Kill Bill II

2004, directed Quentin Tarantino

I liked Kill Bill II, the second half of the Kill Bill saga, much better than Kill Kill I. Tarantino's mixing of different genres and styles is both fun and sometimes irritating, but not as tiresome as in the first Kill Bill.

Briefly, Uma Thurman stars as the revenge filled woman, Black Mamba aka The Bride, seeking to kill Bill (David Carradine), who earlier left her for dead after massacring her wedding party with the help of some of his assassins. We learn that this is the elaborate story of love betrayed and the repercussions of lost love in a community of killers.

Both Uma Thurman and David Carradine do an excellent job of playing killers that we end up connecting to, and the supporting cast was also excellent. The violence remains over the top, and the visuals, dialogue, and structuring also remain impressive.

This half of Kill Bill simply felt more coherent to me, and I was engaged rather than tuning out during the extravagent fight scenes. Tarantino's dialogue is always some my favorite, and Kill Bill II has time for a more talking, also increasing my enjoyment.

I have worked hard to develop a movie-watching tough guy persona, and I'm mostly able to watch violence without freaking out about myself or my society that I paid money to watch the intense brutalization of human beings. I made it through the first Kill Bill okay, and virtually all of Kill Bill II with my toughness intact, but the scene when the Bride was buried alive completed un-did me. A testament to Tarantino's skill as a writer/director and Uma's skill at acting (assuming this was the intended effect), but, for me, had a radically different tone from the rest of the violence.

Interestingly enough, the flashback while she was buried alive was one of my favorite scenes of the movie.

And as always, the music was awesome.