Kill Bill

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:36 pm

Any of you guys in N.America seen Kill Bill yet? Is it any good?

I'm a fan of Tarantino's brilliant dialogue and original plots...but this seems a little different. I've read good and bad reviews, but I don't like reviews anyway...I trust you guys more.

It's out today here, might see it this weekend if Im lucky.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 7:08 pm

I read somewhere that is was going to a 2 hour film, but the producers persuaded Tarantino to do a 3 hour version which they could release in 2 parts. Or maybe it was the other way around. Whatever they should have stuck with a 2 hour version. Part 1 drags quite badly. Some great bits, but a lot of slow pretentious bits that are well outside Tarantinos abilities. The first 45 minutes just about hold, then there are a couple of scenes that go on forever and the momentum is lost and never recovers. Yet another dissapointment that was clearly signposted by its OTT buildup.
A much better sounding release out here in Ireland this weekend is Song for a Raggy Boy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339707/ which should be great.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 7:25 pm

As I understand it, the movie kept getting longer and longer and was clocking in at somewhere over three hours.

This is usually considered quite bad for business because it means that less money is generated less quickly for the studios since there are few showings (the exhibitors could make some of their money back in other ways by having intermissions/intervals as they used to in more civilized days, but the studios don't want that, I guess).

The usual solution would be the cut the movie down (which might have been a good thing, says MartinFoyle and about half the critics) and then release a directors cut re-release and/or DVD down the line. This was done with Almost Famous and the DVD of "Untitled" and is being done on all 3 Lord of the Rings movies.

The solution in this case was to simply chop it in half (which, reportedly, they'll also be doing with the DVD). Tarentino is saying that the reason is he thought it sort of pretentious to release a 3-hour "grindhouse" chop-socky movie. Still, the fact that he's potentially doubling the take from a movie which, after all, appeals to a relatively specialized audience (skewing heavingly young and male, I strongly suspect), makes lots of commercial sense, though it's a bit of a rip, perhaps.

(I'll tell you more when I finally work myself up to seeing the movie -- I love sword play "wire fu" and the great gobs of cartoony style the movie seem to promise, but I prefer my humoungoid amounts of blood/gore to remain offscreen....)

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 4:49 am

I saw it last night and loved it. Looking forward to Kill Bill Vol2. You can get into a circular argument along the lines of "Should the White Album have been a single instead of a double" it doesn't matter, it is what it is. I had a whale of a time in the cinema last night, I'd avoided a lot of reviews/clips, which helps. It's a movie, a fantasy. You have to see it. I also felt I was the only person laughing in the cinema, but there you go...

DrJ

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 11:09 am

Just seen this - have to agree with The Bro. - runs out of steam about half way in - which wasn`t a bad thing `cos it meant I could have a nap and enjoy the hack `n slash final part. Now going to Winged Migration - an entirely different type of movie altogether....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301727/

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 11:24 am

johnfoyle · Post by **johnfoyle** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:21 pm

Copulation , carnage , exotic locations , poignant shots of the Twin Towers in the Manhattan skyline , stunning photography , breathtaking aeriel sequences - yes, Winged Migration was the best film I saw today.

No , `Crow , I`m not really a birder - though I do watch out for a pair of Magpies who nest every year in a sykamore at the end of my garden.

Next movie - Intolerable Cruelty , previewing tomorrow , opening here next Friday. Hope to see it tomorrow.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:25 pm

Cheers John...have to get it on dvd or something.

Funny eh?...I studied Magpie behaviour last year, and Crows/Jays/Magpies is my field of interest as a zoologist (hence the nomenclature).

Intolerable Cruelty is worth seeing...especially for George Clooney's teeth.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:27 pm

Are they as cool as John Turturro's teeth in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:52 pm

Don't wanna ruin the film for anyone...but it's kinda similar to the Dapper Dan thing in that movie Blue!

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 8:39 am

Saw Kill Bill...liked it a lot.

All that kung-fu works brilliantly, and I don't usually like Kung Fu movies...brill animation sequence, great dialogue (though not like usual stuff)...only problem I thought it was too short!

Bring on number 2!

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 3:31 am

Just saw it tonight finally. I was very impressed with Kill Bill. Enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 7:32 am

Yeah, I saw it last week and also loved it. Tarantino is just so cool.

costellopunk · Post by **costellopunk** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 11:53 am

i've seen kill bill about four times in now. i keep running into people who haven't seen it and they ask me to go with them so i go. i love it. i remember when tarantino was explaining that it wasn't going to be one of his big dialoge movies he said it is a "movie movie" the kind of movie his characters go see and then talk about. the soundtrack is killer. he has a knack for that. i've been singing bang bang for the past month.

Post by **BlueChair** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 12:00 pm

Yeah, my first thought after leaving the movie last night was that I really need to get the soundtrack. Of course, part of what makes the soundtrack great is how it's used with the footage, but still, good music!

Good to see ya, costellopunk!

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 9:11 pm

Well, I FINALLY saw it this morning. Which is a good thing because it's already being slowly withdrawn from L.A. area theaters.

This, after one attempt several weeks back, which ended when I was a bit late and had a minor panic attack. Yep, I'm that freaked out about splatter.

Still, I was determined to see it this time, I figured a strong drink or two would be what was required to get me through the pre-movie jitters. Which is what I did -- the funny part being that I saw the 10:30 a.m. show. (I was seeing it with a friend of mine who can't get out of the too easy cause of her kid and hubby -- who's actually a much bigger weinie than even I am about this kind of thing).

