Review of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) by Allan C — 07 Apr 2017

According to Uma Thurman, Tarantino had her watch three movies to prepare for this film: John Woo's "The Killer," Pam Grier in "Coffy," and Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars.

" If that sounds awesome to you, then the Kill Bill films are for you! Part two of what was originally planned as a 4-hour plus epic tale of revenge is even better than the first part. If Vol. 1 was primarily a homage to Asian genre cinema of the 60s and 70s, this installment is more a homage to westerns, particularly spaghetti westerns.

Nods to others are certainly present (blaxploitation, rednecksploitation, muscle car movies, etc.), but this is primarily a western, which is wonderfully set up by Michael Madsen's down-on-his-luck international assassin character, Buck.

Madsen's character could have simply been another sadistic Mr. Blond sociopath, but Buck has a tragic element to him. He was part of an elite group of international assassins, but he's now living in a trailer in the middle of the desert, working as a bouncer at a run down strip club, and even had to hock his Hattori Hanzo sword.

Tarantino manages to give Buck a fair amount of character depth with minimal screen time, which is always a great thing to see. Though I think the action highlight of the film has to be the showdown between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah as the deadly one-eyed Elle Driver.

Hannah had largely been absent from any films of note for quite some time, unless you count the Grumpy Old Men films ten years earlier and has sadly been absent from much since then, but she is terrific as Driver.

I think a lot of credit also has to go to fight choreographer Yuen Woo Ping for the amazing fight between Thurman and Hannah in buds trailer. Tarantino also gets a lot of credit for selecting some truly badass Ennio Morricone music for their final moments.

Tarantino includes in his cast some other cool character actors including Gordon Liu (as a white bearded kung-fu master this time), Sid Haig, and Larry Bishop. And then there is David Carradine as Bill, who finally show his face on screen this time, and who is excellent.

I can't imagine anyone else playing this role, even though there were some very cool other actors under consideration to play Bill before Carradine was cast. As with most Tarantino films, this is not a film to suit all tastes, but for those who enjoy Tarantino's aesthetic, this film is a real treat.