The trailer's up. See it for yourself.

Definitely not as stylish as the trailers for Vol. I, but I can't wait until it comes out nonetheless.

A good film. Actually, much better than the first. Count me in the minority, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by Vol. I--while it was an adrenaline ride, it seemed a tad pretentious and slow. In my opinion, Kill Bill would have been better as one film with about a hour or a half hour of extraneous material cut.

Kill Bill II seems to play its cards right. The flashback sequences are used correctly. The action sequence comes at just the right time, is the right length, and has a satisfying payoff. There are no weak leaks in the acting (David Carradine was a real surprise; he was breathtaking).

The ending credit sequence was funny; it was nice seeing Tarentino's coterie of performers, apparently picked out of a hat (Bo Svenson? Michael Parks--in a confusing dual role? And where was Tarentino's role as a sleazy loser?).

Budd, while well played by Michael Madsen, was a real letdown. This guy was one of the top assassins? Although it should be noted that the Bride's method of breaking into his trailer is just plain dumb...and he's the only one that she never beats, of course.

There were a few times when I felt Tarentino was just getting TOO clever. Bleeping out the Bride's name was one example. Was there any point? Some scenes (like the very long one at Budd's strip joint) seemed unfocused.

Cool Scenes
*The Bride escaping the coffin. Music and direction were flawless in this scene.
*Carradine's Superman monologue. This has gotta go in the 101 Monologues for Aspiring Actors.
*The payoff sequence to the Elle/Bride fight.
*Carradine's credit
*As usual, Tarentino throws in some humor that only two or three people at a time will find funny. I laughed a lot at the following things that nobody else did:

*Bill explaining that the Crazy 88 wasn't really 88 people
*The fact that the Bride seemed to use "Chin-lish" (Chinese/English mixing, or just really bad Chinese) when talking to Pai Mei.
*The fact that Bill's valet still gives the Bride back her car.

Well I loved both films actually- but for different reasons.

The first was a brilliant ride of breathtaking scope. It literally made you gasp on a number of occasions. The second one does the same but because it is in this one that the characters become more real- more focused. MikeC made a point about a long sequence in Bud's (Madsen) strip joint. I think it is there to show what a loser this man has become, he hasn't kept up his training, he doesn't go out killing people- but he has enough of that sense to know the bride is lurking still- which makes the fact that she doesn't ultimately bring about his death even funnier.
Uma is brilliant in this- roles like this don't come along very often and she has lapped it up. I expect her career to get a pretty healthy boost after this.
The supporting cast are also great- Madsen and Hannah are in stellar form- their confrontations with the bride are highlights. George Liu as Pai Mei is very funny (I believe his voice is dubbed over by Tarantino making this the weirdest Director's cameo since Hitchcock).
Then there is Carradine. What can I say? I read somewhere that Tarantino wanted Warren Beatty in the role of Bill. Thank God he had a change of heart! He simply oozes evil yet you feel strangely sympathetic to him as he outlines his theories on superheros (and yes Mike, I agree, that monologue is simply superb). An interesting homage by Tarantino is given to him when the Bride goes wandering across the desert just like in the opening credits of Carradine's classic Kung Fu series.

This is not an all-out action flick like Vol. 1 but it brings the film to it's logical conclusion.
As ususal, Tarantino has left the fate of certain characters in the air. in this case the question has to be asked- What happened to Sophie?

I cannot recommend this film highly enough.

I saw it tonight at last. Great film.

I agree that the sequence with Budd was unnecessary and grinded the film to a halt. The Pai Mei sequences, by contrast, were excellent, and way too short. Bill’s confrontation with Beatrix at the wedding rehearsal was heart-pounding, because he was acting all sweet and benevolent, making plans to have dinner with “Arlene” and her fiancé, and I was just wondering when he was gonna cut loose on them.

