In the concluding chapter to the two-part "Kill Bill" series, director Quentin Tarantino tries to convince his audience that he still has the Midas touch behind the camera.
After watching the movie, one would imagine someone had kidnapped the genius who conceived "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs," shot him in the head, dumped him in the trunk and brought him to Bonnie's house for storage.
As the title suggests, the plot is very simple. The Bride (Uma Thurman) has to kill Bill (David Carradine), but she must first get through his remaining henchmen, Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah).
Tarantino incorporates different filming styles in his movies, which was one of the few saving graces of the movie. In "Vol. 1" the animation segment of O-ren Ishii's (Lucy Liu) life awed the audience. In "Vol. 2," a few film noir shots add a sleazy setting and an ominous atmosphere, conveyed by shadowy photography and foreboding background music.
The same backlight effect from the first "Kill Bill" during the Crazy 88's scene was reused in the sequel during a training sequence. The red backlight cast a silhouette on the Bride and her Kung Fu master, Mai Pei, as they practiced their martial arts in a synchronized manner. This effect made the martial arts seem more like an elaborate dance than a deadly skill.
Great acting talent was at Tarantino's disposal. He lets it slip through his fingers.
Samuel L. Jackson - the man who made swearing so cool - was utterly wasted in this movie. Instead of the loud, foul-mouthed Jules Winnfield in "Pulp Fiction" or Ordell Robbie in "Jackie Brown," Jackson was reduced to a cameo role of laidback organ player at the chapel called Rufus. It's a shame that Jackson didn't have the freedom to swear at will, quote the Bible and fire weapons.
Michael Madsen, who was Vic Vega aka Mr. Blonde in "Reservoir Dogs," was also squandered in the film. Madsen was changed from a tough, sadistic ex-con into a considerate redneck bum. If only Madsen could dance to some music while performing facial surgery to his victim.
With Tarantino as the scriptwriter, it meant tons of meaningless and vulgar verbal exchanges between the characters. This included Budd's strip club-owning boss insinuating that Budd was as useless as an anus on the elbow and a boring monologue on how poisonous Black Mambas are from Elle Driver.
A movie that has so little to say took an awful lot of time to say it. The dragging pace of the film was intended to show to the audience the intricate relationships existing between the characters. "Vol. 2" fills in the missing gaps of the first movie. However, the severity of the twists and turns in the plot is tantamount to devastating revelations on "Days of our Lives" - insignificant and predictable.
As the first installment of "Kill Bill" carried on, drenching the screen with blood, scene after scene, "Vol. 2" took forever to shed some blood. With less violence, less gore and less killing, Tarantino tries to enthrall the audience with more conversation.
When the action finally takes place, it is disgusting and disappointing. The showdown between the Bride and Elle was promising like the hardcore catfight between the Bride and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) in the first volume. The girls throw each other around the trailer, using guitars and TV antennae as weapons. The end of the tussle is anti-climactic and gross.
As with "Vol. 1," the actors and actresses in "Vol. 2" fail to grasp the linguistic skills required to speak in another language. In the scenes where The Bride seeks the tutelage of the cruel master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), Liu speaks in Cantonese while Thurman answers back in a jumble of broken Chinese, Cantonese and Japanese. This problem could have easily being avoided by having the voice dubbed. Instead, Tarantino chose for Thurman to embarrass herself - and himself for writing the script.
The "Kill Bill" series was a terrible attempt at making an action movie that might strike a cord with Tarantino's cult following.
