Kill Bill Volume 2 is kind of the yin to Kill Bill Volume 1’s yang (or vice versa).
Unlike the first film which was pretty much one action sequence after another with brief moments to set up the next ones, this movie stops occasionally to let the characters—even the villains have their moments of reverence to make their just desserts that much more meaningful/conflicted when they come about.
Michael Madsen here has his second best role next only to his work in Reservoir Dogs as a trailer park cowboy ‘Budd’ who finds himself in The Bride’s crosshairs.
Daryl Hannah plays Elle Driver, another of Bill’s henchmen, who has the movie’s best choreographed fight sequence with Thurman, and next to the finale of part one, the best in the entire series period.
And of course, Bill himself, played by the late great David Carradine brings great pathos and Kung Fu movie sensei like presence to what, needless to say, is a very important part in the movie.
The way the Bride finally arrives at Bill reminded me a little of Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now (with a personal twist), and Carradine looks effortless delivering his personal philosophy before the final confrontation begins. More back story is revealed here as this film takes a kind of Godfather 2 type approach showing us how Uma Thurman’s character got to be the head slicing badass that she is in these movies.
The action and style are as spot on as they were before with classic bits like the Bride stuck in a coffin underground attempting to escape with nothing but her firsts and sheer willpower.
Overall, I like the flow of this movie much more than part one; not that part one is bad by any means, but this movie feels more like a movie than a collection of swordfights. That said I have met many who feel the exact opposite and prefer the crazy style-fest that the first Kill Bill film was.
Kill Bill Volume 2 gets a four out of five: GREAT.
Vortainment 