It was also interesting seeing the differences from the script. While I was disappointed that the sequence between Bill and Alburt (played by Michael Jai White) at the club was cut, everything else was enhanced. I don’t recall any mention of how Elle lost her eye, or what she did to get revenge on the person responsible for it, and including them were nice touches, as was how she gets her comeuppance, which was different than in the script. Beatrix’s final confrontation with Bill was the biggest shocking surprise, because in the script, they actually did fight on the beach, as Bill suggests. What happens in the movie instead is just perfect.

---NITS:
Why in the world is Budd, who was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, now a two-bit bouncer at the local tittty bar? My friend Nick, with whom I saw it, mentioned that he had a falling out with Bill, but so what? He can’t parlay his skills as an assassin on his own?

Elle was just a bit too cavalier about crouching on the floor of Budd’s trailer to pick up the scattered million dollars when she knew there was a Black Mamba crawling around.

Wasn’t B.B. just a tad too casual at seeing her Mommy for the first time ever, continuing the role-playing game rather than immediately running to her and embracing her?

After B.B. has fallen asleep watching videos with Beatrix, Beatrix slips away, and slides B.B. under the covers. B.B.’s head is flat on the bed, and not on the pillows. In the next shot, which is a downshot of her, her head is on the pillow.

Why isn’t B.B. awakened when Bill fires his gun at Beatrix as they talk in the lounge?

The assassin, Karen Kim, risks getting killed by taking her eyes off Beatrix to look at a pregnancy test and its box??? And then actually leaves when Beatrix suggests it?????? Uh-uh, no way, sorry.

Why in the world is Budd, who was a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, now a two-bit bouncer at the local tittty bar? My friend Nick, with whom I saw it, mentioned that he had a falling out with Bill, but so what? He can’t parlay his skills as an assassin on his own?

I got the impression that he was imply burnt out on the whole killing people thing.

Elle was just a bit too cavalier about crouching on the floor of Budd’s trailer to pick up the scattered million dollars when she knew there was a Black Mamba crawling around.

I got shushed when I mentioned that.

The assassin, Karen Kim, risks getting killed by taking her eyes off Beatrix to look at a pregnancy test and its box??? And then actually leaves when Beatrix suggests it?????? Uh-uh, no way, sorry.

Well, yeah, but without that we wouldn't have had that cute moment where the assassin looks through the shotgun hole in the door and says, "Congratulations."

Brian Webber: I got the impression that he was imply burnt out on the whole killing people thing.
Luigi Novi: Yes, but wouldn't he have amassed a nice nest eggs in his years as an assassin? My friend Nick today mentioned something about Budd being a drug addict, or something, but did they mention that? If he were one, then yeah, that could've destroyed his professional reputation and depleted his funds, but I don't recall any mention of this in the film. Did I miss it?

Hey, on Dilbert the world's smartest man worked as trash collector. Maybe Budd WANTED a simpler life, but took it to the extreme, i.e. letting people walk all over him. In fact, I seem to recall Tarantino saying something to that effect on TV, though I could be wrong.

Did anyone else think that the piano player in the church was actually Jules from Pulp Fiction? Or is that just me?

When reading to Budd the stats on the Black Mamba that she got off the Internet, she reads it off a mini notepad that on which she wrote it all. Why did she do this? If she got it off the Net, why didn't she just print it out?

For dramatic effect maybe? She strikes me as the type of person who would do that.

I didn’t quite see the point of the scene with Esteban – not to mention that I barely understood a word he was saying!

Like most other people, I never did understand the purpose of bleeping out Beatrix’s name, especially on the occasions when only her first name was used. I did understand keeping her surname unknown so that it would be a while into the film before we realised that Bill called her Kiddo because it was her name rather than simply as an affectionate term.

BB is the image of my niece when she was that age, which is particularly good casting because Uma Thurman is the image of my sister! And the little girl was brilliant – either she’s a natural actress or they gave her an idea of what they wanted her to say and then let her ad-lib, but her lines while Bill was making sandwiches were particularly natural.

