Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writers: Quentin Tarantino, based on the character of The Bride created by Q & U

Stars: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sonny Chiba

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino indulges his love for revenge flicks and martial arts movies in the story of a former member of an assassination squad (Uma Thurman) who seeks revenge against her former teammates (Viveca Fox and Lucy Liu) after they wipe out the members of her wedding party.

 The result is highly watchable but not completely satisfying. 

Tarantino's films have always been as much about style and homage as substance, but with "Kill Bill" he threatened to tip over into self-parody.

 Had he been reading too many worshipful articles about himself?

 His films have always been exercises in hip and cool, but this one seems especially self-consciously so.

 The well-realized characters of previous films are replaced by iconic cartoon cutouts that are motivated by the demands of stereotype.

 His dialogue is always cited as a strength, full of quirky details and impassioned defenses of odd worldviews.

 Here, the actors are given ridiculous things to say, full of posturing, bluster, and stilted syntax.

What does work is the action, which comprises the majority of the film.

 Tarantino is a master of style.

 So for me, watching this film was a schizophrenic experience.

Spoiler alert!!! Last scene!!

 I would be caught up in it, then jarred out of it again by a particularly bad piece of dialogue or gimmicky technique whose only reason for being there is that someone did the same thing in a 70s kung-fu movie.