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Oct. 12th, 2003 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tedwordsSounds as though last night's Red Sox/Yankees game was a bloodbath.
Speaking of bloodbaths, I went with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robcelt to see "Kill Bill" last night. Here's my unasked for review of the movie…(spoiler alert!)
Holy splatterfest, Batman! There's a heaping dish of chop suey out in the theaters right now, and it actually doesn't taste bad at all.
Saw "Kill Bill" with Rob last night, and really did enjoy it. Which is surprising, actually, because it contains a whole slew of things that have driven me crazy in other films. There's the extended fight sequences that seems to go on forever (I found this particularly irritating in that godawful Mission Impossible 2), the improbable throw-as-many-villains-in-the-heroes-face-until-they-resemble-hordes-of-ants-and-miraculously-the-hero-survives-sequence (a la the "Matrix Reloaded," which only managed to fire blanks), and even the highly offensive "to be continued" (which drove me NUTS in Reloaded). This time, I didn't mind it, because it was clear in advance that it was part one, and the ending of this segment made logical sense, and felt complete (The Matrix Reloaded, on the other hand, felt like a night of bad sex-two bodies heaving and thrusting, dimly aware of their destination, until they climax more out of sheer frustration than anything else.)
Another sticking point with me (usually) involve credibility gaps, and this film did contain a few. For example, after killing the disgusting hospital attendant, Uma Thurman appropriates the keys to his Pussy Wagon and hides out in it for thirteen hours while learning how to regain control of her legs. The car is parked in the employee parking lot at the hospital. Hello? The police wouldn't have located the body and checked the garage (and his bright yellow Pussy Wagon) during this time? Hmm, that makes a hell of a lot of sense (not).
And plus, the violence was almost comical. Many limbs being hacked off-a head here, a hand there-with the victim groaning and moaning and blood flowing out like a water fountain. At some points, it almost reminded me of a bit that they've used on Saturday Night Live on several occasions.
And finally, there's the problem that you know everything that's going to happen in this movie within the first twenty minutes, because the movies starts with Uma killing off Assassin number two, and scratching her name off the list. The rest of the movie is basically how she kills number one. Hard to create suspense if you know the outcome so clearly.
And yet, it worked. I liked the movie very much, because the filming was inventive and the story was well paced, with (frankly) gimmicks that served as powerful hooks. Plus, Tarantino is second only to David Lynch when it comes to using music as counterpoint to the onscreen action and/or to establish a powerful mood. I so want this soundtrack for Christmas. Also, like Lynch, he creates interesting, quirky characters with odd speech patterns. One of the assassins, a lady with an eye patch who I think will be a huge character in part two, reminded me of Nadine Hurley from Twin Peaks.
Finally, the film has an incredible sense of style. There's one fight in blue light and black shadow is just gorgeous. (I'm always fascinated by sequences like that-I'm thinking of the filming of "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago as the last great example of this. I watched that sequence over and over again.) And I loved the outfit the eyepatched assassin was wearing in the hospital, with her belt drawn on. It was cool beyond words.
After the movie, we went to Union. Rob spent his time dancing in a grass skirt and hitting on this guy who spoke like a stand up comedian. We then stumbled back to the mall and spent a half an hour looking for my car. It was a really fun evening.
Speaking of bloodbaths, I went with
robcelt to see "Kill Bill" last night. Here's my unasked for review of the movie…(spoiler alert!)Holy splatterfest, Batman! There's a heaping dish of chop suey out in the theaters right now, and it actually doesn't taste bad at all.
Saw "Kill Bill" with Rob last night, and really did enjoy it. Which is surprising, actually, because it contains a whole slew of things that have driven me crazy in other films. There's the extended fight sequences that seems to go on forever (I found this particularly irritating in that godawful Mission Impossible 2), the improbable throw-as-many-villains-in-the-heroes-face-until-they-resemble-hordes-of-ants-and-miraculously-the-hero-survives-sequence (a la the "Matrix Reloaded," which only managed to fire blanks), and even the highly offensive "to be continued" (which drove me NUTS in Reloaded). This time, I didn't mind it, because it was clear in advance that it was part one, and the ending of this segment made logical sense, and felt complete (The Matrix Reloaded, on the other hand, felt like a night of bad sex-two bodies heaving and thrusting, dimly aware of their destination, until they climax more out of sheer frustration than anything else.)
Another sticking point with me (usually) involve credibility gaps, and this film did contain a few. For example, after killing the disgusting hospital attendant, Uma Thurman appropriates the keys to his Pussy Wagon and hides out in it for thirteen hours while learning how to regain control of her legs. The car is parked in the employee parking lot at the hospital. Hello? The police wouldn't have located the body and checked the garage (and his bright yellow Pussy Wagon) during this time? Hmm, that makes a hell of a lot of sense (not).
And plus, the violence was almost comical. Many limbs being hacked off-a head here, a hand there-with the victim groaning and moaning and blood flowing out like a water fountain. At some points, it almost reminded me of a bit that they've used on Saturday Night Live on several occasions.
And finally, there's the problem that you know everything that's going to happen in this movie within the first twenty minutes, because the movies starts with Uma killing off Assassin number two, and scratching her name off the list. The rest of the movie is basically how she kills number one. Hard to create suspense if you know the outcome so clearly.
And yet, it worked. I liked the movie very much, because the filming was inventive and the story was well paced, with (frankly) gimmicks that served as powerful hooks. Plus, Tarantino is second only to David Lynch when it comes to using music as counterpoint to the onscreen action and/or to establish a powerful mood. I so want this soundtrack for Christmas. Also, like Lynch, he creates interesting, quirky characters with odd speech patterns. One of the assassins, a lady with an eye patch who I think will be a huge character in part two, reminded me of Nadine Hurley from Twin Peaks.
Finally, the film has an incredible sense of style. There's one fight in blue light and black shadow is just gorgeous. (I'm always fascinated by sequences like that-I'm thinking of the filming of "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago as the last great example of this. I watched that sequence over and over again.) And I loved the outfit the eyepatched assassin was wearing in the hospital, with her belt drawn on. It was cool beyond words.
After the movie, we went to Union. Rob spent his time dancing in a grass skirt and hitting on this guy who spoke like a stand up comedian. We then stumbled back to the mall and spent a half an hour looking for my car. It was a really fun evening.