I did wonder why BB wasn’t more concerned about the whereabouts of her father, particularly the next day once she’d had time to miss him. I also found myself wondering whether Beatrix ever will settle to just being an ordinary woman – and whether Nikki will track her down in about 20 years’ time. Also, if Elle ever made it out of the desert, she’s got more money than she knows what to do with, so could well make arrangements to have Beatrix found, so I don’t think Beatrix is ever going to have a quiet life!

This was a great film. It worked well as two episodes, though I’d have been interested in seeing QT’s originally planned single film as well, to see if it worked as well or better.

I've heard a rumour that Uma Thurman is claustrophobic, if so, kudos to Uma for doing the scene where she is buried.

Wow, hell yeah on the kudos. Like Michelle Pfieffer, an aquaphobe, doing all those scenes for What Lies Beneath.

Well, the side of the box was always open and loads of camera crew were nearby, so it wasn't anyway near as bad as really being shut inside a coffin. Then again, I guess anyone claustrophobic would probably still struggle with the lid of the coffin being so near her nose.

Well my mum's claustrophobic, and you don't always have to be totally enclosed to feel badly affected.

This film contained the ugliest, most mean-spirited scene I've seen in years. The plucking out of Daryl Hannah's eye was a new low in women hating. Women in comas and blind women are where Tarentino wants fo see women.

"Ugliest, mean-spirited"? Given how sadistic Daryl Hannah's character was, I'd call it poetic justice. Or merely justice. What should the Bride have done? Let Elle Driver kill her? Blinding her left her effectively powerless.

Come to think of it, Rona, if you didn't like the first Kill Bill, why would you even bother watching the second one? For that matter, have you ever seen a Tarantino flick before this? If so, you'd surely would've had a clue as to what to expect.

So, Tarantino hates women yet he makes a strong, tough, yet vulnerable character like the Bride, and makes her the star of two movies. Okay, gotcha.

man i'm upset hannahs character got off so easy. she shoulda been snatched bald as well as blinded.

Rona: This film contained the ugliest, most mean-spirited scene I've seen in years.
Luigi Novi: And yet you chose to watch it anyway, despite the fact that you didn’t like the first volume. Did someone strap you down to a chair and force you to watch it? Or are we to understand that you thought that after Vol 2, that Tarantino’s take on Volume 2 would be reminiscent of a Merchant Ivory production?

Rona: The plucking out of Daryl Hannah's eye was a new low in women hating.
Luigi Novi: No, you just insist on viewing what happens to female characters in the film through the prism of their gender (or their nationality, as you did with the first film), regardless of whether their gender has anything to do with their characters, while hypocritically refusing to do the same with the male ones. The male characters in the film met just as horrific ends. Or do you think that being bitten multiple times by an extremely venomous snake whose venom slowly paralyzes you and kills you, or having your heart explode in your chest is somehow a “loving” way to die? If this was a “new low in women-hating,” then why were the deaths of about one hundred men near the end of the first volume—by the female protagonist no less—not a “new low in man-hating”?

Now can you actually answer this, Rona, are you just going to stonewall like you usually do when people refute the flaws in your reasoning?

Rona: Women in comas and blind women are where Tarentino wants fo see women.
Luigi Novi: Lack of logic or consistency in your lopsided propaganda seems to be what you want for men.

First of all, I don't go and search for these movies. My husband decided to watch this film on Saturday night. Since he was seeing it., I wanted to see just what he was seeing. His taste in films is not as good as mine, but even he thought this film was "junk".

I'm not "stonewalling". I have a conscience. I'm not filled with a schadenfreude desire to enjoy images of brutality. Why do you enjoy seeing images of misery? None of the fans of this film bother to ask ethical questions. At the end of the film, the "heroine" rides off to live happily ever after. How come no one remarked that she should be put in prison for the rest of her life. She's a female Jeffrey Dahmer who admits she enjoys killing. Why did no one show any concern for the victims of her violence? Are you so divorced from reality that you don't realise the results of such violence. I've been the victim of a violent crime in real life. I know the physical, medical, emotional costs of violence. It's not a thrilling event. It traumatises people. For every one of the heroine's victims, I understand the misery she has just created.

