Somebody Explain Kill Bill, please...

[two]

If you think that movie is boring, all I can say is You Just Don't Get It. If you think it's lazy self-indulgence, you're wrong on two counts.

I'm really pretty sophisticated in a lot of ways.

I'd love to hear what I "didn't get."

I'm serious. What was I missing?

What isn't A)lazy about it, and B)self-indulgent?

 

[two]

I consider Kill Bill to be the most perfectly executed film I've ever seen. It is one mans vision brought to the big screen. The fact that half of it is an homage to bad martial films and the other half an homage to bad westerns is just a bonus. If you can't enjoy the film, I think You Don't Get It as well...

Please enlighten me. What am I missing?

Kow-towing to bad kung-fu and bad westerns only gets you so far. In fact, kow-towing even to movies that are quite sophisticated and good only gets you so far.

Now, if the "vision" is very limited, yes. The movie achieves the vision.

Do you mean QT simply had a very basic and rather simplistic notion of what he wanted to do, and did exactly that - not a bit more or less?

I could agree with that, I suppose.

 

[two]

I agree that 2 is a much better film than 1. It sorta depends on what mood I'm in, but I like them both for very different reasons.
...
I think there are probably critical, tangible reasons for why Kill Bill vo 1 and 2 are, in fact, good movies, but entertainment is all about opinion.

I don't understand this. I can enjoy bad movies (i.e. laugh at them, and/or with them). I can be entertained by bad movies. I am sometimes not entertained by good movies on occasion (wrong mood/time).

I'm not saying Kill Bill is simply a bad movie... for me, it was a bad movie which I wasn't even able to enjoy. That was the kicker.

What are the critical, tangible reasons it is a good movie again?

 

[Shayuri]

Speaking just for myself, I found Kill Bill 1 hilarious. I haven't seen a lot of kung fu movies...so Kill Bill to me looked like a "live action anime" movie. I found it so over the top, in gore, in silly lines, and in the simple (hole filled) plot that I couldn't help but enjoy it on the level of a sendup, or guilty pleasure.

I can't answer charges of self-indulgence or "why was it good?" I guess that's because in my mind, it wasn't really good. It was bad. It was deliciously, hilariously bad...and it really was meant to be that way.

As for you 'not getting it,' that's not a phrase I'd use. It suggests that there's something wrong with you, or that you're lacking something that those of us who enjoyed the movie got right, or possess. That's not really true. Kill Bill is just a very limited aesthetic, I think. People will tend to either find it great fun and love it...or find it inexplicable and a waste of time, and hate it. What precisely defines how a person will react to it is not something I care to speculate on. It's not just an appreciation of "bad movies." I know people who love Plan 9 From Outer Space...who guffaw at every episode of MST3k and still dislike Kill Bill.

I realize none of this will do much to relieve your distress and/or frustration over the movie's inexplicable appeal to a fraction of the population, but all I can say is that some people like it...and some don't...and that's pretty much that. I can say why I like it, but I can't make an argument that those qualities exist in any kind of objective reality that anyone can see and appreciate.

The happy news is that, having identified yourself as a Kill Bill Disliker, you can now refuse to spend any more moments of your life having anything to do with it.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm really pretty sophisticated in a lot of ways.

I'd love to hear what I "didn't get."

I'm serious. What was I missing?

What isn't A)lazy about it, and B)self-indulgent?

IT IS SELF INDULGENT

Tarantino makes self indulgent movies with a 'retro-70s' spin to them
people know this and so should expect it when viewing Tarentino movies

to complain about it being self-indulgent and reminiscient of 70s-shlock is like buying Burger King and complaining that it isn't Pizza

its not Lazy because he took the premise and worked to achieve it

I like the description of live-action anime - pt. 1 achieves this, pt. 2 not quite

 

[dravot]

I don't understand this. I can enjoy bad movies (i.e. laugh at them, and/or with them). I can be entertained by bad movies. I am sometimes not entertained by good movies on occasion (wrong mood/time).

I'm not saying Kill Bill is simply a bad movie... for me, it was a bad movie which I wasn't even able to enjoy. That was the kicker.

What are the critical, tangible reasons it is a good movie again?

Why should I like apple pie?

Why isn't football boring?

 

[Randolpho]

I have to agree with the original post. You can do a spoof of bad Kung Fu movies and still be a good movie. Take, for example, Kung Fu Hustle. Kung Fu Hustle was an over-the-top spoof of Kung Fu with a fairly derived plot, yet it still had amazing character development and spectacular special effects, even as it made you laugh or at least chuckle through most of the movie. Kill Bill, on the other hand, had... well, it had Pai Mei's beard-flick and an eye plucking.

It's also quite possible to do a dramatic Kung Fu movie correctly, even without being humorous or an homage. Cases in point: Hero and (still better) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

 

[Randolpho]

I went to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with those same aforementioned friends. While I found more to like about it than they we all DID agreee that its reputation as the greatest thing since sliced sushi was UNFORGIVABLY overblown.

Hmm... I have to disagree, here. I thought CTHD was an amazing movie.

What, specifically, did you dislike about it?

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

How do you define self indulgent? Why does this movies qualify, as compared to others? How is this movie lazy, compared to others?

 

[Tetsubo]

Please enlighten me. What am I missing?

Kow-towing to bad kung-fu and bad westerns only gets you so far. In fact, kow-towing even to movies that are quite sophisticated and good only gets you so far.

Now, if the "vision" is very limited, yes. The movie achieves the vision.

Do you mean QT simply had a very basic and rather simplistic notion of what he wanted to do, and did exactly that - not a bit more or less?

I could agree with that, I suppose.

Two people look at a painting. One says, "What absolute perfection." The other replies, "What cr*p."

Which one is right?

I think Kill Bill is the most perfectly self-consistent film ever made. Every scene is perfect. It is even better if you have seen Circle Of Iron. It really makes Carradine's Bill even more enjoyable.

You disagree. That's life.