Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Reel Critic Grade: A- Running Time: 136 minutes Rated: R

Quentin Tarantino is cool. I’m talking Frank Sinatra, James Dean, Steve McQueen cool. It’s a bad- boy cool. An old-school cool. A kind of cool you either have or you don’t – it can’t be faked. Like the others, Tarantino infuses this cool into his art. The resulting films are like nothing you’ve ever seen; they have a languid pace, but never drag; his character’s talk in the same philosophical prose, but they’re always unique; the subject matter is often taboo or offensive, yet it always fits flawlessly into the story; his camera direction is unorthodox and at the same time absolutely right. Quentin doesn’t play by the rules of film, he’s a rebel, and we’re the benefactors. His latest effort, Kill Bill Vol. 2, continues his reign as the king of film cool.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 is the continuing story of Beatrix Kiddo’s (Uma Thurman) quest for revenge. Kiddo is a highly-skilled assassin who, after getting pregnant, wanted to trade her killing ways for domestic life. This didn’t sit well with her former employer, lover, and father-of-her-child, Bill (David Carradine), who, in Vol. 1, with the help of his Viper Assassin Squad, tracks her down, massacres her small wedding party, and ruthlessly puts a bullet in her head. But, Kiddo survives the bullet, a long coma, and sets out to kill her assassin cohorts and Bill. She scratched three names off her list of six in Vol. 1. In Vol. 2 she confronts the rest.

The film opens by giving and expanding the back-story. Beatrix informs us why she is on her revenge quest and we see the lead up to the wedding chapel massacre that we didn’t get to see in the first film. The whole sequence is shot in black and white, which is a subtle differentiator of the known material from the new.

This opening allows Vol. 2 to stand on its own. We get enough information to jump into the story and not miss a beat (although if you don’t see Vol. 1, you will have missed some of the most fun, fantastically choreographed, and bloodiest fight scenes ever filmed).

Beatrix’s first target is Budd (Michael Madsen), Bill’s trailer-trash brother. He’s a bouncer in a local strip club. His boss, who has the wit of a weekly sit-com writer, has just playfully scratched two weeks of Budd’s shifts for being late again. Budd’s life is as shitty as the overflowed toilet he has to clean up. The first scene between Beatrix and Budd is the only scene in the movie that didn’t work for me.

Beatrix is the best of the best in the assassin world, yet she pulls a rookie move that puts Budd in the driver’s seat. It didn’t fit her character and was the wrong way to give Budd the upper hand. Beatrix ends up six feet under in a wooden coffin with nothing but a flashlight. It’s a chilling scene inside the coffin as dirt claps like fading thunder onto the wooden top.

Tarantino uses flashbacks to show us how Beatrix is trained by the Master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). He’s a white-haired, white-bearded, stoic, guru-of-battle reminiscent of the old kung-fu movies. He’s a deadly serious character who makes us laugh with every flip of his foot-long beard. Classic! It’s here Beatrix learns her assassin skills and the skills necessary to extricate herself from the grave (you knew she had to escape).

Fresh from her not-so-final resting place, Beatrix heads back to settle with Budd and gets a break when her other target, Elle Driver (Darrell Hannah), shows up. Elle is a pencil-thin beauty with a custom eye-patch. She’s a stickler for detail and, although she hates Beatrix, has respect for her ability. The sword play that ensues is remarkable. The cramped quarters of Budd’s trailer calls for creative fighting and the girls come through in spades. Elle isn’t so much defeated as she is rendered ineffective.

Now it’s down to Bill. Beatrix tracks him down and enters his villa ready for a fight. Instead, she gets the surprise of her second-chance life (which I won’t give away). The showdown between Bill and Beatrix does take place, but only after a forced heart-to-heart, and not as you would imagine. In classic Tarantino fashion, it’s an unexpected ending set up perfectly beforehand.

Although Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are in reality one long movie, they look and feel very different. Vol. 1 was non-stop action with little character development, where Vol. 2 is more character driven with periods of intense action. Vol. 2 allows the characters to breathe, to show us who they are through their stories and philosophies. The witty dialogue is a Tarantino trademark and huge part of what makes his films distinctive. One isn’t better than the other, they’re just different.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 isn’t for everyone; Tarantino movies never have been. But, for those who appreciate his mastery on the page and behind the camera, this film delivers. Long live the king!