Rate Kill Bill Volume 2

[kingpaul]

- It was too predictable - not in a you knew the bride would win way, but in a you knew exactly what was going to happen next way.

You knew Budd was going to 'dispose' of the Bride the way he did?

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

What's wrong with revenge for revenge's sake?

You may not have noticed, but reality usually doesn't conform to the dramatic conventions. People love for love's sake, and hate for hate's sake. There aren't any morals to real stories.

 

[Abraxas]

Posted by kingpaul
You knew Budd was going to 'dispose' of the Bride the way he did?

Nope, but I was sure that 1) he was waiting to shoot her when she came in the door, and 2) when he actually did hit her with the double barrel shotgun blast to the chest that that wasn't 00 buckshot in his shotgun - didn't guess rocksalt, but new it wasn't lead. Of course Budd is pretty much the only character that I didn't think was completely 2D either - I actually liked that chapter - a lot.

 

[ph34r]

The most exciting part of the movie for me was watching the trailer for Hero. 3/10.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...No matter how expertly polished a tale of murderous revenge can ever be, its still a tale of murderous revenge, and will never possess the rich value of a story like The Lord of the Rings or The Passion of the Christ...

I gave KB2 a "10" in the poll, because, if you are familiar with the conventions of the genre, this movie is nearly the perfect distillation of them, with liberal amounts of modern "quality filmmaking" added to the mix (in much the same manner that Crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon was a "souped up" version of the Wuxia genre.

I was an insominiac as a teenager which meant that I watched a lot of late night TV. Usually this meant Quincy reruns. But every so often (monthly-ish) the local indy channel CKVU would show a dubbed Hong Kong Kung fu movie...and they were fantastic. Thus, I find myself in posession of a great undestanding of he genre Tarantino as trying to emulate.

I don't follow any particular mythology in my day-to-day life, so when I saw The Passion of the Christ, I found it to be nothing but a film of an near-endless beating, with interspered "Evil Jew" segements. I'm sure there is more to be had from it than that, but without understanding where the film's creator is coming from, that's all I can get.

I think that might be why Kai Lord didn't "get" Kill Bill 2. No perspective.

 

[Iron_Chef]

I gave it a "3" only because of David Carradine (great comeback) and the sleazy Mexican whorehouse scene; otherwise, it was a "1". The first hour of this movie put me to sleep. The fight scenes sucked and the ending was anticlimactic. There was no point showing the endless B&W wedding crap if we didn't get to see the massacre. There was no point showing all her kung-fu instruction with Pai Mei as she hardly used any kung-fu in the movie. Budd was a stupid hick and his character added nothing to the movie except padding---especially felt cheated when Elle kills him instead of The Bride (and with a snake, not a sword fight). The Bride/Elle Driver fight in Budd's trailer was lame: too short, too cramped. Nice finish (squish!), but that's it.

This movie felt like a complete rip-off after the first Kill Bill, which I enjoyed a lot. Part 2 needed to have at least 30 minutes slashed out of it. As is, it's boring, pretentious trash. Honestly, my friends and I were so pissed off after watching this garbage that we were too upset to even play D&D! We ended up playing Scrabble instead. I will never watch Part 2 again, not even for free.

I honestly have no idea what anyone who liked this movie was thinking. This movie would barely be acceptable entertainment even as a stand-alone picture with no Kill Bill Vol. 1. If Part 2 came out first, it would have been a box office bomb. They should have just cut the hell out of Part 2 and added it to Part 1, not ripped me off with a bait and switch (first part all action, second part all talking heads).

 

[WizarDru]

This movie felt like a complete rip-off after the first Kill Bill, which I enjoyed a lot. Part 2 needed to have at least 30 minutes slashed out of it. As is, it's boring, pretentious trash. Honestly, my friends and I were so pissed off after watching this garbage that we were too upset to even play D&D! We ended up playing Scrabble instead. I will never watch Part 2 again, not even for free.

Words....fail me. :\

Was there a shortage of trolls in this thread that you were looking to redress?

 

[rich]

KB1 rocked, KB2 rocked more
I see lots of movies, enjoy most of them, but some are true "works of art." And, as art, are to be valued for different reasons. Sometimes I admire the filmmaking, sometimes the script, sometimes the acting, sometimes just the emotional impact of watching. Some movies are more limited in focus than others, and actually I would consider both KB2 and Passion to fit that category. Unfortunately, I think most people had already made up their mind (good or bad) before seeing Passion, so its tough to be an unbiased critic. I do find it interesting how much it has affected people -- in a thread about KB2, its getting almost as much discussion...

Uma Thurman is great, I really liked Budd, I liked the interaction between Bill and the Bride (both at the chapel and at the end)... The cinematography was excellent... As for redemption/transformation, etc, I view the Bride as sort of a force of nature -- doomed to inflict great pain on the world due to the impossible contradictions in her life. Eliminating her oppponents removed the contradictions, so now she is free to move on in peace (ie, she no longer needs to be a killer) -- at least until the kids grow up and start it all over again...

other movies I liked in the last couple years:
A Beautiful Mind
Training Day
The Hours
Underworld
Thirteen
The Passion

Usual Suspects and Pulp Fiction were great...

All-time best movie: Schindler's List

 

[hong]

Words....fail me. :\

Was there a shortage of trolls in this thread that you were looking to redress?

I_C clearly wants an action movie, with a minimum of talking and a maximum of violence. As an action movie, KB2 is not quite as good as KB1: the Bride gets her butt kicked as often as she kicks butt (if not more), you don't have as much mook-slaughtering, and in general the visuals are not quite as bloody. In terms of the more conventional metrics like character development, dialogue, dramatic conflict, and so on, though, it walks all over KB1.

 

[Desdichado]

At least for me it is consistent -- I have yet to like a single Tarantino film.

He is good a "clever references", but other than that I find his films are singularly repugnant.

Kill Bill 1 is the only Tarantino film I've ever seen. And based on that one, I won't be rushing out anytime soon to see the rest of them.