KILL BILL Vol. 2

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
KILL BILL VOL. 1 MOVIE REVIEW KILL BILL Vol. 2 - 2004 USA Release: April 16, 2004 Miramax Rated: USA: R

I had a dream and in that dream some suits sat in front of me in a chummy audience of mine.

"Eddie," one said. "You have this knack of knowing what people like. If you like it, it's going to make money."

"We can purposefully kill it at the box office," another said. "It could be a straight-out tax write-off."

"But if you like it," said a third. "That son of a bitch will make money whether we want it to or not."

"You have a gift," a fourth one said. "You have the instinct of knowing what a fan base likes."

"Thanks," I said, wondering where this was leading to. Was I about to be rewarded or punished?

"We want to use your gift, Eddie." Said the fifth one.

"We want a hot moneymaker," said the first.

"One that will make a profit at the theaters," said the third.

"And in video rentals," said the fifth.

"And in video sales," said the second.

"And in cable," said the fourth.

"Uh huh," I said.

And in my dream they looked at me as if their desire for my 'gift' was a hunger so strong they thought they could eat it right out of me. And I felt that, if they thought they could work it that way, they would.

But they needed my help and eating me would only kill the goose and lose the gold.

So I allowed myself to feel in control of the situation. I said,

"What you want," I said. "Is something that looks like reality, looks like now, but is drenched in myth."

"You want something that will freeze an audience to their seats with the very first scene. You want to grab them in the first 30 and cold-cock them in the second thirty ... seconds."

The suits looked at me with doubt and curiosity.

"You want a hero that will face impossible odds, over come impossible foes, and fight impossible battles, and as impossible as things may seem for the hero, you will want to make these ... impossibilities - and the hero's overcoming of them - seem almost real."

The suits nodded with interest and intrigue. Nothing I said put a story in their head. Nothing I described put any patterns together for them. They say that to empty your thoughts to a zen state - a state of nothingness - is a supreme goal and a crowning achievement in the discipline of the mind. And in my dream, I sat facing the most disciplined minds on the planet. They'd all achieved true nothingness.

"You know where to find this?" The third one asked.

"Give me the money and I'll write and direct it," I said.

As one they choked back a laugh, then gave vent to their mirth. Their laughter was derisive.

"We are aware of your talents as a chooser, not a doer," said the first one.

"You have no experience directing, none producing," said the second one.

"We are not going to give you the kind of money it takes to make a movie," said the third one.

I thought of excrement. The meeting was not going as I'd wished.

"But we will pay you the labor of a year right now," said the fourth.

"If you can choose the next hit movie," said the fifth.

I didn't have to give it a second thought.

"Hire Quentin Taratino," I said.

"To write or direct?" Asked the second.

"Both."

"What shall he write?" Asked the fifth.

"Whatever he wants," I answered. "It will rock, it will shock, it will repell and attract and it will be a classic for decades to come."

Years later, KILL BILL was released to theaters. It was one movie split in two. The first one rocked and shocked. The second one repelled and attracted. KILL BILL Vol. 2 was reality infused with myth and a powerful hero beset with her own flaws and fragile nature. She was incredibly strong and dangerously weak and faced impossible, insurmountable odds that she, never-the-less, overcame to reach her final goal. She wanted to kill Bill in revenge for the murder of her fiance, her friends, the only family she ever knew, and for the death of her unborn child because she was now sterile and could never bear another.

But Bill is the man and a master chess player.

These two movies dwell among my all time favorites. They are everything I'd ever want to see in a movie from humor to heroism.

Especially in the KILL BILL movies, Quentin has been accused of taking everything from his love of cheap-ass Hong Kong cinema - whether it deserves praise or not - and throwing it at the screen. This is both unfair and uninformed as Tarantino, in both style and substance, has distilled his subject matter, allowing a seemingly endless box of references to all come together in a story that thrills like a perfectly engineered rollercoaster, screaming at mach 1.

In KILL BILL Vol. 2, The Bride must face off against Sidewinder aka Bud (Michael Madsen: WAR GAMES, RESERVOIR DOGS, SPECIES, SPECIES II).

Then against California Mountain Snake aka Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah: THE FURY, THE FINAL TERROR, THE TIE THAT BINDS, THE GINGERBREAD MAN, KILL BILL Vol. 1).

And finally, the Snake Charmer aka Bill (David Carradine: THE SERPENT'S EGG, DEATH RACE 2000, DEATHSPORT, Q, TRICK OR TREATS [1982], I SAW WHAT YOU DID [1988], WARLORDS, SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT, FUTURE FORCE, FUTURE ZONE, MIDNIGHT FEAR, EVIL TOONS, WAXWORK II, NOSFERATU: THE FIRST VAMPIRE, CHILDREN OF THE CORN V, LIGHTSPEED [1998], NATURAL SELECTION, DEAD & BREAKFAST). But, as in the first, there will be many things that stand in The Bride's way, obstacles between her and her goal - Bill's death.

Whether I had the dream or not doesn't matter. Any fool could look over the previous films that Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed and know that the man is gold and that his movies are legend. KILL BILL Vol. 2 continues that legend!

5 Shriek Girls

This review copyright 2004 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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"I don't think there's anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards – in the life of an artist."
- Quentin Tarantino

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