Quentin Tarantino: there’s a name that screams to some people “come see this movie!” I think the guy has talent and has done some innovative things, but when it becomes more about him than the movie then there’s bound to be some issues. This doesn't mean I don't ever like what he does, but Quentin is overrated. Just because he does something unusual doesn’t mean it’s good.

"Kill Bill" is the culmination of all that. It’s full of unusual cinematic presentations, but not all of them work. In fact, sometimes it seems like Quentin is throwing in certain elements for the sake of doing something unexpected rather than because it is a good idea. You can sew a cow turd into a blanket. It would be different for sure, but it’s still crap.

The movie is a revenge story. A woman who is part of a gang of assassins is herself taken down by the same organization. To add insult to injury they do the job at her wedding killing her groom, the pastor, and everyone else in attendance. This seems to have something to do with the baby she’s carrying which she claims belongs to the leader of the gang. (I assume the full connection is revealed in the next movie, what I'm telling you I got from seeing only part 1).

She somehow lives through the ordeal and after a long coma sets out to kill the ones that stole her life. From there it becomes a bloody romp through a field of body parts.

In classic Tarantino style the story is cut into sections and mixed up, jumping around in the timeline to reveal past and present in an intermingled fashion. This much I like. It’s one of my favorite things about Quentin’s style. His stories are not linear, and this kind of reveal works well for him.

Other elements aren’t so good, though, and are either distasteful or distracting. The bleeping out of Uma Thuman’s character’s name is one. She is only known to us as “The Bride” or “Black Mamba.” Whenever her real name is spoken a censorship bleep obscures it. I found this annoying; it pulled me out of the movie (or would have if I hadn’t already been pulled out). I would have rather them change the dialogue to exclude the name at all than to use this method. I don't know, maybe they were trying to make the editing a character itself?

Another element is the switching of styles for segments of the movie. It seems to try to create the feel of interconnecting but separate works. One backstory is told using animation with a Japanese animation feel to it. This one almost works since the story is told from beginning to end in this fashion. However since no other segment is done like this it feels out of place to me (unlike say a collection of various stories presented in the unique styles of different directors). But I can live with it since the movie is is, in some ways, a live-action adaptation of the anime style.

One that doesn’t work at all is the sudden switch to black and white in the middle of a fight scene. There is no reason for this except maybe to reduce the extreme gore factor in order to ensure a tamer rating. Yet another part switches to silhouettes. This one almost works, but instead feels thrown in for no reason other than just to have something they could say was different since it comes so close on the heels of the black and white segment. A more consistent variation in styles or better placement of the sudden shifts might have helped the feel of it more.

Aside from the patchwork styles the movie is already weak. The characters aren’t the least bit believable which is worse because the acting is so bad. Even the dialogue, at which Quentin is usually masterful, is terrible. So bad acting, bad dialogue, and bad characters don’t make for much of a good movie. I guess grandiose is what he wwas purposefully going for, but instead of creating a fun atmosphere I just found myself cringing and more than once nearly picked up the remote to skip to the next scene because the one I was watching was so unbearably bad. I watch a lot of old Kung Fu movies so I’m used to these kinds of flaws, but out of the likes of actors as big as the ones in "Kill Bill" I expected more. Vivica Fox is particularly bad, but even Uma Thurman, who I normally like, is hard to bear sometimes. Lucy Liu isn’t too good, either. Sonny Chiba I liked, and the girl playing Go-Go wasn’t too bad. That's the most praise I can muster.