Kill Bill - Vol. 1

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Originally Posted by linespalsy
anyhow a lot of the music sounded lifted straight out of a spaghetti western
Why the hell do they keep saying SPAGHETTI WESTERN?! What is it?! Seriously. What is it?! Cause it sure is something brand new to me. I've never heard of a Chocolate Horror or an Ice Cream Comedy.... or a Banana Drama, Meatloaf Action, Chicken Foreign, Cookie Suspense, Apple Erotica, or a Lobster Children's film.

Of course, I have heard of a cheesy film....

It sounds like something you could find in the video store just by your sense of smelling. *sniff* *sniff* I smell spaghetti down that aisle! Yeehaw! I've found the cowboy movies!

In fact, I imagine the video/DVD box has spaghetti sauce poured over it.



hmm, i dont think it's a very obscure term, sexy celebrity. in fact, i'd almost think you need to have been living in siberia for the last couple decades to have not heard it before. were you living in siberia? fess up, there's no shame in it if you were living in siberia, sexy celebrity.

anyhow, as i understand it "spaghetti western" is used with reference to a specific breed of western that popped up in italy, also known at the time as "the spaghetti bowl of europe" and "the macarroni capital of the civilized world". it's since become the "the pulpy-comic pit 'o' hell" and "land of ugly-looking, retarded superman knockoffs". you might not have heard these phrases either, having been raised in siberia. 'fist-full of dollars' is a famous example of a spaghetti western.

i could sure go for a rootin, tootin, sukiyaki space opera, by the way.

ugh, that was terrible.



Spaghetti Westerns were westerns shot in Italy, like Eastwood's "man with no name series" and other Sergio Leone movies.

and that band in the House of Blue Leaves was the 5,6,7,8's
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I heard the 5,6,7,8's broke up at the end of the 90s but I was under the impression Quentin saw a performance of theirs and loved them. Either this occured before they broke up, or that split-up fact was false. Too bad if its true though, I bet they would have become a hell of a lot more popular. Don't hear much surf-punk these days..
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Kill Bill was a simple movie. A single sighted plot that never deviated from its path. From the camera angles to the music to the choreography, it was bursting with as much flavor as a huge bag of Jelly Bellies. My favorite scene of the movie was the Garden snow scene, and it had little to do with the fighting. It was one of the most beautiful I have seen in a movie in a long time; the contrast of the peaceful silence a soft snow brings and the simultaneous dancing with swords is like sweet and sour sauce on a big fluffy mouth watering eggroll. If I said this film had everything in it, I would be lying. True it had humor, love (albiet twisted), drama, and much more little of seasonings that would make Chef Jean-Louis Palladin jealous;
but the main Focus, revenge, was never, ever deviated from. It did have one flaw though, it ended. Dangit why did it have to do that. Yes I know the next part will be out early next year, but I dont wanna wait.
Sniff
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i've given the movie a little bit of thought. very much has been made about tarantino's film reference credentials. i wonder how much of his inspiration was grafted from other popculture media though, particularly television. i mean, there was the "silly rabbit, trix are for kids" thing [a rather tedious line if you ask me]. also along these same lines, i hope the next part gives actual closure. it really sucks that they split the movie into two parts, especially since the first part is basically not much more than a recap episode for what happened in "the last season". further adding to this "tv" feel, the movie has a bunch of basically b-grade actors. i have yet to see something that really floors me from uma, and lucy liu, other than being a looker, gets on my noives. carradine was basically the equivalent of the evil "MAD" commander, from inspector gadget.

i enjoyed kill bill, it had a bunch of neat little nods, and numbered killers [always a plus for a b movie]. it also did a good job of giving the impression that it belonged to a larger universe than it actually does, with all the recaps and little episodes.

is it just me or was ebert's review of this movie really trite though? i mean, the whole basis of his review stands on his premise of "tarantino opperates in an alternate universe" but that hardly seems like a very insightful value judgement to me. isnt that what all movies do?

grade: c



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Very haunting movie. It was different and interesting, but a little too heavy on the gratuitous violence for my taste--but, at least, it made a point. I kind of see it as a blend of live-action anime and Spaghetti western. Engaging (though simplistic) plot, vivid characters and nice touches of macabre humor.

