Just before deciding to go school shopping, I took a trip to the ol� Video Time in Williamston, my local video renting store. They had it, which was surprising, because it came out a week ago, and it is a popular movie. I mean, everybody should want to see it, and once in a lifetime, everybody should see both of them.
I�m a guy who likes to wait until it is nighttime to start my movies. I like the darkness, and I love to be alone. Uninterrupted movies are usually only seen in theaters, for me. Luckily, last night was Monday night, so I had my favorite TV shows kill the time while I waited for the night to become dark. It is getting later in the year, and the times are a-changin�, and it gets darker earlier. Ten o�clock was going to be my time for my movie to start.
Two and a Half Men ends at 10:00pm.
The movie starts. I have my surround sound set up, and I am very excited. I have a glass of orange juice to keep me company, but other than that, I don�t feel like eating. I usually have popcorn or something, but not this time.
I loved the beginning. Both movies start out black and white. This one started with Uma Thurman giving a short monologue about TV�s saying she�s been on a roaring rampage and never been caught. Neither movies even included a cop except for Michael Parks� and I believe his brother in the beginning of the first movie. Michael Parks is a little known actor who is just about as good as any great actor in the business, Quentin said. I believe it, too. His cop, from the beginning of Kill Bill, vol. 1 is also the character from �From Dusk Till Dawn,� and I knew that before Quentin said so in the �making of� featurette. He also plays a Mexican pimp in Kill Bill vol. 2, but we�ll get to that later.
The Bride is now gonna kill Bill. After the movie shows the same clip of the Bride all bloodied up, then says �Bill, it�s your baby� and then she is shot.
Vol. 2 rolls up from the bottom of the screen. The music and style is very cool. The font of the credits gives the movie an old-school theme to it.
Spoiler Warning, I am going to give away every scene and the ending of �Kill Bill vol. 2� away, so do not read on from this point if you have any interest in seeing the movie.
The term Spaghetti Western could be used in both movies, but the first one was a lot more Kung-Fu style action and violence. The church in which the Bride is shot in shows, and it is a very cool set piece for the movie. In the beginning, we meet the Groom�s family. None of these people were shown in the first movie, and they didn�t have to be. Quentin Tarantino, the man behind the camera says that Kill Bill vol. 1 is the questions, and vol. 2 is the answers. My only questions were �How is Bill gonna get killed?� and �How is Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah gonna meet their demises?�
The Groom�s family is very nice to The Bride, who has no family. There is a reverend sitting in front of them and Uma talks as a narrator about how the massacre at Two Pines (the name of the church) was not during a wedding ceremony, it was during a wedding rehearsal. So there�s a reverend and his mother questioning the Bride about how their getting married and all of that stuff. The mother says �and when you�re kissing, don�t stick your tongue in each other�s mouths.�
To which The Bride replies, �We�ll try to contain ourselves,� and then turns around to talk to the women behind her, who are family to the groom. �This woman is pissing me off and I need to get some air.�
So the Bride walks outside, hears a whistle making music and then asks �How did you find me?� once she gets outside.
�I�m the man,� the man replies, the man being the Bill.
They talk about The Bride being pregnant and how Bill should act nice on this day, since she�s getting married. We actually find out very little during this scene, but we do get to listen to both of the actor�s talk. The Bride works in a record store, listening to music all day, she says, when he asks about her J-O-B. David Carradine (the actor, Bill) has a little lisp which is somehow fun to listen to. He�s just so cool. Bill walks The Bride into the church and he meets the groom. They�re having a wedding dress rehearsal and the groom asks �Why should she only get to wear the dress once for being so expensive? She looks so damn good in it, anyhow.�
Oh, I forgot to mention Rufus, the musician for the wedding is played very coolly by Samuel L. Jackon. When I saw him I watched the scene as if I had been waiting for him to show. He�s gotta be in Tarantino�s movie�s. He played Jules in �Pulp Fiction,� which was definitely his best role and maybe his best movie, too. I don�t like Samuel L. Jackson except for in Tarantino�s movies. I have yet to see �Jackie Brown,� but I will.
The Bride kisses Bill on the lips, but not too much because the groom was just told that he was her father. She has a name now, but it�s not her real name. The groom has no idea who she really is, what she really was, only an idea of who she is going to be, his wife. My favorite shot brings the camera back, starting at the two people standing next to each other, The Bride, and Tommy Plympton, her husband to be. The camera sees Bill standing up in a pew in the church and keeps going, out the door. Music plays as if to say �uh oh� once we see four people with large machine guns standing outside of the chapel. They walk into the church as if on cue and the camera lifts very high and we hear �No, BILL!� before the shooting starts. There are two windows in the chapel, and in both of them, we see machine gun fire. In the doorway, we see a shadow of one of the shooters. Then the screen blacks out.
