The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill (David Carradine), the reclusive bouncer Budd (Michael Madsen), and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle (Darryl Hannah).

Building off of the exploitational atmosphere that he introduced to audiences in Kill Bill Volume 1, Kill Bill Volume 2 picked up with The Bride looking to settle the score with Michael Madsen’s Bud, the shit-kicking brother of Bill, Daryl Hannah’s pathological psycho Elle Driver, and her ultimate nemesis, in the form of revered performer David Carradine, who portrayed Bill. While the first film fell into the martial arts genre, Tarantino worked to push the narrative into the outreaches of the exploitation genre here. With everything from the redneck movie to Italian Giallo, a dash of Shaw Brothers action and a heartwarming domestic drama, all of this was contained in Kill Bill Volume 2 and this mismatch of styles helps to deliver home a powerful narrative.

At the end of Kill Bill Volume 1, three names remained on The Bride’s Kill List and Bill’s younger brother Budd was the first person she hunted down. Played by Tarantino favourite Michael Madsen, Budd was a redneck shitbird of the first order. Behind his greasy hair and alcohol-laden posture hid a dangerous and formidable brute who was more than happy to put The Bride in her place six feet under. Madsen had a sick glee to his performance and he complements Tarantino’s dialogue perfectly. Also on the list was The Bride’s mortal enemy Elle Driver and she was one mean spirited bitch! Played to villainous perfection by Daryl Hannah, Elle was a bad girl who liked being bad and her seminal duel with The Bride in Budd’s trailer park home is a grim and gritty brawl that stays with you. Not to mention its shocking conclusion which gives new meaning to ‘an eye for an eye’.

But if Kill Bill Volume 2 has a star that steals the entire film then it is unequivocally David Carradine as the titular Bill. This master assassin and former lover of The Bride is packed full of wild west charisma and Eastern wisdom. Carradine is an absolute scene-stealer as Bill and when the camera is upon him you can’t look away. This cult actor of cinema and TV absolutely gave Tarantino his movie and you completely buy into how damn cool he is on screen. Along with the cool factor is his place as a ruthless killer in the film’s narrative and Carradine’s sly performance helps to communicate this to the film’s audience with ease. The famed actor also shared great chemistry with Uma Thurman and you brought into these character’s tragic tale of love and hate even more because of it. Carradine gave the perfect performance as Bill, and the film is all the better because of his involvement.

While Kill Bill Volume 1 was an out and out action film, Volume 2 moves at a different pace. Not only does it keep audiences on their toes, but it also affords them the freedom to interpret the film’s narrative and draw out the events of the past that shape this story’s present. Part of this is due to Tarantino’s masterful blending of genres within the exploitation genre. But this is also in part to the director’s maturing craft as a storyteller. With Kill Bill Volume 2 you feel that Tarantino is exploring different parts of himself as an artist up on the screen here, and the result is something both interesting and different.

A massive part of the story that finally reveals itself to the audience in the third act (and which was eluded to previously at the conclusion of Kill Bill Volume 1) is that The Bride’s daughter B.B. is still alive. And their reunion has plenty of significance to the film’s narrative. This story of a mother and daughter reuniting is something that many would not assume to ever be included within the structure of a Tarantino film. But it fits perfectly here. Thurman’s performance is heightened during these scenes as her own emotions as a mother come into their own up on the big screen, and Tarantino uses them to his advantage. Chaos and action aside, this is the most crucial and compelling part to the entire Kill Bill saga, and its inclusion certainly stays with you.

But everything in Kill Bill Volume 2 leads to the final confrontation between The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo and Bill and this exchange between Thurman and Carradine is the stuff that cinema legend is made of. Featuring a beautifully delivered monologue about true nature and intent from Carradine, and exploding in a quick hack and slash exchange of Hattori Hanzo katana’s, Kill Bill Volume 2 is brought to an end in dramatic and shocking fashion. It’s an end that eludes to cult martial arts film Five Fingers of Death, and with image and music working together in unison The Bride finally gets her revenge!

Kill Bill is an incredibly important part of director Quentin Tarantino’s list of works and it is essential viewing for anyone who loves cinema. Blending performance, genre, action and emotion for a film that grabs you and does not let go. It’s an example of Tarantino doing what he loves and loving every second of it.

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The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster & his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

When you witness Pulp Fiction for the first time it is a cinematic experience, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Violent, energetic and completely in-your-face, Pulp Fiction takes its audience on a wild ride and you never see what’s coming next. Exploitational in nature with a hard-edged crime noir narrative, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is an extremely visceral film experience and with its sensational dialogue and striking visuals it completely commands your attention for it’s 154 minutes of screen time. Through his innovative narrative framing, slickly written characters, crazy situations, stunning visuals and one hell of a cool soundtrack, Quentin Tarantino created a film masterpiece that works on every single level and it’s one hell of a fun ride.

Like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction is a lesson in serious style and its a film that absolutely nails what it means to be cool. From the casts’ stylized wardrobe to it’s collection and use of vintage 60s and 70s cars to the way in which Tarantino uses colour and framing to capture his film, Pulp Fiction is straight crime noir cool. Anyone who watches it is instantly mesmerized by its images and no doubt tries to re-create the idea of being one of these characters through appearance, stance or strut in real life. Everything about Pulp Fiction’s visuals works here, and the film is a beautiful piece of cinema to look at it. Adding to this style is the mismatch of genres and use of narrative that Tarantino brought to Pulp Fiction, and it really amps up its entertainment value.

A large part of Pulp Fiction’s success comes down to Tarantino’s phenomenal casting, and every actor here works. First up you’ve got John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson as career hitmen Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield who experience one really bad day at the office. Then there’s Uma Thurman as the sassy Mia Wallace who takes Vincent for a really bad trip that ends at the point of a large needle. And finally, Bruce Willis plays bruising bully boxer Butch Coolidge, who decides its a good idea to double cross mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), but who ends up with him in a situation that both of them would rather forget. All of these performers bring their A-game to the film, and it’s so much fun to watch them work.

Alongside its memorable characters, Pulp Fiction has a perfect narrative to show off and Tarantino’s masterful dialogue is really on display. This film is filled to the brim with scenes and quotes that have entered film legend with the likes of “royal with cheese”, “I think it’s a wax museum with a pulse”, “pretty please, with sugar on top, clean the fucking car”, “I’m gonna get medieval on your ass”, Jules Winnfield’s Ezekiel 25:17 speech and my personal favourite line credited to Bruce Willis’ Butch Coolidge, “Zed’s dead baby. Zed’s dead.” Dialogue like this doesn’t get much better, and Tarantino’s use of it really drives the film forward. What we see with Pulp Fiction is the director building off of the work he began within Reservoir Dogs and it’s a practice he would continue with all of his successive works.

While he first showed his talent for conjuring ultra violence up in film with his debut Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino took it one step further here. Framed through his lens for narrative and extending the reach of his story, the violence of Pulp Fiction is at times viciously brutal and exceedingly funny. Case in point the film’s third act scene revolving around The Bonnie Situation where Vincent’s gun manages to go-off somehow and absolutely ruins Jules’ car in a blood shredded mess. No matter how many times I’ve seen this scene it still sends me into fits of uncontrollable laughter with just how crazy it all is, and there’s some serious entertainment value to boot. There are plenty of scenes like this throughout Pulp Fiction and Tarantino gets a reaction out of his audience time and time again.

Tarantino also provided some serious grooves here with Pulp Fiction’s eclectic soundtrack, and I can’t think of a greater piece of film score ever. Collecting together a host of classic songs that ranged from California surfer cool tracks like Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” to soulful R&B tracks like Neil Diamond’s “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon”. Add in a good helping of “Jungle Boogie” and “Bustin’ Surfboards”, and you’ve got the ultimate mismatch soundtrack that scores one very entertaining film. It’s a soundtrack that to this day remains instantly recognizable to Tarantino’s name and is a major part of the legacy of Pulp Fiction, and it’s always fun to groove out to.

Alongside being one of the coolest, classiest and most entertaining motion pictures ever created, Pulp Fiction is also a love letter to cinema itself. Packed to the brim with delightful homages from Tarantino, Pulp Fiction is a film made by a film buff for film buffs. While there’s the very entertaining narrative that hits audiences on a surface level, packed out in the background detail are references to the long history of cinema and this is exemplified through one of the film’s most pivotal scenes at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a retro-styled restaurant which is stuffed with classic pop culture and you can just tell that Tarantino was in his element at such a place. There’s just so much passion contained in Pulp Fiction for cinema itself and it definitely leaves an impression on audiences. That’s for sure.

To this day Pulp Fiction remains as one of the coolest films ever made, and decade after decade audiences continue to discover its greatness. The word masterpiece firmly applies to Pulp Fiction and it’s a film that needs to be watched again and again and again.

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