Kill Bill: Volume 2 (April 15/04)

In retrospect, it might not have been such a bad thing that Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saga was chopped into two parts. Supposedly, his original cut was somewhere in the neighborhood of three hours; the first volume was 111 minutes, while this one is 136 minutes. Combined, that equals four hours and seven minutes. It's probably safe to assume that there's no way Harvey Weinstein - the man responsible for cutting the saga in half - would have been willing to release such a long movie. As a result, both films are peppered with seemingly superfluous moments of character development - something that's even more true of the second one.

If Tarantino were to retain only the absolutely necessary moments in Kill Bill: Volume 2, the film would probably only run about an hour. Instead, the film is flush with quirky little diversions that - in the big picture - don't contribute a whole lot to the story, but certainly give us a better understanding of what these characters are all about. A good example of this comes about midway through the movie, as Budd (Michael Madsen) - one of Bill's assassins and a target of Uma Thurman's The Bride - arrives at his bouncer job at a strip club, only to be chewed out by his boss for being late. That entire sequence could have easily been excised without any damage to the film, yet it remains just as entertaining as anything else in the movie - primarily because of Tarantino's undeniable gift for creating characters and situations that are inherently interesting.

The film's threadbare storyline - The Bride works her way through the remaining three assassins who left her for dead on the day before her wedding, with Bill (David Carradine) her last stop - allows Tarantino the opportunity to emphasize dialogue, much in the same manner as earlier films (ie Reservoir Dogs). Where the first volume was essentially a series of action-oriented set pieces, Volume 2 somehow feels more cohesive; we have a lot more invested in The Bride's mission, particularly since the film opens with that infamous wedding massacre. Though the movie's lack of violence - all told, moments of action add up to no more than 10 minutes (a far cry from the first film's tally) - might turn off impatient viewers, Volume 2 is ultimately a far more rewarding experience than its predecessor.

The most important difference between the two films has to do with the characters; because Tarantino devotes virtually the entire movie to dialogue, we learn a lot about these people and what brought them to this point. From small tidbits - how Elle (Daryl Hannah) lost her eye - to bigger revelations, the film is packed with moments of character development. Even that sequence involving Budd's confrontation with his boss goes a long way towards explaining what he's all about, and how far he's fallen since his days of working under Bill.

Of course, none of that would mean anything if Tarantino hadn't perfectly cast all the major roles, starting with the first substantial appearance of Bill (David Carradine). Though Warren Beatty was originally scheduled to play the part, the role obviously went to Carradine and there's no denying that he does an amazing job. For those that just know him thanks to his work on Kung Fu, Tarantino has once again managed to elicit an unexpectedly impressive performance from a previously typecast actor (ie John Travolta in Pulp Fiction). In Carradine's hands, Bill becomes so much more than just a villain; though we never quite sympathize with him (he did, after all, shoot The Bride in the head in Volume 1's opening moments), it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him when he's finally vanquished (that is so not a spoiler; look at the title!)

Aside from a short sequence featuring Bill regaling The Bride with a story about a legendary warrior, there's not a single moment in Kill Bill: Volume 2 that feels out of place (something that couldn't quite be said about Volume 1). It remains to be seen how the entire thing will flow when assembled as one movie, but on its own, Volume 2 is pretty great.