Running time: 136 minutes
Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, Samuel L Jackson, Chris Nelson
Rating 9 out of 10
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". No kidding. Anyone who experienced the first part of Quentin Tarantino's tale of revenge won't be left in any doubt about that. Kill Bill Volume 2 - as you'd expect from a sequel - follows neatly on from the first, but unlike many other sequels, it maintains the intensity of the original while joining both films together to make a hugely satisfying whole.The Bride (Uma Thurman) is still very upset. Bill (David Carradine), the man who left her for dead with a bullet in her head, senses she is getting closer to her goal to kill him. The good news for Bill is that two of his best assassins still stand in her way. The bad news is that one of them is an alcoholic and the other is one-eyed, self-serving psychopath.
The action has moved from Japan back to the United States. Although the film is contemporary, this landscape has the feel of the 'Wild West' to it. It's no accident. Tarantino has long been a fan of the spaghetti western and here he gets his chance to pay homage to Sergio Leone while giving the whole thing a modern twist.
The story switches constantly between the past and the present, answering questions posed in Volume 1 and explaining how this journey of bloody revenge started and just what The Bride's relationship with Bill is. Along the road we are treated to a host of memorable characters and one-liners. As we have come to expect with Tarantino, the film is visually stunning, quirky and funny...oh and pretty damn gory too...
That said, the level of violence should not be overstated. This film is much slower paced and has more of Tarantino's slick dialogue than Vol. 1. The soundtrack is used more sparingly, but no less effectively. But it is with the characters that Tarantino has his greatest success. The Bride's Kung Fu mentor Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) is a wonderful blend of comedic movement and powerful cruelty and Daryl Hannah has never been better than as Elle - the one-eyed bitch from hell with a sword fixation. As for Bill himself David Carradine is simply astonishing. Where has he been hiding?
Singularly this is a fantastic film in it's own right, but when paired with the explosive Volume 1 it makes for a cinematic tour de force. I for one can't wait watch them both back to back. And just think of all those DVD extras!
