Kill Bill - Vol.1 & Vol.2 Twin Pack (US Theatrical Cut) (Blu-ray) (Japan Version) Blu-ray Region A

Here's the deal. Tarantino's direction and Robert Richardson's cinematography both deserve more time than I'm going to give them here, but it's all good, as they say, and if you've seen Vol. I you'll know what I mean. Instead, I'd rather focus of the performances, as the quality of acting on display here was not nearly so much in evidence in the first film.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Thurman as The Bride is the film's emotional centre and she really sells it; every smile, every tear, every grimace is bang on, and it even hurts just to watch the poor girl eat rice. David Carradine's Bill, however, is just plain cool. Carradine possesses great charisma and when he's on-screen he's impossible to ignore, but he's also damn scary - you can hear the punctuation when he says "Surprise." and it's absolutely terrifying.

Gordon Liu is perfect as beard-stroking kung fu master Pai Mei ("From here you can get an excellent view of my foot! HAHAHA!"), while Darryl Hannah gets possibly the finest moment in the film - or at least, she's on the receiving end of it. Michael...Madsen's stilted...delivery...of his...lines wears a little thin after a while but is otherwise fine as Bill's washed up brother Budd, and Rufus, well, he's The Man. Michael Parks also puts in an impressive, albeit rather brief, appearance playing an 80 year-old Mexican pimp with the most alluring eyelashes I've ever seen. Weird.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 is much more dialogue heavy than Vol. I (much, much more), and with a running time of 137 minutes it's quite a bit longer, but provided Tarantino's particular brand of talky-talk is to your liking, you should find it's just long enough for him to make his point.

10 Morricone samples out of 10

by Jonathan McCoy - Heroic-cinema.com

Rather than write a 'proper' review then, I'm instead going to share three little things that, as fellow devotees of 'Asian' cinema, might help you recognise just how super-cool Kill Bill truly is. Here goes...

Firstly, there's a reason why H-C has decided to cover Kill Bill, and that's because the film draws heavily on Hong Kong and Japanese (generic) traditions of filmmmaking. It's more than that - having actually seen the film I can now say that it actually locates itself very specifically within the cultural contexts of those traditions too. (Volume One of the film largely orients itself around Japan, while Volume Two - out in February - has a lot more fu.) Yes, The Bride be might be a "silly Caucasian girl," but she hasn't been taught to fight by a computer programme. She knows what it means to carry Japanese steel, and what it means to use it. The climactic showdown at the House of Blue Leaves is one of the most incredible fight sequences I've ever seen, mostly because each one of its constituent elements works together so magnificently. Yuen Woo Ping and Sonny Chiba's choreography/instruction, Robert Richardson's cinematography, Uma Thurman's performances and, of course, Tarantino's direction, combine to create something as near to perfect as can be. The music. The production design. The editing. Incredible stuff.

Secondly, the film also features an anime sequence from Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire) that serves to tell the story of Lucy Liu's character O-Ren Ishii. It is beautiful work that stands alone as one of the best things I've seen in a cinema all year and is reason enough to see Kill Bill even if anime doesn't usually do it for you.

Finally, Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu both play fairly significant roles in the film and, as might be expected, they're really, REALLY cool.

Ultimately though, Kill Bill is much more than the some of these (and many other) parts. It's just...brilliant. Simple as that. See it.

10 what-else-were-you-expecting?'s out of 10

by Jonathan McCoy - Heroic-cinema.com