This film also perverts motherhood and suggests that maternal instincts are closely linked with psychotic behavior. That IS hatred of women. Other films have featured protective maternal behavior in a positive light. Aliens is a good example (and Ripley wasn't a monster without a conscience).

So you thought the "plucking" out of Hannah's eye was entertainment. What else do you find entertaining?

She's a female Jeffrey Dahmer who admits she enjoys killing. - Rona

I don't remember the scene where she ate Elle Driver's brain after storing it in the refrigerator. Just so you'll know ('cos apparently you don't) Dahmer wasn't just a murderer, he was a cannibal, too.

At the end of the film, the "heroine" rides off to live happily ever after. - Rona, part II

For every one of the heroine's victims, I understand the misery she has just created. - Rona, part III

You clearly weren't paying attention to this film. When Bill and his people originally tried to murder the Bride, she had retired from the assassination business. She was trying to break away from that lifestyle. You know, go straight? But then Bill and them killed her (or so they thought) and everyone at the wedding - including (or so she thought) her unborn child. Had it not been for Bill's actions, she would have been living a quiet, normal life in West Texas. Bill's actions forced back into the Business.

Moreover, you failed to notice that the people she killed were MURDERERS, TOO. No innocent people were killed by the Bride. Only hardcore murderers and assassins. Let me repeat that. The Bride did not murder an innocent person. Does this not make a difference to you? It's very clearly a facet of the film that completely and totally escaped your notice. Her victims were ALL scum of the Earth.

This film also perverts motherhood and suggests that maternal instincts are closely linked with psychotic behavior. - Rona, part IV

You really did not pay attention to this movie at all, did you? The Bride, pregnant, was left for dead at the church on the day of her wedding. Her fiance was murdered in cold blood. Her unborn child was also a victim as far as she knew. (She did not learn otherwise until the second film.) She went after Bill and his co-horts because they had murdered her husband and (supposedly) her child. If you had the skill to do so, would you not take revenge on someone who kills your children? (No, sorry. Stupid question. You wouldn't. I would.)

My husband decided to watch this film on Saturday night. Since he was seeing it., I wanted to see just what he was seeing.

Irrelevant. You hated the first film. As soon as your husband said, "Kill Bill, Vol II", you should have availed yourself of the feature that almost every room has. This feature is called a "door". Nobody forced you to watch it.

I love my wife dearly, but I can't stand some of the stuff she watches on TV (Bachelorette, anyone?). Guess what? I don't watch it with her. I go to a different room and watch something else, or read, or do something else..

Luigi, I've Dumped your last post for being ad hominem.

Rona, are you a masochist? I only ask because I don't watch sequels to movies I don't like. Seems the only reason to do so would be you get some sort of pleasure out of making yourself suffer.

I don't care for Tarentino films, so I don't watch them. Simple. Unless you are indeed masochistic, I suggest you consider doing the same.

Rona: First of all, I don't go and search for these movies. My husband decided to watch this film on Saturday night. Since he was seeing it., I wanted to see just what he was seeing.
Luigi Novi: And once you saw it was the second part of the story whose first part you loathed, why didn’t you leave?

Rona: I'm not "stonewalling". I have a conscience.
Luigi Novi: You’re saying the reason that you do not respond to counterarguments that clearly refute your statements (i.e.: stonewalling) is because you have a conscience?

Rona: I'm not filled with a schadenfreude desire to enjoy images of brutality.
Luigi Novi: And yet you chose to watch it anyway.

Rona: Why do you enjoy seeing images of misery?
Luigi Novi: I don’t. I enjoy the movie as a whole. The movie is about a story of vengeance, which entails dark and violent themes and images. They exist in context.

