Posted by Suplee_Mental at 209.107.0.57 on October 18, 2003 at 14:00:00:
I went to see this with three other people. I was the only one who thought this movie rocked.
Uma Thurman plays a wicked fighter-assassin chick who is seeking revenge on her would-be murderers: her former assassin group, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (she survived, but was in a coma for 4 years).
This movie had a lot of the same atmosphere as Pulp Fiction (another great movie). The blood and gore and raw violence were treated with humor (there's something brilliant about something disturbing being addressed in a low-key-humor sort of way). The music was, on it's own, largely terrible, but was perfect for the film-- Again, the mixing of something awful with something good. Brilliant.
Another awesome thing about the mood of the film was the utter implausibility of most of the plot points. For example, Uma spent 13 hours in that back of a truck, willing her legs to move, starting with her big toe (she was paralyzed from the waist down when she awoke from her coma). There were tons of stuff that were treated as if it was perfectly normal when in fact it was complete insanity. Brilliant.
Also, there were lots of nods to other films (some cheesy ones, some great), such as The Matrix, Charlies Angels, Crouching Tiger, Bruce Lee's A Warriors Journey, Anime in general, and a few others that I can't think of right now, and I'm sure a bunch of references that were lost on me.
And finally, the film was visually awesome. Not because of special effects or amazing scenery, but because of style. The camera work was perfect and insane. At one point, during a Matrix II style fight sequence, everything went black and white after Uma plucked out some dudes eye. It didn't make any sense, but was completely awesome because of it. Colored was restored later when Uma blinked.
The movie was a lot like Pulp Fiction, but Pulp had tons more dialogue (I loved the dialogue). Kill Bill relied more on non-verbal storytelling. In Pulp, the characters rambled on about nothing, but it was the kind of nothing that is absolutely inspired. In Kill Bill, it is the visual storytelling that is inspired, though much of it was also about nothing.
Brilliant, dude....absolutely Brilliant.
but still, I was the only one in our group that enjoyed it, so I may be alone in the world on this one.
sniffle.