Anyhow, I could have saved a few bucks on those tiny little alcohol bottles and an early in the day headache. When Q. Tarentino said he wanted the blood spurts to look like Cirque de Soliel fountains, I thought he was kidding/exaggerating, but he wasn't. This has to be the most tasteful, artistic and oddly bloodless splatter film in history. Little discrete sprarys that practically dance like that thing in front of the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. You can hear the hose noises. And what about the rubber-band like tongue? And lots of black and white during which the blood resembled water -- which I actually would've preferred in color. (Maybe they'll be an unrated DVD somewhere down the line....). Stuff that could have been really gruesome was done so cleverly and in such a delightfully phoney manner, I sort wonder how any sophisticated filmgoer could be all that offended. (As a few were -- most notaly Ken Turan of our L.A. Times, who I generally respect a great deal.)

It's actually funny in a way that my long life of gore-phobia comes somewhat full circle, here because the movie makes a very direct reference to the first line of an EXTREMELY obscure slasher/gore film I walked out on after about five minutes at a free screening when I was about fourteen or so. I actually sat in my sister's car and listened to the radio for 90 minutes while I was waiting for the movie to let out.

(For the benefit of El Vez and any other exploitation afficionados who may be reading, the movie was called "Death Trap" -- since retitled "Eaten Alive" so as to avoid confusion with the Ira Levin play/movie -- it was Tobe Hooper's first film after the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The lines that are quoted/swiped refer to a fellow named Buck and his favorite activity that rhymes with his name. It's one of those lines of dialogue you don't forget, esp. when you're fourteen.)

Back to Kill Bill -- On the whole, I really enjoyed it a lot, though I suspect it would have been better if QT had decided on delivering one really tight 2.5 hour movie and saved parts of the long fighting sequences for the DVD -- but it's hard to know without seeing the whole thing.

I really got a kick out of all the seventies movies reference/homages, including the actual "and now tonight's feature" trailer which I must have seen a thousand times, along with that cool "Shaw Scope" logo and the monophonic music. (For the benefit of non-cognescenti, Sir Run Run Shaw was a huge Hong Kong film mogul back in the seventies and his company released just about every major martial arts film that hit these shores.)

I also really enjoyed Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu's acting. Tarentino really knows how the get the best from actors, even ones who are sort of inconsistent.

I could go on and on, but re: music. Very fun score, though not as much truly great music as was on his other films. I was expecting to hear the Cher (and Sonny???) version of "Bang, Bang", which I prefer -- though the version that was in the film was very appropriate. Don't know who the performer was. (Forgot the wait through the credits for that.)

And did anyone else recognized the siren-like music that played whenever Uma ran into one of her would-be killers? It was the opening of "Emergency."

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:39 am

Interesting review, but it proves my belief that you have to be a conniseur of the sort of films Tarantino is homaging to fully appreciate this film. It's still playing a sizable number of screens here in Dublin, so obviously it does have a fair amount of appeal.
btw, its Nancy Sinatra's version of Bang, Bang thats used.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:31 pm

I don't think it's a requirement to be a full on grindhouse/martial arts/hong kong movie geek to appreciate KB -- though it sure doesn't hurt, and it probably helps a lot to know some seventies pop culture.

When it first came out, I was listening to two local movie critics on an L.A. public radio show. One of them was Andy Klein, one of two or three leading experts/fans of Hong Kong films, and the other was Jean Oppenheimer, who's taste runs much more to traditional art-house fair and apparently has seen very few Hong Kong films, if any.

They both loved the movie when they saw it together, but Ms. Oppenheimer came out impressed with what she saw as the movie's "inventiveness." But, as she discussed each of her favorite touches with Klein, he'd say "Yeah, that was great. It was a reference to )_____" and "Oh, that's from _____." So, she thought, maybe "inventive" wasn't really the best word.

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 11:24 pm

bobster wrote: (For the benefit of El Vez and any other exploitation afficionados who may be reading, the movie was called "Death Trap" -- since retitled "Eaten Alive" so as to avoid confusion with the Ira Levin play/movie -- it was Tobe Hooper's first film after the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The lines that are quoted/swiped refer to a fellow named Buck and his favorite activity that rhymes with his name. It's one of those lines of dialogue you don't forget, esp. when you're fourteen.)

Personally, I think Ira Levin should have changed HIS title to Eaten Alive, which would have been appropriate considering the on-screen kiss between Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. Caine talked about it in his book and I got the feeling that the two of them really, really hated doing that kiss. I think he even mentioned downing a bottle of vodka with Reeve.

Unfortunately, my girlfriend is cold to Kill Bill so I will probably have to wait till dvd. I agree with you wholeheartedly on his skill with actors. Uma Thurman had a really hard time after Pulp Fiction finding anything effective for her to act in. John Travolta and Bruce Willis and even Pam Grier are three other actors who have never registered as vividly as they did working in his films.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:06 pm

El Vez wrote: Unfortunately, my girlfriend is cold to Kill Bill so I will probably have to wait till dvd.

That's a shame. It's a really good looking wide screen kind of a movie, and so very much up your alley. Maybe see it on a guy's night out (even if you're the only guy!

)

BTW, folks, I must correct some wrong information. The music sting I referred to above is actually from the theme to "Ironside", not "Emergency", I've learned.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:07 pm

Unfortunately I have been unable to get out to the cinema to see Kill Bill but will definitely be getting the DVD the day it is available.

I have long been a fan of the main genres that Kill Bill apparently pays homage to, and in particular the Hong Kong wire-fu and swordplay films (Shaw brothers, Liu Chia-Liang, etc) as well as much of the Japanese cinema such as Lone Wolf and Cub series, Zatoichi series, and films such as the wonderful Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl (in fact the director - Katsuhito Ishii - is responsible for the drawing that begins an animated sequence in Kill Bill).

Also, there is an excellent series currently showing here on the Discovery cable channel called Asian Cinema... this is a documentary divided into five one hour segments over five nights and dealing for the most part with Hong Kong cinema. Catch it if it comes your way.