Last weekend I sat down and watched Quentin Tarantino's kung-fu epic, Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2, back-to-back. They are easily among the most gory, violent films I've ever seen. Very entertaining though, especially the first film, although I could have done without so much of the anime blood-and-guts. The final fight scenes of Volume 1 are just a load of fun; Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu are fantastic. The second film featured what was easily the funniest character in either volume, the kung-fu master Pai Gei; I actually re-watched some of his scenes, they were that hilarious. Volume 2 managed to have a completely different look than the first volume, which was more kung-fu style than substance. It's presented as more of a western, with the scene locales reinforcing that feel. It is also more plot-dependent and tells more of the back story, in Tarantino's usual non-linear manner (if you don't like Tarantino's filmmaking quirks and gimmicks you won't like these movies, because they're in there - in abundance). I wasn't crazy about the ending - I'm comfortable with some ambiguity at the end of films, but I really wanted a better explanation of WHY Bill did what he did to Uma's character. The explanations in the film didn't cut it for me, but considering the kung-fu genre in which these films clearly belong, maybe it simply doesn't matter. The movie works best on a primal level - Uma's character clearly deserves revenge, period.
Next up in the cinema, I'm really looking forward to the film version of Frank Miller's Sin City, directed by him and Tarantino buddy Robert Rodriguez. For those who aren't comic book fans, Miller has been known for years as one of the top artists/writers around; his work includes the Sin City and Hard Boiled series, as well as "Batman: Year One" and my favorite comic of all time, "The Dark Knight Returns". Watch the trailer, the film looks....unique. Cast isn't too shabby either. It comes out April 1st.
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