B5Erik

Tarantino's films have been kind of hit or miss for me.

I LOVE Jackie Brown and Inglorious Basterds, but I'm not a big fan of Reservoir Dogs and for me Pulp Fiction was just OK. I love Tarantino's script for True Romance.

So what about the Kill Bill movies? What is your take on them?

I see them on sale every now and then, and am tempted to pick them up, but given that I find Reservoir Dogs to be a little too over the top with it's vicious violence and way over the top with it's use of profanity (unnecessarily so in both cases), I'm not sure if I should get them or not. Where does Kill Bill fit in with this stuff?

I do enjoy some of the movies that Tarantino is a fan of (several Sonny Chiba movies, for example)...

TomOpus

I think the violence and language of "Reservoir Dogs" fits well with the story and characters.

Personally, I really like both KB movies. There might be a couple scenes that you might think the violence is over-the-top. Why not rent or try to catch them on cable?

Also shouldn't this be in the Recommendations section?

Solid Snake

I'll never own KB until we finally fucking get TWBA. It's like a goddamn dream by now w/ that thing.

Also I don't think you may have understood what kind of people the guys in RD were. Their cursing seems fitting for what you get out them. Backgrounds, the way they act, etc etc. Also...the violence is actually not what wild.

Mike86

If you thought Reservoir Dogs was too violent, Kill Bill (particularly Volume 1) has a lot more. So if you aren't into that type of thing it might not be for you. I like all of Tarantino's output thus far though and would say he hasn't put out a movie not worth seeing.

I'd love to see The Whole Bloody Affair too eventually. I picked up the individual Blu-ray releases for now though pretty cheap.

Jules Winfield

Kill Bill is good. If you have a problem with over the top violence, you might not like it. Heads are lopped off, arms sliced off and it's filled with fighting. It's highly stylized and frantic. Kill Bill 2 calms down a bunch but still has a good share of violence. There's not as much cussing as Reservoir Dogs but it still has good dialogue. Definitely watch it before buying it because you seem to not like the over the top violence of RD and that's totally a Tarantino trademark.

Pizza

If you don't like "over the top...vicious violence" then I'd stay away from Kill Bill. I'm a little confused that you love Jackie Brown but feel that his other films are "way over the top with it's use of profanity (unnecessarily so in both cases)." Also, in my opinion Pulp Fiction is his greatest film.

NIMH Rat

My take on Kill Bill is that it's almost entirely taking place in the fantasy life of the Uma Thurman character, who is a violent pop culture junkie with an overactive imagination, seeing herself as part of a massive mediated revenge epic when in fact she's a single Mom (like Quentin's) trying to make ends meet and do right by her kid.

In other words, a near-totally autobiographical work, Tarantino-style.

inri222

IMO Kill Bill 1 & 2 are my least favorite Tarantino films.
A mixed tape of shout-outs to spaghetti westerns (Sergio Leone/Sergio Corbucci), European & American exploitation/horror (Arne Vibenius/Russ Meyer/Lucio Fulci),
Chinese & Japanese action cinema (Toshiya Fujita/Kinji Fukasaku/Seijun Suzuki/Lo Wei/Jimmy Wang Yu).
Pure style over substance and IMO his least personal film.

If I had to rank his films

Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Inglorious Basterds
Death Proof
Kill Bill II
Kill Bill I

mrhan

Yeah, I'll never pick up the BDs because I've been waiting for TWBA, too; even if they end up in the $5 bins. I think I will stick to my Japanese boxsets for the forseeable future. Part 1 is more interesting to watch in all color. The gore is hilarious.

Guru Askew

I prefer Tarantino's take.

Solid Snake

this

Ky-Fi

I'm a huge old-school Shaw Brothers kung fu fan, and have also seen a pretty fair number of Japanese swordplay movies from the 50s-70s, and I didn't care for the Kill Bill movies at all. They felt to me like Tarantino just took all the surface stuff from those movies, and stripped away all the Chinese or Japanese cultural stuff that many of those movies were rooted in. Tarantino is undeniably skilled at putting scenes together, but the KB movies just kind of felt like empty calories to me compared to a lot of the movies that inspired him to make it.

PatD

I much prefer Tarantino's films from the 90s. "Reservoir Dogs"; "Pulp Fiction"; and "Jackie Brown" are far more nuanced in every aspect and frankly more adult in their mentality.

Then there was this massive chasm between 98 to 02 where QT hadn't directed anything. He seemed to undergo some strange metamorphosis.

In 2003, it's more than obvious than Tarantino got caught up in his own hype with the opening of "Kill Bill volume 1" when in the opening credits he actually puts "THE 4TH FILM BY QUENTIN TARANTINO" Puh-leez.

And that's how it's been: "Kill Bill"; "Death Proof"; "Inglorious Basterds"; and most likely "Django Unchained" (from what I've seen from the trailer) are all attempts to play to the fanboy crowd. You want cartoony ultra-violence? You got it! You want long-drawn out pop culture-laced screeds? There you go! You want a story with substance? Look elsewhere.

The best proof I can come up with is his attitude to onscreen violence. Watch the "Stuck in the Middle with You" scene in RD. It's ghoulish and perverse, but it's done with a sense of deadly seriousness. Now, QT would do it for cheap laughs for a desensitized mindset.

Will QT ever get out of this phase and do something like "Jackie Brown" again? I hope so, but I kind of doubt it.

NIMH Rat

Which is?

Solid Snake

Not your take.

Supermallet

Inglorious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Death Proof
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Reservoir Dogs

auto

That's a pretty good list actually.

inri222

I gotta agree with this. Even though I like some of his films & think he is very talented, the man is too full of himself.
He needs to direct something that he did not write ala Cronenberg with Eastern Promises & A History of Violence or Aranofsky with The Wrestler & Black Swan.

gmanca

I got a bit tired of his stylings in Inglourious Basterds as there were a few too-cute-by-half moments, like when Pitt says the line about fighting in a basement, and repeats it for effect. Stuff like leaves less room for focusing on nuance.

Tarantino

I love Kill Bill. In comparison, I rank the flicks this way...

Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Reservoir Dogs
Kill Bill V1
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill V2
Death Proof

Sonic

I think Kill Bill movies got more of a female fan base. Dozens of my female friends would talk so much about them.

I personally thought they were boring as fuck.

AndyCleveland

i love every single second of both films. can't imagine liking Jackie Brown and not liking Kill Bill.

dhmac

I personally rank his movies...

Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Reservoir Dogs
Death Proof (note: I prefer the long cut, but either cut would still rank in this spot)
Jackie Brown

Yeah, Jackie Brown is, by far, my least favorite QT movie. It's too much of a love letter to Pam Grier and I think it's the only film of his that is rather bloated and really could have benefited from tighter editing (even though that would've taken away some pointless scenes from QT's beloved Pam).

My Other Self

Inglourious Basterds
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Kill Bill, Vol. 1
Jackie Brown
Death Proof

I had a hard time getting through Death Proof. It's just a real bore considering I'm a fan of Tarantino films and know what the man is capable of. Jackie Brown I've only seen once so I may have to re-watch it but my list had pretty much been unchanged since IB came out.

PatD

Huh?

Kill Bill is *way* more bloated; so bloated that it had to be edited into *two* films! For example: that whole anime scene introducing O-Ren was totally superfluous. And "Death Proof"? Don't get me started on the pointless yammering in that.