Kill Bill, Volume 2 Reviews
If Kill Bill - Vol. 1 was like a roundhouse kick to the head, Vol. 2 is practically a warm hug.
Time Out
Top CriticThose turned off by the first part's reckless, relentless violent purges aren't likely to find cause for conversion, but Vol. 2 certainly broadens the tale's remit, even as it aims to deepen it.
I've lost my sweet tooth for slice-and-dice escapism, and perhaps this is why I feel the need to see movies that don't simply glamorize or fetishize or supernaturalize brutality.
The pop encyclopedist and video-store genius has become a megalomaniac, and the exhilarating filmmaker he might have been is disappearing fast.
If he doesn't take care Tarantino could make something significantly worse.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A gargantuanly entertaining double feature.
People who stayed away from Vol. 1 because of its genre-dictated violence may find Vol. 2 so much fun that they'll want to catch up on Vol. 1.
for all the craft that's gone into Kill Bill, Vol. 2, despite the chance Tarantino has taken in departing from the wham-bam movement of the first half, my final reaction to the movie is, so what?
A comic book at heart, albeit a thoroughly, grandly romantic one in the end.
Revenge is a meal that gets better with the second course.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
It's flawed but so audaciously unique that I can't imagine missing it if you love movies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Although Vol. 2 certainly doesn't skimp on action, there's far less killing here than in Vol. 1. And as the themes deepen, the film assumes an unexpected poignancy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Betraying its origins as the last half of another movie, rather than its own entity, Kill Bill Vol. 2 feels like leftovers.
A dulling experience that can safely be admired from afar without it ever engaging the senses.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Vol. 2 isn't exactly disappointing, and like all of Tarantino's movies, I suspect it will improve with repeated viewings. But for now, Vol. 2 leaves you pondering what could have been.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
So much cinematic majesty perched precariously atop so little common sense ... [but] a castle with a shaky foundation is still quite a sight.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Kill Bill Vol. 2 is violent, smart, funny, fast, bloody, overblown, explosive and surprisingly romantic. And utterly, utterly crazy cool.
| Original Score: A+
Kill Bill Vol. 2 is the movie that makes movie geekdom seem sexy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Wildly entertaining and smart, the Kill Bill movies are full of genre-loving savvy, grind-house vigor and liberating energies.
| Original Score: B+
In Kill Bill - Vol. 2, cool has rediscovered its medium. It has found its master.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
A film richer in every way than its illustrious, callow predecessor.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Though much of the film is a lot of fun, it needs a good editor.
Full Review
| Original Score: B
They spend a little too much time yapping, not enough time whacking. Especially in a movie called Kill Bill.
| Original Score: 4/5
Kill Bill's two-pack isn't of Godfather caliber ... [b]ut its scope, filmmaking ambition and uniquely twisted point of view make it worthy of being seen some day in a chronological home version.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2 are great fun, but when they're over there's nothing to make us question our addiction to violent fantasies of retribution. The whole is a little less than the sum of its volumes.
Quentin Tarantino's deliciously perverse semisequel is the most voluptuous comic-book movie ever made.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Vol. 2 concludes the tale, but it heads to the finish line with a casual stroll, not a sprint.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
A rip-roaring, highly entertaining, extremely enjoyable continuation to Vol. 1.
At times, you may find yourself wishing that Bill or the Bride would just shut up and kill somebody.
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The second movie is less kinetic but more satisfying.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Kill Bill is silly stuff -- but it's transcendental silliness.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Kill Bill, Vol. 2 is every bit as wild a joyride as its prelude, but packed with richer, more resonant characters.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
For those seeking the vibrant innovation of Tarantino's first movies or the sheer rush of Kill Bill, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 feels like a dulled blade.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
While Tarantino has toned down the action scenes, the way he films them can still surprise.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
With the second installment, Tarantino -- famous as an inspired manipulator of genre, less proven as a filmmaker of soul -- shows his shy but ardent, cinephiliac understanding of American sentiment and yearning.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
Tarantino elevates Uma Thurman into the action-flick firmament -- she's the lethal Marlene Dietrich projected by his geek Josef von Sternberg.
You'll thrill to the action, savor the tasty dialogue and laugh like bloody hell.
| Original Score: 4/4
What Quentin Tarantino started with a wham he finishes with a bang in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Here's a movie that both academics bundled in film theories and teenagers on hot dates will find supercool.
A beautiful, twisted, complex martial arts soap opera.