For the first time, we see the film in color. Bill drives to Michael Madsen�s trailer, and we find out that they are actually brothers. They talk about how the Bride kill 88 guards to get to Lucy Lui�s character in the first one. Bill corrects him �They just called themselves the Crazy 88�s, there weren�t really 88 of them.�
�Michael Madsen is the master of looking cool,� Tarantino has said, and I agree, haha. Michael Madsen says each line very well. �That woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die�but then again, so does she� he says as if it was his biggest line in the movie.
A scene that seems long takes place in a strip bar, but doesn�t have any business. This scene is lightly humorous, but it seems long because there are a lot of silences. These scenes are supposed to be like that, for character development. Madsen is one of the nicest people in the whole movie, and we learn that, but he�ll still get the Bride. She is his next victim, we learn once the camera shows us beneath the trailer, once Budd aka Sidewinder is back at his trailer (played by Madsen, of course).
The Bride bursts in Budd�s door as if to surprise him, but is shot with a shotgun as if Budd had been ready for her all this time. He calls up Daryl Hannah�s character and offers the Bride�s sword for one million dollars. The sword, we learned in the first one is very cool, very unique, very valuable, �priceless.�
So Daryl Hannah�s character will come in the morning.
Budd offers the Bride (after she struggles, tied up) a can of mace in the eyes, or a flashlight. She chooses the flashlight, of course�to be buried alive with. This scene is so awesome, the Bride is put in the wooden box (along with the camera angle) and we see two men nailing her in until everything goes dark. For minutes, our ears are all we have as the audience, listening to loud dirt being thrown on the box. As a director, Tarantino is awesome and he creates his own style, but I would have turned the flashlight on for a couple seconds to see her wooden casket put into the ground. We would see her body bounce and then the flashlight would go off. That�s the only thing I would have done differently, but instead it is total darkness for so long. The Bride�s breathing gives the audience anxiety and the image that she�s really scared. She turns the flashlight on after the banging of dirt on the coffin stops, and then the scene is black and white until it changes.
The next scene introduces an old Kung-Fu villain who was featured in some TV show which starred Gordon Liu, who was the head of the Crazy 88�s in the first film and the character named Pai Mei in this film. Bill leaves �Kiddo,� as he calls her, Kiddo is the character we know as The Bride. Bill leaves Kiddo with Pai Mei so she can learn to be strong, and he tells her not to mouth off to him because he�ll poke her eye out or kill her. David Carradine gives a long monologue about Pai Mei at a camp fire using his flute, the whistle from the beginning of this film.
He even tells her about a death move that Pai Mei can do, where the attacker hits five pressure points, and then, once the victim has walked five steps, he falls, dead. The thing that kills him is his heart exploding.
He talks and then the next morning, leaves her to be with Pai Mei. Pai Mei is an old bastard, a guy who will be strict with her. He fights with her (Matrix/Crouching Tiger style), and then holds her arm behind her. I�m wondering if he was really twisting her arm because Uma really makes it look painful. I mean, if I were in that scene, I would have told him to hurt me a little. Then he tells her to put a hole in a wooden board and she spends a lot of time hitting this wood board, but only gets bloody knuckles instead of a hole in the wood. Then she tries to eat, but her hands are too beat up and shaky. She can barely pick up the rice with those damn sticks that make eating so hard in Japan.
We�re back at the grave and the Bride, Kiddo, looks at the top of the coffin as if it is the wood board and she starts hitting it until she breaks out of it and then goes to a diner for some water, which was a scene created just for a laugh.
Daryl Hannah, Elle Driver aka California Mountain Snake, meets up with Budd. She has a red case with the million dollars. As The Bride is watching her from a mountain, �Ironside� by Quincy Jones plays perfectly over another song.
Budd and Elle talk about how Kiddo is too smart for a blonde. He makes an alcoholic slushy, which looked damn good. They also talk about how when people have a job to do, they will have to get the will power to do it. Keeping them alive. Then Budd asked Elle if she felt relief or regret over the fact that he killed The Bride. Elle chose regret. Budd opens the red case and looks at all of his money, he even laughs over it, until a black mamba (Black Mamba is Kiddo�s codename) bites him three times, putting venom in his face, killing him after Daryl Hannah�s Elle reads about what the venom does. Elle takes the money and walks out.
