Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
★★★★ — Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Released in April 2004, just six months after Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 was always conceived as the second half of a single film that Miramax famously split into two theatrical releases. Quentin Tarantino, riding the wave of his mid-1990s critical renaissance (Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown), shot both volumes back-to-back in 2002 and 2003, with principal photography taking place across California, Mexico, and Beijing. Where the first volume wore its Shaw Brothers and samurai cinema influences on its sleeve, this second chapter shifts register considerably, drawing more from Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and American exploitation pictures. David Carradine, a cult figure largely from his 1970s television work on Kung Fu, was cast as the titular Bill after Warren Beatty passed on the role.
Please Tarantino, make Kill Bill vol 3. I love the Kill Bill franchise, but let’s be honest, the first one is the flashy, adrenaline-fueled rampage, while the second one slows things down and twists the knife. It trades carnage for tension and closure, and while it’s not as relentless, it still hits hard. I feel like the first film was an homage to Asian cinema while the second film was an homage to Westerns. And that finale… my god. David Carradine owns every second of screen time, his monologue dripping with quiet menace. And then, just when it seems like everything might explode...Ennio Morricone. That soundtrack elevates the whole thing into something operatic. Not a sword fight. Not a bloodbath. A conversation. A reckoning. A death that actually means something. But man, I still wish Tarantino’s final film was Kill Bill Vol. 3. That unfinished business with Cottonmouth’s daughter? That’s a gun waiting to go off. It would be the perfect way to close out his career, with one last roar of vengeance.
Rating: ★★★★ | Year: 2004 | Watched: 2007-03-03
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Inglourious Basterds (2009) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
More with Uma Thurman: Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
