I'd like to rewatch it, but I just can't bring myself to do it.
I've seen Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, and I loved all of them.
I was ofc older when I saw those movies. May it be the with Kill Bill, that the movie is made for adults only?
-*Inserting random phrase by famous madman/idiot that makes me feel intelligent*-
You're not alone, but it has nothing to do with age.
I'm a Tarantino fan. Reservoir Dogs, True Romance and Pulp Fiction are in my Top 15 favorite movies.
I like Jackie Brown, Inglorious Basterds, From Dusk Til Dawn, Natural Born Killers and first half of Death Proof. Hateful 8 and Django are enjoyable as well.
But Kill Bill is simply not compelling. I was 17 the first time I watched Vol 1. I didn't like it at all.
I'm 32 now and I gave it another try tonight. I disliked it even more. Vol 2 was even worse.
I like the over-the-top violence and ridiculous dialogues in Tarantino flicks, but he lost the sense of balance in this one.
The characters, the action scenes and the plot is too silly to care about. It's just pointless style over substance.
Fans of this movie tend to be immature self-described feminists and horny submissive males who are into CBT and dominatrix porn.
It helps if you know all the genres and films QT pays homage to in Kill Bill, and it’s full of them.
I recognize a few of them and many of the references.
The references, homages, spoofs come at a great cost.
The end result isn't an enjoyable movie.
^This. Tarantino desperately needs an editor to step in an murder his darlings. Jackie Brown in particular is the most bloated, inexplicably self-satisfied disaster that I’ve seen—and will never see again.
shareJackie Brown? That's a great thriller. I actually thought Django Unchained was a little padded with the "double climax". I think Django Unchained was great, I just think it's the closest Tarantino's come to going overlong.
shareI place Jackie Brown above Django by a long shot.
shareJackie Brown's highly underrated. Pam Grier and Robert Forster's performances alone make the movie special. Don't know where I'd rank it in the hierarchy, though. Tarantino's films are so consistently good, generally, that sometimes I find it hard to place them specifically over one another.
I basically know that Inglourious Basterds is my favourite one, Hateful Eight is my least favourite one, and Grindhouse/Death Proof was okay, but not really in the same league as the others.
I was disappointed with the shallow plot line about Beatrix drive for "justice".
She's no different than any of the crew that she ran with working under Bill, but she decided to not only be Bill's lover but to also pursue a career as a murderer-for-hire as was shown to us in her under the tutelage of Pae Mei.
Also, I don't see much commentary about it but QT never shows us if Beatrix knew that her baby was still alive even though she knows it was extracted during her coma. The reveal towards the end of KB2 implies that she didn't know but I call bullshit on that.
In the end, she only wanted revenge for not being able to walkaway from the Life she willingly chose. It's like any other gangster or mafia movie about following a code. Since she broke the code twice and is essentially a murderer who "got away with it" I felt no relief or happiness for her at the end.
If Vol.2 continued the same way Vol.1 did, I'd agree with you, that it's just entertainment in the form of a cheap revenge story with lots of great action sequences and B-movie homages.
But Vol.2, I think, gets more into the motherhood stuff. It shows us B's reaction to that test. It shows the shock on her face when she's looking at the twisted family unit she's got. It makes her re-evaluate everything she's done and everywhere she's going. It sets up that final shot.
I used to think it was a pretty shallow film, too, but on repeat viewings, I'm pretty sure it shows us a striking amount of stuff to do with motherhood, in a weird way with lots of kung fu, samurai swords, and Bruce Lee jumpsuits.
I dunno about the motherhood thing. The Korean girl didn't kill her when she announced that she found out she was pregnant. She was the true hero of the film in that regard.
Let's also not forget that she killed Vernita knowing she was a mother as well. Her little "look me up if you want to talk about it" to Vernita's little girl was empty gesture. It also leaves her and her own child's future open to a revenge killing.
QT's concept of revenge seems to ride on the belief that it can come to an end when in fact his own story demonstrates that it never ends.
I think it's implying the cycles of violence, though. And later on, Beatrix realises that she wants to stop those cycles when she realises she's got BB, or a potential for BB. She's wrestling with whether or not she can break it, and if so, does she break it by killing Bill or by just coming "home"? We see what she decides.
She slaughters Vernita at the beginning because she believes her own daughter is dead and that has left cold rage in her guts. BB represents hope and escape. The first time BB "shows up" - when the Bride is pregnant - is the first time Beatrix wants out.
Other characters want "out", too. Most notably Budd, who is in some kind of self-imposed exile, almost like he's in penance or purgatory. He makes a different choice, though, clearly wanting back in. Or, at least, doing "one last job" to try to escape. We see the results of those actions, too.
I really like Kill Bill a lot. I think it's fun, entertaining, and actually gives us a great character arc with the Bride. It does strike an odd tone where it's walking that line between serious drama and cheeseball exploitation/kung fu revenge film, but I think it walks that line well.
It gets surprisingly deep for a "simple" revenge tale at times, with the Bride's arc as a mother in particular. That theme of motherhood comes up right away with the pregnant Bride and then Vernita Green and her daughter. The film keeps piling that on, and that's very important. I dug it, anyway. So, I think it has a lot to say that's easy to miss in the carnage and chaos (not just violence, but also the madcap way it switches to anime for awhile or plays that siren music when the Bride sees a target).
What can I say? I dig it and I think it's worth a second look, especially if you like the other Tarantino pictures.
Oddly, I didn't like Hateful Eight. I felt it was too nihilistic, gratuitous, and tawdry and I have compared it to things like reality TV and Jerry Springer, just hating on people and watching them be evil for some cheap thrill. Didn't like it - although I fully acknowledge it's brilliant technically. The script is well-wrought, the performers are great, the cinematography is beautiful...just can't get behind the "message" of the film.
Hateful 8 is my least favorite Tarantino film but I must say the Morricone score was wonderful.
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