A camera shot showing Kiddo�s feet flying into Elle�s chest was so cheesy, but I guess that was part of the style. Elle sure got a powerful hit with the feet because her fall from that blow was brutal. It is now Kiddo versus Driver, which Elle Driver has wanted from the beginning because Bill likes Kiddo better. Budd is out, dead, because Elle Driver thought that his killing the Bride was too easy, and that Kiddo deserved better.
But now, the big fight between Kiddo and Driver is on. It�s brutal and awesome to watch. There�s a struggle with the sword, Elle can�t get it out and they are pushed on chairs, kicked, punched, and then Elle Driver is thrown through a wall, into the bathroom, where her head is put into the toilet. She flushes the toilet, so that lets her breathe. All too soon, they both have swords. Budd�s, which is engraved �To the only man I ever loved � Bill,� and Kiddo�s sword from the first film. Elle Driver is asked by Kiddo why Pai Mei took her eye out. She says that she insulted him, and then he took her eye out. Then, she says that she killed Pai Mei with poison.
The two women clash swords and then, Kiddo hits Elle Driver in her other eye with her finger. Elle falls back, screaming curse words and flapping all over the place. Elle Driver is not killed, but she�s got no eyes. Some things are almost worse than death.
Now comes the scene with the Mexican pimp. Played by Michael Parks as an unrecognizable second character with an accent, the Mexican pimp tells Kiddo where Bill is.
Now, my favorite scene�
Kiddo drives to Bill�s awesome, mansion of a house, and looks around with a gun. Finally, the climax of both films is here, she�s looking for Bill in his own home. She turns a corner and then �Bang bang� says a little girl.
�Oh no, she got us, Mommy got us,� says Bill.
Kiddo is in shock, could that be the daughter she was carrying around during the wedding rehearsal, and the child she cried about once she awoke from her coma in the first film? Absolutely. The little girl, named BB, shoots �mommy� with the plastic gun she has and Uma Thurman plays dead.
Then, the little girl comes over and says �I was just playing.�
�I know,� and Kiddo hugs her.
�I told her you were sleeping, and that mommy knew what she looked like because I told her �mommy�s dreaming of you.�� Bill tells Kiddo.
�Were you dreaming of me, mommy?� asks BB.
�Everynight� she replies. And now, let it be passed around�I cried to Kill Bill vol. 2.
BB is made a sandwich and Bill tells Kiddo about how BB learned about life and death recently. Bill seems like a really good dad. He finishes the story about Emilio the goldfish�s death (BB stomped on the fish) in BB�s room while he tucks her in. Then he tells BB that he shot mommy for real and that he knew what would happen. �But what I didn�t know, when I shot mommy, what would happen to me.�
Kiddo tucks her daughter in to go to sleep and a cool song plays. It just sounded cool. All of the music was good, but I�m afraid that I�m not interested in getting the soundtrack to the second one. I don�t think I am. I�ll take it though, haha.
Kiddo walks out to meet Bill in another room. He gives a superman speech about how Clark Kent�s costume was the glasses and wimpy personality, and that Superman was who he really was. This speech seemed like something Quentin Tarantino made up just for this scene, and the point of it was that Kiddo was a killer, not a superhero. Her name is Beatrix Kiddo.
Beatrix Kiddo and Bill were former lovers, who know that from the first film. Bill sends Kiddo on an assignment, where she is seen and then put on a hit list where a woman comes to kill Kiddo�but Kiddo begs this assassin to leave because �I just found out, not a moment before you put a hole in the door, that I�m pregnant.� So the assassin says �Congratulations� after seeing proof, and walks out. So, Kiddo, who is a part of the Deadly Viper Assassination squad (which is why they�re all given code names), is pregnant, and she cannot live this way any longer. She leaves this life, moves to Texas, and finds this guy, Tommy, and then attempts to marry him. Bill sets out to get the people he thought killed Kiddo, and then actually finds her. He sees her, pregnant, and getting married. That would make any former lover jealous, right? So that is why he had the rest of the Assassination Squad kill everybody at her wedding. Her breaking Bill�s heart by making him mourn her for the three months he thought she had been killed, is why Budd said that she deserved to die.
By the end of this story, about her finding out she was pregnant, Kiddo is standing while Bill is getting drunk. �Oh, by the way, letting someone think someone who they love is dead is very cruel� says Bill, getting more drunk. They speak like adults about the situation, and this is after Bill shot Kiddo with a dart�which was totally pointless, I didn�t get it. Uma made it look painful though.
�You and I have unfinished business.�
�Baby, you ain�t kidding.�
Bill swings a sword, missing, and then straight downward, which Kiddo blocks with her sword. She tries to take her sword out, but it is smacked away, and Bill�s next swing lands right in the sword�s holder that Kiddo still has. Then, she hits him five times with her fingers and then once, in the heart.
