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'Kill Bill' kills at the box office

**** out of 5


If you’re into Tarantino and his quirky B-movie feeling time-out-of-joint pop culture referenced film noir labors of love, "Kill Bill" might be the movie for you.

Unless, that is, you aren’t a fan of dismembered limbs, cut off heads, and arteries spurting gallons of blood into the air, then maybe "Kill Bill" isn’t that right movie to make you feel warm and fuzzy.

Warm and fuzzy is exactly what "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" is not. Uma Thurman is a cold-blooded killer, a member of Bill’s (David Carradine) Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, or DiVAS. Thurman’s character, DiVAS code-named “Black Mamba” and known throughout the movie only as “The Bride,” was just trying to get out of the gang, get married and start a family- standard assassin fare.

Carradine and his cast of killers (Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver, Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green and Michael Madsen as Budd) intercept the wedding and exterminate nine of the ten members of the wedding party.

The movie, which shifts into black-and-white at one point to deaden the heightened effect of gallon upon gallon of blood being spilled, also features an anime sequence that expounds on the back story of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who has assumed power of the major Japanese crime syndicate.

Tarantino knew exactly who to get to direct the massive fight scenes (“The House of Blue Leaves” battle, a twenty minute scene, reportedly took an entire eight weeks to film). Woo-Ping Yuen’s name might not mean much to the American audience, but they’ve seen his work. Master Yuen was the action choreographer on "The Matrix: Reloaded," as well as on "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. "

There aren’t as many wire-type scenes in "Kill Bill," but the scenes feature complicated weapons work with katanas, maces, knives and even a morning star. Also notable is the appearance of Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, the sword-maker who trained Bill, and who creates the sword that Thurman wields to exact her revenge.

"Kill Bill" is wonderful. It is over-the-top in its portrayal of violence, it goes back to a tradition of movies that have been all but forgotten: the samurai movie, the spaghetti western, revenge drama and the exploitation film, all of which are blended together to create a piece of cinema that Western audiences have been waiting for, although they just didn’t know it.

Be warned- "Kill Bill" isn’t the movie to take the kids to, but it is chocked full of amazing action and visual punch that leaves you reeling until the end. Tarantino wanted to break the four-hour movie up into two parts because he felt that audiences wouldn’t be able to take four hours of gore, violence and cold-blooded revenge. "Kill Bill, Vol. 2" will open in February, and will supposedly offer more story and less action.

"Kill Bill" opened this weekend with a $22.2 million box-office take.