Hey folks, Harry here with Quint writing about the two Revenge films hitting theaters today! The first one is KILL BILL VOLUME 2 -- which I saw as the second part of a double feature with KILL BILL VOLUME 1 here at the Alamo Drafthouse and they seem to be doing showing on Saturday and Sunday of the double feature variety! Over at Rotten Tomatoes it's got a 75 positives to 11 negatives happening. (Click Here for the latest RT rank!) The second is THE PUNISHER, which is currently got 14 positives and 40 negatives at Rotten Tomatoes. (Check Rotten Tomatoes for the latest in its ratings battle) In talking with Moriarty last night, turns out that the version he saw actually was quite different sounding from the one that's being released. Apparently the Rigoletto opera Russian Fight wasn't scored that way, which unfortunately diminishes all weight or seriousness from the situation. And apparently it didn't have near the narration that the print I saw had. SO - it seems that some fatal tinkering commenced - I believe he's checking it out soon to see what has been done to the film he had liked. Here's Quint weighing in on it all himself...
Ahoy, squirts. Quint here, with some quickies on the two biggest geek-interest flicks coming out this weekend. I would have had these reviews out sooner, but both films had been getting so much coverage on this site that I thought it'd be good to wait 'til the last minute and throw a few short ones out there.
KILL BILL v2
I've seen this flick twice now and the second time was, surprisingly, just as fresh as the first time. Everyone knows about The Bride and what she's off to do. There's been raves out the whazoo for this, so I guess just add mine to the list. Great action, great characters, great direction. Fantastic direction, actually... aimed at the true geek in all of us...
For example, my absolute favorite part of the film was The Cruel Tutelage of Pie Mei. It's directed, shot, acted and "performed" like QT just cut and spliced 10 minutes from a great '70s Kungsploitation flick involving Animal-Style Martial Arts and badass masters. When I said "performed" I meant in the actions of the Master... The cockiness, the playing with the long mustache... Gordon Liu rules the earth as Pie Mei, this film's Hattori Hanzo. He just as cool as Sonny Chiba was in the first flick. My only problem with this sequence is its length. It's way too short! I want a movie ONLY about Pie Mei, that's how much I love that character.
Now, this movie might throw off some people because unlike the first one, this film is leisurely paced. We take the time to get to understand a bit Michael Madsen's character, Bud. We know where he is in life and why he's not happy with it. We take the time to meet a new character in the last act, a Mexican Pimp played astoundingly by Michael Parks... Yeah, that Michael Parks... It's not my favorite character from either of the films, but if I had to pick the best single performance in the film, I'd be hard pressed not to give it to Parks for the 4 minutes he participates in the story. Some of the audience might not be ready to get to know these characters. It makes it more of a Tarantino film than a rockin-roarin' blood feast. I, myself, loved it.
Now, this film isn't perfect... I love it as if it were, but I can't shake the opinion I had after watching the first movie... It really should have been one story, not two. There are payoffs that don't really pay off in the second film because we've been away from the story for so long. The discovery of The Bride's name, for instance. It's a good scene, but when the one bleep appears before the discovery it's almost like, "Oh, yeah... I forgot about that..."
I also really didn't like the little girl, B.B. She's cute, but some of her line delivery was finger-nails on the chalkboard. I understand she's very young, but I still couldn't help felling a bit under-whelmed by this child.
But on the other hand we have a cast so littered with terrific little parts... Sam Jackson's turn as Rufus ("He's the man!") is great and reminds every single person in the audience that Sam Jackson was born, raised and delivered unto the silver screen to speak Tarantino's dialogue. Bo "Two by Four" Svenson is also a pleasure to see up on the big screen.
The main cast knocks it out of the park. David Carradine is as good as he's ever been and Uma tops herself as well.
I really don't have any reason to complain at all about this film. With Tarantino giving us that special edition combination cut of Volume's 1 and 2 later, I'll get my wish to see it as one, big story. Now if he'd only go and shoot Yuki's Revenge...
THE PUNISHER
I know this site (namely Harry) has been getting a lot of shit for panning this movie recently. To be honest, the movie kinda deserves it. I say "kinda" because to me... the movie had a couple moments that didn't have my brain wanting to exit from my body and crawl out of the theater... Plus, I didn't think the film was going to be anything but terrible after the first non-trailer and the recent trailers and TV spots full of bright sunlight and shitty heavy metal.
Everything Harry said is true, though. He's right about the wacky cartoony neighbors. They're jokes. Other than looking pretty (fully clothed, I might add), Rebecca Romijn-exStamos really doesn't do anything to help advance the plot or give any amazing insight into the tortured life of Frank Castle.
I never really followed the comic books, either. I had a few of the War Journals, but I mainly saw Mr. Castle when he popped up in the Spider-Man and X-Men books. While the character isn't really original, it could have made a damn cool hard-ass flick. Instead, Frank Castle is way too nice... He gets a bit hardcore at the end of the film, seemingly out of the blue, but he's never really a bastard in the flick.
Like I said above, I did find some entertainment in the film. Seeing my old pal, Brody, in action again made me smile, especially with the knife-wielding and the shotgun action he gets. The over-the-top Russian fight was like a live action Looney Tunes flick (complete with the Opera)... it was cartoony, it was ridiculous, but I expected nothing less by that point. I thought it was fun. Especially the part with the grenade.
This film suffers a bit from what the CHAINSAW remake suffered from. It wanted to take itself seriously, but just couldn't. Not really. Like I said, there are moments, but I wouldn't advise paying to see this movie. Pay to see something else and sneak in, wait for the dollar theater... Or don't listen to me and pay full price. It's your call.
Anyway, that's it from me. I'm hard at work on a new Chum Bucket column that'll blow the socks off of all the Dark Tower fans out there. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