Rona: None of the fans of this film bother to ask ethical questions.
Luigi Novi: Given that you seem to indicate that you saw it at home (because you say you wanted to know what your husband was watching), are you saying you had a bunch of fans in your living room?

Even if you saw in a theater, how do you know the people who saw it didn’t discuss issues raised by the film? Did you follow all of them home and track them to monitor what they talked about with their friends? Can you explain to use how this comment isn’t mere rhetoric?

Rona: How come no one remarked that she should be put in prison for the rest of her life. She's a female Jeffrey Dahmer who admits she enjoys killing. Why did no one show any concern for the victims of her violence?
Luigi Novi: Who in the film could’ve done this, since it was a story told from the perspective of assassins?

Rona: Are you so divorced from reality that you don't realise the results of such violence.
Luigi Novi: Sure, Rona. You purport to know what other people are thinking and feeling, and what questions they’re asking themselves, but we’re divorced from reality.

Rona: This film also perverts motherhood and suggests that maternal instincts are closely linked with psychotic behavior.
Luigi Novi: No, it doesn’t make any such connection. That’s an idea completely of your own invention.

Rona: So you thought the "plucking" out of Hannah's eye was entertainment.
Luigi Novi: Who are you talking to? Who here said that?

Rona: Luigi, I've Dumped your last post for being ad hominem.
Luigi Novi: Okay. But couldn’t you have just deleted the passages in question instead of the whole thing? Incidentally, where did I use an ad hominem argument? (I admit the “flimsy intellect” remark was against the rules, and I apologize for my anger, but where did I use a logical fallacy?)

And while we’re at it, may I know why Rona’s personal attacks on us were not deleted?

That was JD, not Rona, who dumped the post.

And Luigi, I'm not sure that the posts can be edited.

"Schizophrenic", "hypocrite" and "flimsy intellect" are clearly ad hominem and personal attacks.

Rona has not attacked you personally on the Movie boards, as far as I can see. Her generalizations about Kill Bill viewers are vitriolic, but not ad hominem. Nevertheless, if she continues, I will take action.

Elsewhere outside Movies, I have no jurisdiction.

They can be, Scott. Luigi's outright insult deserved outright Dumping, as far as I saw.

Nit: When Beatrix frees her hands and begins punching her way through the coffin lid, the camera shows a scene of a blood stain on the lid where her right fist is making contact. This indicates that, as in the past, she breaks the skin of her knuckles to perform this feat. In the next scene, Beatrix breaks free of the soil and grabs for purchase while pulling herself out of the hole. You can see that there is no blood on her right hand. Then, as Beatrix sit in the diner to order a glass of water, she puts her hands on the counter. Again, no blood. But later, in the fight with Elle, she has blood on her hands.

Supposedly a lot of those little continuity glitches-- the condition of Beatrix's hands after she breaks out of the coffin-- are stylistic choices. But I could be wrong.

My favorite part of that whole sequence, though, had to be the look on the face of the guy in the diner when he saw her walking up the road... that "Why me and why now" expression is absolutely priceless.

I also think it's a real shame that the Bill-Alburt fight was cut from the movie, especially having seen the deleted scene (at the end of a Tarantino marathon on Encore on Christmas Day, they actually showed the sequence).

The whole bit at the strip club, however slow and pace-destroying it may have been, may have served a purpose. I was thinking about this the other day, when a friend of mine was commenting that we got that whole anime sequence for O-Ren but we get almost nothing in terms of backstory for Elle and Budd.

With each of the characters that Beatrix fights, there's a scene that spells out their background and a scene that spells out how they are today, a 'defining' sequence if you will. Vernita doesn't get much of a backstory, admittedly (and it's implied that she was relatively new to the game given her lack of familiarity with Beatrix, so that may be intentiona), but her 'defining scene' was the discussion about killing her in front of Nikki. O-Ren's anime sequence spelled out her background, and she's defined by the scene with the other Yakuza bosses.

