miramax had the film split in half with one part being release in the fall of 2003 and the other half being released in the spring of 2004. The only thing that done was make people think this was a complete gore fest. That is far from the truth. What this film REALLY is is a tribute to the great Italian Spaghetti Westerns, Hong Kong action films, and the rape/abuse revenge films of the sixties to eighties. The director Quentin Tarantino has always been a fan of these types of films, so for him to make this film was only a matter of time. Now, with directing, you are getting typical Tarantino turned up with this film. The best examples with this part of the film that show him perfecting his talent were the entire Battle Of Blue Leaves fight climax (even more with the fight scene with Oren Ishii). Just, it is a beautiful piece of film making and just hard as hell to do. So, I give Tarantino props for making it like that. The second scene that show his direction being perfect would be the sequence with Sonny Chiba at the end of Chapter Four when The Black Mamba (Uma Thurman) gets her sword. Next the acting. Let's say, for example, that this film was made by someone else. If that was to happen, the acting would be mediocre at best. But, with this film, the acting is better then expected with everyone giving grade 'A' performances. Now, like with part two, the only person that needs talk about is Uma Thurman as she gives the performance of her life playing this character that was not only physically abusive, but at times mentally due to how dedicated she was for this film. Watching this film, you can not help it, but you just find yourself stunned that she put herself through this much pressure just to make this film great. The rest of the cast is well acted out by themselves, with a little bit of cartoony characterization added by the actors that just top this film off. Next the script. Now, as I have said, this was meant to be a complete three hour plus epic, so this film focuses on the action part with little plot or substance. We are told only that The Bride was screwed over and wants revenge. But, we are never told why she is, what she has done to deserve what had happened to her, or even her name. That, in my opinion, is genius work on Tarantino's writing. I like how he made her so unrepeatable that we start actually wondering and caring about this character, until we learn who she really is. Now, the film gives numerous hints, but unless you know what to look for, you will find yourself not relating to her at all. Finally the score. This film was a shock to me because this is the first time that he had someone original to work on the film. And he ended up getting Wu Tang Clan member RZA to do the soundtrack. With the exception of a few pieces that are original, most of the soundtrack are respectable remixes of other songs that have now become legend to pop culture. Some piece include the 5,6,7,8's Woo Hoo (which, they have a small appearance in the film near the end as themselves), Quincy Jones' Ironside (AKA: Flash back music), Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), Neu!'s Super 16, and Tomoyasu Hotei's A Battle Without Honor Or Humanity. It is hard to imagine, that before Tarantino and RZA touched these songs, they were forgotten in history. Well, for bring them back, they only made the soundtrack beyond awesome. Overall, this is a heavy stylized, bloody first half of a film that leaves you beyond hungry for more.

The soundtrack, the story, the mosquito feeding with her blood as she wake up from a coma, the samurai references. You're the man Quentin!

"The 4th film by Quentin Tarantino" we are told in big bold lettering, almost as big as the title itself. It has now become an event filled with anticipation when the one time video store clerk releases a film. One thing is for sure though, when entering into his violent world of cool amoral criminals, snappy dialogue and cult music selection, you're in no doubt when you're on Tarantino's territory.
Shot in the head and left for dead on her wedding day by her colleagues "The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad", a former assassin known as 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman) wakes from a coma four years later, intent on revenge. She makes a 'death list' of the five people involved and number five on her list is former boss and lover Bill (David Carradine), but first she has to go through the others one by one.
That pesky Tarantino has gone and done it again. He may well plagiarise but his knowledge of world cinema and the heavy influence it has on his films, in some ways, allows a wider audience to access some wonderful cinematic ideas they normally wouldn't. He borrows but also betters. The collision of influences this time are Japanese anime, spaghetti westerns, Samurai and Yakuza pics. It's an impressive mash up of genres and Tarantino's meticulous eye for detail combines them masterfully. Present once again is the same split time frame structure that Tarantino devotees will be accustomed to, with each part of the story told in chapters. His pop-culture references also appear, as does his 'muse' Ms. Thurman. She doesn't really have a lot to do other than slice and dice one or two (hundred) people but Thurman brings a suffering intensity to the role and confirms why Quentin holds her in high regard. This is a bloodletting extravaganza and Tarantino gets a chance to show that he's a highly capable action director into the bargain. It's an accomplished piece of filmmaking with the vibrancy and gorgeous cinematography by Robert Richardson deserving a very special mention. None more so than the concluding showdown between Thurman and Lucy Liu's ferocious O-Ren Ishii at 'The House Of The Blue Leaves'. It's an absolute visual masterclass and must be included as one (in the many) of Tarantino's finest scenes. It's simply stunning and a surprisingly serene and composed ending to this frenetic first installment of the story.
Highly implausible I hear you say? Of course it is, but it's also highly enjoyable escapism and Tarantino proves that he can turn his hand to any genre.