�Pai Mei taught you the heart exploding technique? Why didn�t you tell me?�
Silences control this scene and then he asks how he looks. �You look ready.�
Music plays and Bill begins his five steps. He takes six, I counted, and then falls to the ground. A quiet death, but it was quickly over with.
Kiddo has her child and they drive to a hotel where they watch a the magpie cartoon where the magpie pretends to be the radio announce, making the farmer think magpie�s (birds) are good. I didn�t understand why that show was in the movie, it�s an old cartoon. I�ve seen it, haha. I thought it was cool that I have seen it.
Uma cries in the bathroom, and then laughs, and I couldn�t tell which, but she started saying �Thank you, thank you� to the room. She gets off the bathroom floor, and walks into the room with her daughter and watches the cartoon with her. The cartoon was almost over once she got out of the bathroom, so the timing wasn�t right, but maybe there was a time lapse that I didn�t get.
In the beginning, with Budd and Bill talking, Bill says that Budd needs to get over being afraid �of me,� and when he says of me, there is a beep. I have no idea why that was in that scene, is that right? I�m sure that�s right. Was that in the first one? I didn�t understand the beep.
There is something about all of Quentin�s movies where, when I�m watching them, I get sort of bored with them. Vol. 2 is VERY different than Vol. 1. They are different movies with the same main characters and the same story. It�s the style of the movies. Vol. 1 was awesome with awesome music, awesome action, and it was fun to watch. Uma was much angrier in that movie though. Vol. 2, was more dramatic. The only action scene, really, was with Elle Driver and Beatrix Kiddo. That scene was brutal, but great. Uma even stepped on the eyeball, which looked so nasty, but so awesome. For the first movie, I was laughing at the cool style of the film. I want to buy the first one. The second one was mellow, much less action, much �less of a body count� as Daryl Hannah says. But there is something about Quentin�s movies.
Once I was finished with it, I thought to myself �I don�t want to watch that again,� but I was a little hyped. I was disappointed, but excited. I wanted to continue on with The Bride�s story. Maybe Vivica A Fox�s daughter would get revenge on Beatrix Kiddo for killing her mother in the first film. I think that may be a sequel, but not for years will that one come out. �It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.� � Kill Bill Vol. 1.
But I thought �Why would anybody want to watch that again?�
I thought of the scene with the Mexican pimp, that scene seemed slow. The part where Kiddo eats with Pai Mei is not fun to watch because you�re thinking �Just put the food to your mouth!� When Budd talks with his boss, played by Larry Bishop, that scene is slow with silences.
Is Larry Bishop the guy from �The Exorcist?�
But, like I said, I was excited, and wanted to watch the next �Kill Bill,� but there isn�t any, and won�t be for a while, if ever. I wanted to watch the first one, but I don�t own it. So then I decided that I wanted to watch the beginning again, with the cool font and the cool music, and then see that scene where the assassination squad kills the people in the church. That scene doesn�t show anything, but it�s cool because of the camera shot and the music. So once I get to that part, I�m about 15 minutes into the movie. Quentin�s scene�s are so long, and not a lot happens, but the monologues and dialogues are fun to watch, to hear, I mean.
I didn�t stop the movie�I watched �Kill Bill Vol. 2� twice in a row last night. Then I read some more of my Entertainment Weekly. Watching Quentin�s movies a second time is somehow better than the first time.
This is the same with �Pulp Fiction,� I didn�t like it until it was over. The style, the style is awesome. The scenes jumping around, the audience figuring out why they were wearing the clothes they wore.
�Resevoir Dogs,� I really didn�t like, but I want to watch it again. I have more respect for Steve Buscemi after that movie, and after �Desperado.� That guy is cool, yet he does a bunch of little roles in Adam Sandler movies. He gets laughs, but he needs his cameos to be more cool. Samuel L Jackson, that guy knows how to be cool, yet he does �Deep Blue Sea,� his worst role ever, yet I liked that movie.
I was disappointed that Quentin was not in either �Kill Bill.� I was waiting for him to walk on screen and tell a joke the whole time. In �Desperado,� I leaned back in my seat once Quentin walked in and said to myself �Alright, that was almost too cool.� And THEN he told his joke!
