07/12/09 - Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004, 136 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378194/

Unlike in my watching of The Lord of the Rings, I did have a substantial break between these viewings so I'm writing it as two separate posts.

We begin immediately where we left off. The Bride (Uma Thurman) is progressing towards her confrontation with Bill (David Carradine). Playing Budd (another person The Bride wants to kill) is Michael Madsen. Daryl Hannah has a larger role in Vol. 2, again playing Elle Driver.

This movie is more the background and plot part while the Vol. 1 was more action oriented. Unfortunately, this is a problem in my mind. The split is too great. The first movie is essentially 100% over-the-top gory, violent action. Then Vol. 2 is the exact opposite with very little big fights and instead lots of dialogue and background. Splitting these would've been better in my opinion as it hurts Vol. 2 quite a lot. Also, the action in this movie suffers from being too short. The death of Budd is so quick it's over before you realize he's dead. The same thing with Bill at the ending. The Bride's fight with Elle Driver, though, is longer and pretty good.

I'll also say that I liked the music a lot more in this movie. Vol. 1 was set more in Japan and the music captured that atmosphere very well, but this movie, being set in America, had music with an American feel which I like more. Don't get me wrong, though, as the music is great in both films, it's just that this one has some more memorable riffs in my opinion.

Overall, I gave this film a 6/10. It's still good, but doesn't capture the same emotional reaction that Vol. 1 had and the complete reversal in style creates quite a jolt, especially having watched them just a few hours apart from one another.