Review:

**** (out of ****)

Starring:

Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, Perla Haney-Jardine

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Screenplay:

Quentin Tarantino

Length:

136 min.

MPAA Rating:

R (For violence, language and brief drug use)

A trained assassin continues her journey to avenge her wedding day assault in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Volume 2.

Uma Thurman reprises her role as The Bride who was shot in the head on her wedding day by her former lover and mentor Bill (David Carradine). We see the first part of her bloody revenge in Kill Bill, Volume 1 but here the action is far more streamlined but still carries the Tarantino style of editing. We finally get to see the events that led up to her wedding day massacre as Bill shows his face for the first time and explains that he does love her and wants to see her happy. The final scene shows the four Deadly Viper Assassins walk into the chapel and, instead of seeing the carnage on screen, we see the flickering of gun fire and hear sounds of violence from within the quaint church.

This muted style of violence lasts for a decent duration in this movie and, indeed, we never see the magnitude of gore seen in the first film. The Bride has two more victims to finish off and even their scenes are not as gruesome. Budd (Michael Madsen) has some fantastic scenes with The Bride but the most entertaining are those with Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). Both chapters are clever and unusual, keeping the spirit of the original film alive.

Kill Bill, Volume 2 is still quite a bit different than the original. Here, we deal more with The Bride as a mother than in the first film. While we learn that she has great respect for the children of her second victim in the first film, we see her even more as a repentant mother figure in this film, turning her vengeance into motherly protectiveness. We learn that the moral, hinted at but not elaborated on in the first film, is more about what a mother will do to protect or help her child than about the lengths someone will go to to seek revenge.

It's hard to believe that Quentin Tarantino's second volume would be so limited in violence considering his first three films. However, Tarantino shows a great deal of restraint and maturation in this film, something that epitomizes a great director. Kill Bill, Volume 2 eclipses the first film's quality by a minor degree, both films exhibiting a quality of skill that is more of an exception in modern filmmaking than a rule.

Audiences who did not like the first film may still enjoy this film but those who loved the first film will celebrate this as a fantastic final chapter to the saga. Kill Bill, Volume 2 will not easily be forgotten by anyone who sees it, many of whom will learn a little about themselves in the process.

-Wesley Lovell (June 5, 2004)