Kill Bill, Volume I.

You know what? Quentin Tarantino is not the greatest filmmaker in the world. Maybe he wants to be, and that is a noble endeavor on his part. But he’s not there yet, despite what some critics would have you believe.

You know something else? “Kill Bill” is not a bloody movie. Unless you consider bright red colored liquid “blood”. “Kill Bill” IS a truly entertaining movie, though, and there is a LOT of that bright red wet stuff spurting all over the place. It looks so fake that it is very clear that Tarantino MEANT for it to look fake. C’mon, in “Reservoir Dogs” there was a lot of blood, and it looked real, so Quentin certainly knows how to do blood. He was just sending a different message in “Kill Bill”.

This is a lightweight movie. By that, I mean that it is a simple revenge flick, with very few twists or plot complexities. Or at least that’s for this first installment. We’ll see what Volume II will bring. But in this Volume, the plot progresses in a very predictable fashion. We already know, before the movie even starts, that the heroine (the questionably lovely Uma Thurman) is going to get her revenge. The movie isn’t about making us wonder IF she’ll get her justice, it’s all about HOW she gets it. And it’s fun, fun, fun all the way. In a really fake-bloody sort of way.

Hey, if your revenge weapon of choice is a samurai sword, you have to expect a little blood to be spilled, right?

Undeniably, Tarantino brings a lot of style to this film. His choice to break the movie up into titled chapters, his use of black and white, silhouette and anime, even his inspired casting (bringing back his friends Thurman and Michael Madsen; making Lucy Liu seem even bitchier than usual; Darryl Hannah?) all combine to make an absolutely must-see cinematic event. You have to give the guy credit, he puts a lot of thought and work into his films.

The best part of “Kill Bill” for me? The fact that as soon as it was over, I was DYING to see Volume II. Not because of a cliff-hanger ending; there wasn’t one. Just because Tarantino told a story that was so interesting, I just have to know how it ends, even though the ending is a foregone conclusion: Uma WILL get her revenge; I can’t wait to see HOW (and why they wanted to kill her in the first place).

More later…
Paul