Kill Bill: Volume 1

⭐9/10

I have been all over the map in my ratings for Tarantino movies but this one puts him back in my good books. I said in my Hollywood review that Tarantino violence usually works because he builds up the most insidious of villains and so the audience is okay with whatever violence is done against them. Hollywood didn't work for me because the villains were just young hippies, whereas in Django they are slave owners, in Basterds they are Nazis, and in Kill Bill they are rapists. So yeah! Slice all you want! 

But on a more practical level, the absurd amounts of violence work here because it is so silly and over-the-top that one is never actually really grossed out or squeamish. This movie is an ode to classic Samurai and Western movies and is the perfect movie to itch that 12 year old brain that's still very much alive in me. It's a super simple premise where Uma Thurman has been wronged, and so she wants revenge on all those involved. She sets up the confrontation, and then the confrontation happens. Of course it has Tarantino's signature build up of tension through long and interesting conversations, and this is kinda him at his best. 

I kinda loved this movie. It is all style and intended to be that way. It's almost a satire of earlier action movies and there's a great sense of playfulness throughout, but the action alongside the music is exactly what you want in a movie like this. It's all the bits of Karusawa and Leone that a little boy remembers and less of the boring stuff. 

Great movie, but one that's obviously hard to recommend unless one wants to see nothing but chopping of limbs and spraying of blood for 2 hours. I mean it's what I want but it's not for everybody.