Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some sexual content

Written and Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, LaTanya Richardson, Michael Jai White, Woo-ping Yuen

Plot:
Uma Thurman is going to KILL BILL, in Quentin Tarantino's latest film about a former assassin betrayed by her boss, Bill (David Carradine). Four years after surviving a bullet in the head, the bride (Thurman) emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her former master and his deadly squad of international assassins, played by Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael Madsen.

Review:
When Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown he took dialogue to another level. With Kill Bill, Tarantino has taken action to a whole new level. Not only action, but Tarantino took his experience of great dialogue and gave us a healthy dose of it in Kill Bill. Before this film was going to be released, I was constantly asking myself, how will women in the lead roles for this action movie affect it. I can answer that one now. With Uma Thurman in the lead role nothing went wrong whatsoever.

Uma Thurman plays "The Bride" in Kill Bill and she is out for revenge and has a list of soon to be dead candidates. Uma knows her character and she truly sets an example for all the women in the world with this film. She shines in every scene because she acts perfect in her role and the dialogue is smart and witty.

Kill Bill is also setup extremely well. The opening scene is an extravagant one and features jaw-dropping occurences. The film knows when to be slick and smart and hits us with it and hits us with it hard. At times, you will find that Kill Bill catches you off guard because its sense of intensity. It shocks you at times from unexpected stunts and sometimes even sad situations involving deaths.

We receive the entire history of Uma's character and the other girls that were part of the organization. And of course, if you know Tarantino enough you know that in almost every scene of Kill Bill at least some sparkle of blood and brutality is present and it sure is. The brutality truly begins when Uma is after her traitors and she goes out to hunt them down.

One of Uma's many enemies is "O-Ren Ishii" played by Lucy Liu. It features Lucy in an incredible role of taking charge and leading her army to track the harmful Uma Thurman. The battles that develop in Kill Bill are extremely well choreographed and violent for that matter

There are great battles in Kill Bill and thats half of what makes this film so entertaining and memorable. It gets bloody and gory all throughout the film. Even human body parts are caught off in this film and the sight of it is brutal, so back away if you have to. There are truly some of the most bloodiest, hard to watch, but still exciting fight scenes ever put on film in Kill Bill. Now, the fight scenes are not neccesarily completely realistic, but besides the exaggeration on certain jumps and stunts, everything else is real and brutal.

If only you would have cooperated.

The film as well contains a good lengthy animation sequence. Its used to tell the past history of all these women that we hardly know about. So, with Tarantino's mind and great animators, the story unfolds by an excellent portrayal of the women's lives on a simple ten minute animated clip.

Women will probably love this film because of the fact that it is women getting revenge. Some may not like it because its too bloody and hard to watch, but I admire Tarantino for that. He is testing the audience, if the audience can't handle the work he has done up to date then go elsewhere. I'm sure he cares about the public, so the film can make what it deserves to, but he is also making the film for himself and for the enjoyment of true fans of movies.

Once again, Tarantino has a well crafted script, a great direction and shows the audience how great movie experiences can be. If I would have to come up with a flaw for this film, the main one would only be the fact that it was split into two parts. At the end of the film you want more and thats because the film leaves a to be continued ending. Fans will have to wait a few months until Volume 2 is released.

I must also say that Tarantino couldn't have casted better women to play these roles either. Lucy Liu was great, Vivica Fox as well and Uma Thurman was astonishing as the lead actress. She was in a role that is oscar worthy material, but will be overlooked because the film is not oscar material to the academy. Either way, everyone did their jobs and they did it well.

How can Volume 2 be better than this? I'll leave it to surprise me. But without a doubt, Tarantino met expectations with Kill Bill and then some. This is a fun and smart movie that never gets out of control.

One can only wonder what inspired Tarantino to make a film like this. With this film he showed that he is not only great in crime films, but action films as well. Actually a good word to use is revenge because that is what it truly is about. And revenge is sweet when you watch Kill Bill.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Rating: