Blu-ray Review: Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2

Definitely a pretty picture, but where is the complete package dammit?

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Sunday, September 7th 2008 at 2:08 AM

A month ago I brought you a look at Lady Snowblood (read that here), a film that played a major influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films, and at the time I had to take a peek at Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, but I knew the Blu-ray editions were coming my way and as pumped as I was to watch them both again at that time I held off for high-def Kill Bill glory. The wait was worth it as much as it was interesting to find I had a change in heart over one of the volumes.

I still enjoy both volumes of Kill Bill, but I can't say the Volume 2 holds my interest the way it once did. Volume 1 remains an ass-kicking good time, but Volume 2 is too talky and outside of a few scenes (everything with Pai Mei and Esteban Vihaio played by Michael Parks) I was beginning to nod off. The speeches made by Bill in the film no longer hold the same level of intensity and just can't compare to Volume 1.

The House of Blue Leaves battle between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii, the anime sequence, Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo and the Pussy Wagon all made Volume 1 interesting and unique and it just doesn't carryover to Volume 2 now that a few years have passed between now and the film's initial release. I will still find time to watch both volumes in the future, but Volume 1 is likely to find a lot more time in my player than 2. Sort of frustrating for me since I gave Volume 2 and "A+" in my theatrical review and called it a "masterpiece" in my DVD review, but it has lost its luster over the years, at least in terms of greatness.

As for this Blu-ray release the films look fantastic, but the audio is no major improvement over the DVD release and I would even say that, while it is an uncompressed 5.1 track, it actually is a step backward from the DVD's impressive DTS tracks. The special features are all the exact same from the DVD and we still have the dream of getting the extended release of "The Whole Bloody Affair" combining both films with additional footage, a release we have heard about ever since the theatrical release of both films. Will it ever arrive?