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DVD Corner: Second part of ‘Kill Bill’ much better
Mac Olsen
for Spotlight
Rated 18A by Canadian Home Video Rating: 2 hour, 17 minutes: ‘Kill Bill Volume 2’ is $13.99 for single-disc edition (reviewed) and $19.49 for Blu-ray edition at www.amazon.ca
If the first part of ‘Kill Bill’ was a big disappointment, it’s only natural to assume the second part would be just as bad, but it is surprisingly better.
Also directed by Quentin Tarantino, the second part continues with Uma Thurman in the lead role of the Bride and David Carradine as Bill. Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah carry over as Budd and Elle Driver respectively. They are members of the Viper Assassination Squad, but they have more prominent roles this time.
There’s an interesting twist in the story development. We learn that what happened before the massacre in the church wasn’t a wedding, but a wedding rehearsal.
Fast forward to the present and the Bride has Budd as the next person on her hit list. Budd laments his part in the massacre, admitting the Bride deserves her revenge, but self-preservation is his goal and he outsmarts her when she arrives at his trailer in the arid California desert.
The Bride barely escapes from the death he plans for her. It’s the training she received from Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) from years earlier that helps.
We get to see Pai Mei, a top martial arts master, give her a drubbing as she tries to learn his style. But his humiliating treatment only makes her more determined to prove she has the “chops” to complete the training. He gives the trademark stroking of his beard to indicate when she’s making progress.
Thus, the Bride wants to put her martial arts expertise to use against the remaining members of the Viper Assassination Squad. Without giving too much away, how Budd meets his untimely demise is surprising and there’s also an unexpected twist in the battle between the Bride and Elle.
The scenes for these parts of the story are the best of the movie, but the same cannot be said for the confrontation between Bill and the Bride. When they finally come face to face, a gut-wrenching truth is revealed which makes it a little more difficult for her to kill him, but not much more.
This is where the movie goes downhill, as they engage in buckets and buckets of exposition about why they did what they did and the choices they made. Even when she kills him, it’s not in the bloodbath manner she used to take care of the Crazy 88’s.
In essence, Tarantino went to a lot of effort to set up the climactic Bride-Bill battle and we’re expecting a big payoff, but it’s a major letdown when it occurs.
Still, the second part is better because of the greater focus on character development and less use of the 1970’s pop cultural references, although the irritating ‘Ironside’ reference is used to denote the moment of the Bride-Elle conflict. There’s also the great desert cinematography.
Overall, ‘Kill Bill Volume 2’ deserves 3½ stars out of five for good character development and surprising plot twists.
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