In Volume 2, though, those scenes take on a different rhythm all their own. I think Budd's 'defining' scene is meant to be an indication of how the mighty have fallen. We only briefly see Budd in his prime in flashback, and his conversation with Bill pretty much spells out their falling-out (perhaps the closest thing we have to establishing backstory for him), and it's not out of the question that the falling-out may have been a result of the Massacre at Two Pines. Budd's obvious sense of regret combined with the whole bit with the strip club is meant to show that he's not an assassin anymore. A vicious killer, to be sure, but not an assassin. The only thing that went wrong with that sequence was that it threw off the rhythm of the rest of the movie too much, but it wasn't 'complete' enough to establish its own rhythm.

Elle's background is established, I think, by the short exchange she and Beatrix have concerning Pai Mei. Maybe it's just watching how evenly matched they are in the fight combined with everything else, but you can see how Elle and Beatrix are clearly opposites of a sort, diverging only when Elle smarted off to Pai Mei and lost an eye as a result. Her 'defining' scene is what she does to Budd and the way she goes to the trouble of giving him that whole spiel about the black mamba. You can tell there are feelings of bitterness there, implying that Beatrix replaced Elle in some way in Bill's eyes. Maybe that's just me. I still can't get over the fact that Darryl Hannah plays Elle, given how many of those goofy romantic comedies I've seen her in. It's like watching Tom Hanks play a serial killer.

Bill's backstory obviously comes from the sequence with Esteban. I personally think his 'defining' scene would have worked better as the fight on the way to meet Pai Mei, but they decided to go with the Superman monologue instead. It's a great scene, and David Carradine performs it beautifully, but to be honest with all of you I think the deleted fight scene better fits in with the general theme of Bill. But I could be wrong.

Feel free to share your own thoughts on this, it's just something that occurred to me.

I still can't get over the fact that Darryl Hannah plays Elle, given how many of those goofy romantic comedies I've seen her in. It's like watching Tom Hanks play a serial killer.

Didn't Tom Hanks play an assasin in Road to Perdition?

Yeah, he did.

Ever seen Blade Runner?

Although it is a great scene, I don't see punching though a casket and "rising from the grave" as possible. The punching part certainly is but she would have to make a hole big enough to fit through, then stand up and dig herself out before the dirt piled on her and she suffocated. The diner scene was also great.

Somebody mentioned that once Elle got over being blind she could hire people to go after Kiddo. This is probably the most likely outcome.

I know I'm coming in late to the party, but I'd like to answer this question from Rona:

"Why did no one show any concern for the victims of her violence?"

The answer is simple: The "victims of her violence" are all scum. While it's very arguable that Beatrix is little better, so what? The people she kills throughout both movies are horrible human beings to a man and woman. I'll go down the list:

Buck - Spends four years raping The Bride's unconscious body, and pimps said body to others for cash.

Vernita Green - Participated in the cold-blooded murder of Beatrix's fiance, their friends, the minister, his wife and the church organist.

Go-Go Yubari - Impales a man on a sword for hitting on her, and works as a bodyguard to a murderous crime boss.

Johnny Mo - Chief foot soldier of a murderous gang of thugs.

The Crazy 88 - Gang of murderous thugs employed by the head of a violent crime syndicate.

O-Ren Ishii - See Vernita Green, plus the head of a violent crime syndicate.

Elle Driver - See Vernita Green. Plus, poisoned her martial arts teacher without obvious provocation, and poisoned a former colleague to avoid paying for a sword he sold her.

Bill - See Vernita Green, plus the founder of a professional assassination organization.

Please, tell me why I should feel the least amount of pity or sympathy for any of these people or for the lives of violence and cruelty they chose for themselves.

The sensei's provocation of Elle was the plucking out of her eye.

My favorite scene in this film, the escaping from the coffin, uses the brilliant Morricone piece "L'Arena" from the film "Il Mercenario." Check out the original use of the piece--just as good, if not better.