A dramatic comedy set in the American southwest, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 2 commands attention with its bold visuals, stellar acting and narrative idiosyncrasies. Through his filmmaking, Tarantino is equal parts sieve, blender and chef who sifts through motion picture history for elements of cinematic brilliance and combines these distinctive influences to create a harmonious visual feast topped with his artistic flourish. With Volume 2, Tarantino completes the sampling that he abruptly interrupted after the first course due to studio reservations about a 3 hour theater engagement.

Having achieved widespread acclaim with his own brand of contemporary filmmaking, Tarantino explores the martial arts and Western genres in Volume 1 and Volume 2, respectively. With the Kill Bill mini-series, Tarantino creates an anthology of film references to which he adds offbeat characters and a simple, but multi-layered plot. While Volume 1's narrative lacked the sharply focused dialogue Tarantino is known for, he returns wholeheartedly to the storytelling quirks that made him a household name in Volume 2. In the Western, the filmmaker's knack of mixing light-hearted banter with unconventional dialogue for comic effect is on full display. And Tarantino taps a new vein of brazenness with Bill's bedtime explanation of how he shot mommy,. Nevertheless, Volume 2 occasionally overcompensates for its predecessor's deficiencies as a few of the Western's dialogue sequences could have benefited from a bit of choice editing.

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Similar to most Tarantino films, the Kill Bill tale is a simple one. Here it's a story of heartbreak begetting a massacre that leads to a Bride hell-bent on the big payback. Having sliced and diced foes Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) and Oren Ishii (Lucy Liu) in Volume 1, the Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her trip along retribution roadway in Volume 2. Her targets - Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Budd (Michael Madsen) and Bill (David Carradine) - a treacherous three sensitized to feel the heartbeat of approaching danger. Without the element of surprise that hastened her quest in Volume 1, the Bride's remaining enemies initially repel her fists of fury and thus delay her journey as well as the distinctive Ironside riff that signals when the Bride is about get busy avenging.

Does the vixen vigilante vanquish the remaining Vipers? Well, that's besides the point as Volume 2 spends less time hyping the method of the Bride's remaining battles and more time exploring the natures of the blade slinging warriors.

Overall, the ensemble portraying Volume 2's cast of characters delivers remarkable performances. While Hannah scores high marks for her treacherously enjoyable turn as Elle Driver, Uma Thurman is magnificent as the Bride, a role in which Thurman captivates with her fair-haired furor and grim-faced grit. For Thurman, the Bride is an all encompassing challenge that she willing tackles with outstanding skill and verve.

Yet, the most intriguing character is Carradine's Bill, a seemingly evil twin of Kwai Chang Caine, the Shaolin monk Carradine is widely known for portraying. Where the priestly Caine wanders the American West searching for his brother and avoiding bounty hunters, Bill has a more dastardly mission. Bill seeks impressionable young women looking for a patron. But this should not come as a surprise since early in his life Bill was introduced to the art of exploitation.

Mentored in his youth by Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), an old school procurer of flesh, Bill somewhat follows in his surrogate father's footsteps. Instead of the sex trade, Bill recruits vixens for the death trade and provides them with the skills to succeed as killer call girls. The price Bill's protégés pay for his patronage is unending loyalty. And as it is with most pimps, attempts to leave the stable are met with at least a beat down and sometimes a cap to the dome.

Volume 2 is worthy of praise on many levels, but it's a shame that even with so much time in the mini-series devoted to plot development that all of LaTanya Richardson's and Michael Jai White's scenes were deleted. Hopefully, Tarantino will show the bro' and sis' some love in the film's DVD. M

April 2004