Incidentally, Sexy Celebrity, for a good example of a Spaghetti western film, check out the movie Django!



Originally Posted by The Silver Bullet
Kill Bill: Volume One
2003 | dir. Quentin Tarantino
**½

Self-gratifying confirmation that Tarantino's six-year hiatus was indeed a result of creative block. A complete step in the wrong direction after a film that showed real, further development as a filmmaker, 1997's Jackie Brown. Although I'm a big fan of Tarantino, I am worried about where he's going to go from here. Inglorious Bastards is a straight rip [or so I've heard] of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Tarantino needs more now than just his favourite films to get him buy. He needs originality, not the power of pastiche.
That's the postmodern hallmark - the power of pastiche and homage. Tarantino reshapes familiar images into unfamiliar language and acclimates them to American culture. It's the filmmaker's ultimate fantasy, and the auteur theory in action. No whit abashed, no image left un-scrutinized, no credits for the actors in the trailer. Kill Bill is more beautiful, more exciting, more emotionally (by way of aesthetics) riveting than all of his other films combined. What he does is incredibly original: takes pieces from his favorite movies and merges them with his own idea of cinema, the result of which is something so arresting that I daresay we won't understand its full brilliance for years to come. It is like Eyes Wide Shut in this respect, another film that is continually being rediscovered by the cinephiles who shunned it at first (myself included.)

I thought Uma gave the film the only weight it had. The RZA's original score [although even that was pastiche and homage most of the time too] was great. Sonny Chiba did a fine job, despite his entire chapter being a sad and unsophisticated attempt at the Kurosawa-breed of samurai film. The best sequence of the film came in the form of the ending, after the overpraised [and redundant] House of Blue Leaves sequence. Not because it was ending, mind you – it's not as though I hated the thing – but because it really did end very, very well.
Sonny Chiba's chapter was less an attempt at the Kurosawa-type film than it was an outright salute to both the great Japanese director and to himself. This is not Tarantino doing Kurosawa, it is Tarantino doing Tarantino doing Kurosawa. And I agree that it ended wonderfully.

Grossly underwhelming on the whole, with some wonderful but sadly inconsistent moments throughout. I'm not saying Tarantino needs to go back to Pulp Fiction. I don't believe he does. I believe he needs to find an original thought, and stop trying to recreate the stuff he saw as a video store jerk.
What was so inconsistent about it? And don't you think the fact that he's pretty much reinvented the language of genre cinema counts for something? The best comparison, in my eyes, is to Afrika Bambaata and Kid Capri and Jam Master Jay - nobody knew a turntable could be used as an instrument until these guys came along. Now Tarantino is doing the same thing - chopping up, re-interpreting, and shifting cinema into new, original territory, while maintaining its deep respect for the great films that came before it.
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Originally Posted by Steve
Kill Bill... more emotionally (by way of aesthetics) riveting than all of his other films combined.
Yes! You said it. Aethetics can be very powerful emotionally.



Thought I'd throw in my opinion of Kill Bill.

I was disappointed by it, it held so much of a premise and had such a hype to it, that when I saw it a week or so ago, I cam out very disappointed.

I can't really pin-point my disappointment, it wasn't that it was a bad film, I guess it was because it wasn't as good as I had wanted.

Plus it did have the ever-awful Lucy Liu, I don't think any director/script will redeem her from the pits of acting hell.



I saw Kill Bill and thought it was great like all of Quentin Terantino's movies. I loved the twenty foot geysers of blood everytime someone got a limb cut off. I can't wait for Vol.2!



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Originally Posted by Philmster
Plus it did have the ever-awful Lucy Liu, I don't think any director/script will redeem her from the pits of acting hell.
I thought Lucy was suprisingly good in this. But, then again, we never see eye to eye on acting....
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Kill Bill is a phenomenon. It tests the limits of bad content, yet at the same time, exceeds the limits of how entertaining a movie can be.