Over the weekend up north, I watched �Batman and Robin,� and I�ve decided that that movie is good. Uma, I�m sorry I�m mentioning these two movies, Kill Bill, and Batman in the same paragraph, but you are really hott. All of my friends think I�m crazy when I say Jodie Foster is hott or some other good actress like that, but Uma is very good looking, and watching �Batman and Robin� was a lot of fun because of her �great stems and nice buns.� I didn�t have anything else to watch, and I was in the mood for �Batman and Robin� the second night we were there, and I watched it with Diana. That movie has some cool sequences and Arnold actually deliver�s his lines very well. He also cries�well, the computer graphics really make it appear so, but he has an emotional character. The villains, except for Bane, are made to look really good, and they have costumes that just make them merchandise. Uma has a funny accent as Poison Ivy, and you have to admit that you would love to kiss Poison even if it meant death.
George Clooney, what the hell? And Joel Schumacher, DAMN! He�s an awesome director, and I just found out that he�s directing �The Phantom of the Opera.� �Batman and Robin� sucked, yet it�s entertaining. It�s entertaining throughout, but what the hell was that made for? The sound effects were dumb. He directed �Phone Booth,� and �Falling Down,� see those movies, they�re awesome. Chris O�Donnell, I couldn�t tell if that was a normal movie for you or what, but damn. Some movies can�t be made just to be entertaining, because too many people would hate that movie. Damn.
Sorry, folks, that was supposed to be about Uma Thurman. If you have seen those movies (See the Kill Bill�s, don�t see �Batman and Robin�) you will know how different Uma is as an actress. She�s just so cool, and that�s what Quentin is very good at, getting the cool actors. He brings out the best in actors. Bruce Willis was damn cool in �Pulp Fiction,� and John Travolta�s career took a boost. Quentin gets to work with all the cool actors, I�m jealous.
Based on the character The Bride created by Q & U (Quentin and Uma) was awesome. I read they started talking about the character during the end of �Pulp Fiction.� Uma is also very good in that movie, see it!
QUOTES OF VOL. 1: Lucy Lui talking to her table as an awesome villain: �As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is - I collect your fucking head. Just like this fucker here. Now, if any of you sons of bitches got anything else to say, now's the fucking time. I didn't think so.�
The Bride, talking to a woman she chopped up: �As I said before, I've allowed you to keep your wicked life for two reasons. And the second reason is so you can tell him in person everything that happened here tonight. I want him to witness the extent of my mercy by witnessing your deformed body. I want you to tell him all the information you just told me. I want him to know what I know. I want him to know I want him to know. And I want them all to know they'll all soon be as dead as O-Ren.�
QUOTES OF VOL. 2: Bill, explaining the story: �When you didn't return from Los Angeles, I naturally assumed that Lisa Wong or someone had killed you. Oh, and for the record, letting someone think that someone they love is dead when they're really not is quite cruel. So naturally, I mourned you. And in the third month of mourning you, I tracked you down. Now, I wasn't trying to track you down. I was trying to track down the fucking assholes who I thought had killed you. So, I find you and what do I find? Not only are you not dead, you're getting married to some fucking jerk and you're pregnant. I overreacted.�
�You overreacted?� the Bride replies, after leaning in, shocked that anybody could overreact by killing a wedding rehearsal, literally.
Monologue that starts out the movie: �Looked dead, didn't I? But I wasn't. But it wasn't from lack of trying, I can tell you that. Actually, Bill's last bullet put me in a coma - A coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a 'roaring rampage of revenge.' I roared. And I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction. I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point, but I have only one more. The last one. The one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill.�
My favorite Scene: BB is the Bride�s daughter who The Bride sees for her first time ever. This scene is supposed to be cute and funny, so read it that way.
[The Bride sees B.B. for the first time]
B.B.: Freeze, Mommy!
Bill: Bang bang!
[pretends to be shot]
Bill: Oh B.B., Mommy got us. I'm dying.
B.B.: I'm dying. I'm dying.
Bill: Fall down, sweetheart. Mommy shot you.
[both fall down and pretend to die]
Bill: [in a narrative tone] But little did Quick-Draw Kiddo know that little B.B. was playing possum, due to the fact she was impervious to bullets.
B.B.: I'm impervious to bullets, Mommy.
Bill: Hey, get back down there. You're playing possum.
[in a narrative tone]
Bill: So, as the smirking killer approached, what she thought, was a bullet-ridden corpse, that's when little B.B. fired.
[B.B. gets up and pretends to shoot the Bride]
B.B.: Bang bang!
Bill: You're dead, Mommy... so die.
[The Bride is still shocked]
Bill: B.B.
[comes out of it and acts out a huge death scene]
The Bride: Oh, B.B., you got me. I should have known... you are the best.
[collapses to the ground and pretends to die]
B.B.: Oh, Mommy, don't die. I was just playing.
The Bride: I know.
[Chris cries as the audience]
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