Somebody Explain Kill Bill, please...

[Felon]

If most people are happy with "an attempt at violence with SOME semblence of originality and style in its presentation" (which is, I think, a very good summation!), I can only conclude my standards are far higher.

It's funny how folks will compliment themselves for having "high standards" regarding films, books, and so forth, as if being quick to issue a thumbs-down on somebody else's work really evidences some valuable, commendable character trait. Reality check: that's only the case when you've got some accomplishments of your own under your belt. For most folks "high standards" just means being fussy and casually dismissive, taking other people's hard work for granted. And that's not a virtue, that's a flaw.

I'm curious to know what Two's favorite action movie is and what qualities make it so very..."not boring". Because the truth is, whatever your previous exposure to films consists of, Kill Bill has several exciting scenes that youu just haven't see before in a Hollwyood stuidio movie. So, you're just writing off a bunch of dynamic, innovative stuff as boring. I gotta pity that.

There's the scene where Beatrix wakes up in the hospital to find herself being pimped out by Buck is a real treat. One can really imagine wanting to kill someone for that humiliation. That's boring?

And the fight with Crazy 88 is a wild ride. I can watch that over and over again. Again, we don't get many intricately choreographed melee battle sequences in the U.S, and Kill Bill earns a place in action movie history for that one-woman-army scene. This is a snooze?

The opening fight with Vernita Green is fun as well. And it's followed by the character-defining monologue where Bea explains herself to the daughter of the woman she just killed. That's routine? Formulaic?

And while it's all wildly over-the-top, there's none of this "wink wink" nonsense. It's played to the hilt with a completely straight face.

I could go on, but what's the point? If you're calling it schlock, then it's pretty cut-and-dried. A guy saw a groundbreaking movie and took it completely for granted.

 

[Joker]

I'm curious to know what Two's favorite action movie is and what qualities make it so very..."not boring". Because the truth is, whatever your previous exposure to films consists of, Kill Bill has several exciting scenes that youu just haven't see before in a Hollwyood stuidio movie. So, you're just writing off a bunch of dynamic, innovative stuff as boring. I gotta pity that.

There's the scene where Beatrix wakes up in the hospital to find herself being pimped out by Buck is a real treat. One can really imagine wanting to kill someone for that humiliation. That's boring?

I could go on, but what's the point? If you're calling it schlock, then it's pretty cut-and-dried. A guy saw a groundbreaking movie and took it completely for granted.

The thing is, for some of us (and I'm not being patronizing here), Kill Bill was boring, wasn't innovative and really really wasn't anything groundbreaking because we have seen these things so many times. And so many times done with a great deal more style. Kill Bill seemed like a dumbed down Hollywood flick.

Now to the OP and this has been said a couple of times before: The movie can't be explained to make it satisfactory. You didn't like it. Although it failed the Park-Chan Wook test in less than 10 seconds* I found it enjoyable if a bit lackluster. Just something to watch and forget.


*The time it takes for me and a friend to wonder how Park-Chan could have made it better.

 

[hong]

Kevin to Peggy: "Hong has great taste in movies."
Peggy to Kevin: "Why?"
Kevin to Peggy: "Hong likes 'Versus.'"
Peggy to Kevin: "And I like Hong."

but really, what isn't there to like about a violent kung fu yakuza vampire zombie action swordfighting gun-fu Mexican-standoff time-traveling love story with homo-erotic overtones?

.... homoerotic overtones?

UNSUBSCIRBE

 

[mmadsen]

One could counter-argue, for the sake of argument, that some people want films with a discernible point of view, whether it be Tarantino's, or Scorsese's, or Kurasawa's, or Godard's... It's what they're paying for, the artist's artistry.

We don't call "a discernible point of view" self-indulgent; it's only self-indulgent if it's excessive, and the final work has little appeal for anyone besides the auteur and his close personal friends.

You may not like what passes for Tarantino's artistry...

I've been quite explicit that I loved Pulp Fiction and the genres QT was pulling together for Kill Bill. What I didn't like was the final product.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

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

What, specifically, did you dislike about it?

Well it's been years now since I've seen it and my memory is doubtless going to be faulty, but...

The ending was... well, inexplicable is probably the word. Jarring jumps in time - not that flashback/forward/sideways is a problem for me (in fact I enjoy a little bit of challenge to the usual narrative structure) but it seemed quite badly handled. Great fights, but unnecessarily over-involved plot, uneven and slow pacing. And I thought the sound design left a good deal to be desired - dead, flat, far too whispery.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

One could argue that Kill Bill is self-indulgent, in that QT spent a lot of other people's money to produce something primarily for himself. It's like one long inside joke, with all his favorite bits of obscure kung-fu, samurai, and western flicks, combined in a not-particularly clever way that is fairly boring.

But that is Hollywood in a nutshell. Honestly, I sincerely believe that making money is clearly secondary to ego gratification when it comes to making movies in Hollywood. AFAIK PG-rated movies still routinely rake in more money than R-rated movies, but there are far more R-rated features made, showing to naturally smaller audiences and earning less money. What could explain that except that money is NOT the primary interest of the typical Hollywood filmmaker? The primary interest (and this is supported by the otherwise inexplicable focus upon the Oscars) is stroking your own ego, largely by earning the praise of your peers rather than the general public.

Now that sounds harsh but it's meant somewhat less as a criticism than just as an observation. It's literally visible in the contracts that movie stars sign. When they become bankable stars their contracts will hold them to 2 or 3 studio films and then they are given the chance to make "their movie" which is inevitably a spendy, self-indulgent, pretentious, boring film, targetted to earn "respect" for their artistic dedication and skills, but that you can't get people to see with free beer and a subpoena.

Really, we're just fortunate that out of all that Hollywood crap we still get movies worth seeing at ALL on anything like a regular basis.

 

[Elemental]

I've been hearing that for awhile; I hope it comes about and that we get the full color House of Blue Leaves sequence that the @%$^% MPAA made him put in black and white because of the gore factor.

What I want from a DVD version is very simple. Commentaries.

 

[Felon]

The thing is, for some of us (and I'm not being patronizing here), Kill Bill was boring, wasn't innovative and really really wasn't anything groundbreaking because we have seen these things so many times. And so many times done with a great deal more style.

Meh. I'm still not hearing the names of these other superlative movies. But again, this is probably just the double-standard some folks have when it comes to Hollywood Cinema versus Asian Cinema. "Returner" and "The Storm Riders" were as dumbed-down and fromulaic as any Hollywood flick, yet I've seen endless praise heaped upon them.

 

[Joker]

Meh. I'm still not hearing the names of these other superlative movies. But again, this is probably just the double-standard some folks have when it comes to Hollywood Cinema versus Asian Cinema. "Returner" and "The Storm Riders" were as dumbed-down and fromulaic as any Hollywood flick, yet I've seen endless praise heaped upon them.

I actually did mention the movies on the first page and they're not all from Asian cinema.

I have neither seen or heard of those movies.

And yes, a lot of what asian cinema pumps out is just as crappy as what comes out of Hollywood.

I hear Nigeria makes really good movies.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

"Returner" and "The Storm Riders" were as dumbed-down and fromulaic as any Hollywood flick, yet I've seen endless praise heaped upon them.

If the Returner was the movie I think it was, it was cool precisely because it had big transforming robots (that didn't actually do much).

Brad