After a long, 6-year hiatus, cult icon Quentin Tarantino returns to his devoted fans with a movie that revolves around one word: REVENGE.

The story is just about revenge and also is about much more. The plot points, or gruesome fight sequences, push this story forward. The story is laced with the humor of Pulp Fiction and even as the screen shows blood, the audience laughed.

The audience laughed not because of the violence, but because of the timing. When people laugh at violence, they laugh because they are happy that they aren't the victims.

Tarantino is the master of cinematography, and he shows his skill in this film. The black and white scenes captures the essence that many action films today don't have.

Uma Thurman makes the main character look human, though she really is an assassin who wants revenge. She acts with poise and her presence fills the screen, even when she isn't on.

The rest of the ensemble deliver good performances. No negatives for Vivica Fox, Darryl Hannah, Micheal Madsen, and Lucy Liu. None at all.

Tarantino excels most in his choice of music. His old time tunes make the movie's soundtrack a necessary purchase.

Another accomplishment of Tarantino's is the way he incorporates an anime scene about the crime boss Ishii. Again, top notch.

The most important thing in Kill Bill is how everything has roots in movies that Tarantino admires: Kung Fu and Spaghetti Westerns. An added bonus to the film is that the costume worn by Uma Thurman is the same one worn by Bruce Lee is his last film. Well, one things for sure. This isn't Thurman's last film. Same for the Kill Bill gang.

Billthebutcher rating- ****



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One of my favorite movies of the year. It simply blew me away!! I almost turned back and got another ticket, so I could see it again. I went back the following Monday.
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Was my r3eview good? Was it bad? Please give me some input

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maybe to fully appreciate it you?d have to have watched all the film?s he watched then. which ? perversely ? puts it on a level with finnegans wake, which can only be understood if you?ve read all the books joyce read. that?s not to suggest that kill bill (vol 1) is anywhere near as complex or unintelligible as finnegans wake. quite the reverse actually, it?s a simple story wonderfully paced. the final credits are upon you before you realise it ? damn miramax for splitting this one in two, they should?ve served it as one. but it?s not a case of fearing modern audiences couldn?t withstand a single near four hour film, it?s more to do with maximising returns and milking us for the price of two tickets and not one.

not having watched all the same films as qt ? not, i fear, having watched even a fraction of the same films as qt ? a lot (most all) of the film geek?s joy at being able to nod knowingly as qt riffs off this film or that is lost on me. ok, i picked up the ironside theme and the green hornet masks and the nameless avenger who should be dead, but that?s probly about my limit. even still, kill bill is a shiny, stylish sword-and-kick-ass b-movie. this isn?t just qt paying homage at the altar of his idols, this is qt trying to make a film his idols might even like, it?s a step above pure pastiche.

lovely as it is to look at, the film lacks any real dramatic tension. the climactic second fight chronologically precedes the first shown, so we know the outcome even before we have to watch an orgy of wire-fu violence. even so, qt has created a world here and tantalised enough to make volume two worth looking forward to. where the brothers wachowski dazzled us with the intelligence of the original matrix and then disappointed by delivering two underwhelming sequels that were just pure action/fx, qt has gone straight for the action/fx and the only disappointment can be for those hoping for another reservoir dogs or pulp fiction. kill bill isn?t a movie made for reservoir dogs and pulp fictions fans but it?s certainly a movie fit for their characters.
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jamesglewisf's Avatar
Didn't see it.
I liked it. I'm looking forward to the DVD.
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I watched Kill Bill the other day for the first time and I just have to say its one of the best Ive seen in awhile. I just have one question though


God sorry i dunno how to do the spoiler thingy yet


Spoiler Below!!!!!



WARNING: "Kill Bill" spoilers below
Remember at the end of the movie when The Bride slays O-Ren Ishii? And it looks like her head got chopped off or something but, after whatever it was that fell on the ground it goes back to her with her head attached?? My question is...HOW DID SHE KILL HER :(


By the way GoGo is HOT!! :D



WARNING: "Kill Bill" spoilers below
She cut off her scalp