I have to agree with DrMemory here Sam I think you are the only one.
The first half of the movie actually was really good. I was hooked after the first scene becuase it totally came out of nowhere but in a believible sense. Then all of a sudden everyone turned to vampires and I spent the next half of the movie saying what the fuck to myself repeatidly.
That you would be so dismissive and rude toward such a lovely, touching, excellent example of a genre film means that you’re just not on the same wavelength. You would hate The Bride With White Hair. You would hate Hero. You would hate Once Upon A Time In China, Zatoichi, House of Flying Daggars, Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, Green Snake, The Heroic Trio and on and on and on. msmith537 said it best.
It’s just not your thing. No big deal. It happens. It doesn’t reflect on Tarantino or KB though.
You know, each to their own and all that, but you only saw 20 minutes of a nearly 4 hour movie (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 together are Kill Bill) so really, you have no idea of the characters, the backstory, the journey, the destination. You missed major characters, major plot points, major surprises, major emotional arcs. Vol. 1 is almost all action, but it sets up the characters. Vol. 2 is much more dialogue-oriented, and when the action happens in it, it has much more of an impact because you realize you’ve come to care about The Bride, in spite of her being a cold-blooded killer. Vol. 1 sets up what she’s capable of and sketches out why she’s doing what she’s doing. Vol. 2 tells you who she is and how she got there.
For all the action, bloodshed, kicking ass, and genre homages, there’s a fascinating story in Kill Bill too. It’s not deep, it’s not “important,” and it it’s not super original, but it’s interesting and has something that is rarely seen in American cinema: a female anti-hero with a heart and a brain. She’s mad as hell and has pure revenge on her mind, but capable of love and mercy.
Hong Kong/Chinese cinema often has such characters. The Bride With White Hair (an obvious influence on Tarantino) has a female protaganist who’s scary as hell. We’re not used to that kind of thing in a major motion picture. That’s one of the reasons why people who are already familiar with some of Tarantino’s genre influences are immediately accepting of the movie and The Bride character.
It’s not that kind of movie. It’s not a generic Hollywood action film. It’s in a class by itself.
I’m familiar with some of the genre films that Tarantino inhales like air, and Tarantino will take the best things from even the worst of them, and filters them through his own psyche. What comes out is something completely original, even when it uses bits that are vaguely (or overtly) familiar.
Not necessarily. I’m pretty familiar with Hong Kong cinema, and I hated Crouching Tiger. I’ve spoken with a number of other people who felt the same way; it seemed like the people who knew the most about HK film liked Crouching Tiger least, and vice versa. So disliking Crouching Tiger doesn’t necessarily indicate a distaste for the genre.
[/url=http://moviegeek.homestead.com/files/crouchingtiger.htm]not necessarily
It’s not just Sam.
I also loved From Dusk 'Til Dawn.
I wasn’t in on the plot, and laughed my ass off when it suddenly, and without warning switched genres so quickly that the transmission came flying off the movie and injured some of the viewers. Fun, fun film.
Hi, my name is John…
Hi, John.
and I also loved From Dusk 'Til Dawn.
It’s a neo-noir movie! No, it’s a comedy-horror movie! Relax, it’s both! It’s two, two, two movies in one.
One more person here who thought From Dusk 'til Dawn was the bee’s knees. I thought it was brilliant the way they spent so much time establishing the setting as being the “real” world, then pull the rug out from under both the audience and the characters by introducing the supernatural so far into the picture. Horror movies tend to be so dominated by formula, it’s refreshing to see it get so shaken up like that.
I really like the non-QT movie Deep Blue Sea for the same reason.
“Now let’s kill that F*cking band!”
“I am a mean mmm-mmm servant of God.”
I like most of Tarantino’s stuff, I really enjoyed Kill Bill Volume 1 but thought Volume 2 was so weak and money grubbing as to detract from the first half. I am now starting to wonder where homage ends and ripoff begins.
Count me in as a huge fan of From Dusk Till Dawn, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill 1 & 2, etc. I’ve met QT a number of times and spent a fair amount of time chatting with him, and I assure you he isn’t his talk-show persona in real life. He’s an extremely enthusiastic guy who looooves movies and pop culture.
As far as his saying that he makes movies to show off his vast talent (which he has), well, who DOESN’T? I don’t think anyone makes movies because they believe they’re incompetent and would have been better off pursuing a career in the custodial arts (even if it’s true - I’m looking at you, Oliver Stone - the directors themselves probably don’t think that).
I’m not familar with kung-fu films, but I love Spaghetti Westerns. Crouching Tiger is one of the two movies I ever walked out on.
Really enjoyed Resevior Dogs and Pulp Fiction, so much that I can’t decide which one was better. **Jackie Brown ** was alright, but really didn’t do much for me. I felt the scene done from three different viewpoints was the best part.
However, I really got a kick out of Kill Bill, Vol. 1 [ol]
[li]I’ve heard a fair number of people who liked the 1st part but not the 2nd(at least not as much)[/li][li]I’ve heard an equal number who liked the 2nd part but not the first(again, proabbly not as much)[/li][li]Then I’ve heard some people who really liked both. [/li][/ol]
This is tempered by the fact that I didn’t expect to like Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Niether the original idea or the trailer impressed me at all. And now I want to see it again.
How big of a prick do you have to be to feel like you have to walk out of a movie?
Crap.
That list in my previous post was supposed to illustrate reasons why I’m not sure if I’ll like Kill Bill, Part 2
I’m with the OP on this one. I thought Kill Bill was pretty mediocre, if not simply bad. All style, no substance. I didn’t care about any of the characters. I didn’t particularly think the genre lifting was clever. The violence was gratuitous, but that didn’t bug me so much as the film was just boring. I really wanted to like it, but I found it a waste of time. I felt like I was watching a two-hour long gimmick.
Even cinematically, it didn’t particularly move me.
I really like Crouching Tiger – I liked The Good, the Bad, and they Ugly. Kill Bill Vol 1? Maybe I should give it another chance, but first time round, I didn’t see the appeal.
I love everything QT’s directed, including Jackie Brown . Kill Bill was obviously a different movie than Pulp Fiction , but you can still see QT’s trademarks in the movie. I thought it was brilliant, personally, but my least favorite of his movies. I loved how he would mix tension and humor in the same scene (He did this many times in KB
Oh, and two friends and I rented Kill Bill Vol. 1 on Friday and following it’s completion, saw Vol. 2 in theatres. One friend had only seen Volume 1, one had only seen Volume 2, and I had seen neither. Needless to say, we all loved it.