Review of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) by Dr. F P — 16 Mar 2013

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a mishmash of movie genres that has no right to work, but somehow it does, and forms a pretty thrilling revenge movie. It tells the first half of the story of The Bride, a former assassin who quits her job to live a more tranquil life with her husband.

Her former master Bill does not take kindly to this though, and he and the rest of his assassins crash her wedding rehearsal with guns blazing, killing everyone except The Bride, who is left comatose.

When she awakens years later, she is intent on hunting down every single member of her former team of assassins with great vengeance and furious anger. It is influenced by everything from Japanese samurai movies to spaghetti westerns to B-movies, and although the odd style can seem jarring at first, it's easy to adjust to after a few scenes.

The violence is gratuitous even by Tarantino standards; it's so ridiculously over-the-top that it's comical, with body parts flying in every direction in some of the fight scenes and blood that flows like a waterfall.

In one scene a character is decapitated and the blood from his neck literally shoots straight up like a geyser for a good ten seconds. Needless to say this movie is probably not for the squeamish. The fight scenes that contain this preposterous amount of bloodshed are spectacularly exciting though, and very well-choreographed.

There are a number of scenes that are little uninteresting and feel forced, especially a bizarre anime sequence that provides backstory for one of the characters, but the good scenes make up for bad ones.

Its style and extreme violence may be a turn off for some, but Kill Bill: Volume 1 gets the job done with style and excitement to spare.