Movie Title: Kill Bill: Volume 2
Genre: Action, Crime, Martial Arts
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, Perla Haney-Jardine
Review: The Bride (Uma Thurman) picks up where she left off in Kill Bill: Volume 1 with her quest to finish the hit list she has composed of all of the people who have wronged her, including ex-boyfriend Bill (David Carradine), who tried to have her killed four years ago during her wedding to another man. Leaving several dead in her wake, she eventually tracks down Bill in Mexico. Using skills she has learned during her assassin career, she attempts to finish what she set out to do in the first place.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a continuation of Kill Bill: Volume 1 with both movies intended on being a single release lasting over four hours. The second volume relies much more heavily on the storytelling aspects of the Kill Bill saga, where the first volume was a roller coaster of action sequences. This film dives deeper into Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride's story and her relationship with Bill, which ultimately led to her assassination attempt. In contrast to volume 1, this film has much deeper emotional and motivational connotations. Fans of the first volume, who are action junkies can still get their fix, as The Bride goes toe-to-toe with Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and Budd (Michael Madsen) in a series of trailer fights that are highly entertaining. The flashback training montage with Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) is also a very fun scene. While Pai Mei is a martial arts legend, he is also an over-the-top disciplinarian and wildly idiosyncratic. Whether intended or not, I found this scene to be quite amusing, especially with regards to the dialogue between Pai Mei and The Bride. As a sum of its parts, Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 4-hour masterpiece, and one of my favorite films of all time. There are crazy fight scenes, a deep emotional story, and masterful dialogue (case in point, Bill's explanation of Superman in volume 2 is nothing short of brilliant). Watch both volumes in succession, enjoy Kill Bill as Quentin Tarantino intended, and I promise you won't regret it!
Fun Fact: Robert Rodriguez scored this movie for one dollar. Quentin Tarantino said he would repay him, by directing a segment of Rodriguez's project Sin City (2005) for one dollar.