And a whole ocean of ink could be spilled on the movies’ mountain of martial arts homages, from Sonny Chiba playing famed swordsmith Hattori Hanzō to the epic action set piece (which unfolds like the coolest music video ever) that lays waste to the whole “Crazy 88” combat crew.īut there’s tons of nuance between each kill, with Tarantino pulling out every genre stop - including an incredible anime sequence to explain O-Ren Ishii’s (Lucy Liu) backstory - to round out all the John Wick-worthy action goodness. There’s noir-ish western vibes right in the first film’s opening scene, later giving way to a more conventional western feel when Kiddo tracks down Bill’s slimy bar-bouncer brother Budd (Michael Madsen) in a dusty desert trailer. It’s almost easier to short-list the genres that Kill Bill doesn’t touch on than to attempt a full rundown of all the ones it does. Like David Lynch’s best movies (think Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive), Tarantino just has a knack for cramming dread, suspense, shocking violence, and laugh-out-loud hilarity all into a single film…and sometimes even into the same scene.

But the same pick-a-genre pretense that might’ve made a complete mess of things in less skillful creative hands instead comes across as a way to dress every story frame in just the right clothes for the occasion. Watching both Kill Bill movies back to back, it’s downright amazing how coherent and compelling the central story remains amid Tarantino’s energized mood swings. In short, it’s impossible to get too cozy with a conventional, one-track movie environment in Kill Bill… because just when you do, Tarantino knocks the table over and opens the curtain on something entirely new.

Framed as a vengeance tale sandwiched squarely between serious martial arts and western settings, there’s really a much bigger movie toy box that Tarantino’s raiding as The Bride crosses off one assassin’s target after another off her hateful hit list. Clocking in at a combined 248 minutes, Quentin Tarantino’s epic two-part saga Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2 somehow pulls off a minor miracle: Even at four hours and change, the iconic director’s early-2000s revenge fantasy speeds by faster than the deftest Viper assassin can swivel clear of Beatrix Kiddo’s dreaded five-finger death punch.Ĭhalk up the movies’ whole never-dull vibe to Tarantino’s gift for spinning no-filler pulp yarns that suck you in from the very first “bang.” These are action flicks that just don’t know the meaning of the word “drag” - even in moments when Uma Thurman (Kiddo, aka The Bride, aka Black Mamba) has to pause and take things slow, from regaining her walking skills to punching free from a too-early grave.īut just as key in keeping the now-classic films lively is the way they gleefully, playfully mix and match genres - or switch genres altogether on a dime.

Kill bill volume 1