Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2

Quentin Tarantino is one of my all time favorite directors. I think a lot of people also share my sentiments and if they don't, they can piss off. Pulp Fiction, for me, was one of the main reasons I started getting into art house and independent cinema. After checking out his recent masterpiece, I think I may go back a revisit some of the greats... I'll start with Kill Bill.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1
(2003) [Trailer]
Director: Quentin Tarantino [IMDB]

Synopsis: A bride (Uma) wakes to find that she's been in a coma for 4 years and now must enact vengeance on the people responsible for ruining her life.

Kill Bill is highly entertaining and wastes no time strapping you in and kicking things into high gear. The first fight scene with Vivica A Fox is awesome and the intermission scene once the daughter arrives is a welcome curveball. There's plenty of homages to other films and genres, one that is glaringly obvious is Bruce Lee. The Cato masks and the yellow track suit pull the nostalgia card and warms my cold lifeless heart.

I'd say the only thing I dislike would be the anime scene. It doesn't work at all for me and drags on way too long.

Other than that, Kill Bill is like a Chucky Cheese to a 6 year old... a good time.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2
(2004) [Trailer]
Director: Quentin Tarantino [IMDB]

Synopsis: The bride is back to finish the job.

This is the continuation of part 1 basically but I think it's a stronger film. There's some outstanding dialog and performances.... especially from David Caradine, Michael Parks, and Michael Madsen. There are more great fights scenes and a cool training montage with Pai Mei... again harking back to the old kung fu flicks of the 70's and 80's.

SPOILER: Bill's death is handled so well. There's obviously foreshadowing earlier in the film to what will take place, but I thought it was cool that Tarantino went right for the kill, verses dragging it out through a long drawl out fight scene. END SPOILER

Definitely invest some time in Kill Bill if you haven't done so already. Love it.

The Man with the Iron Fists

The Man with the Iron Fists
(2012) [Trailer]
Director: RZA [IMDB]

Back in high school I was quite fond of the Wu-Tang Clan, who wasn't? 36 Chambers changed the face of hip hop, spawned tons of clones, and also put the names... Method Man, Raekwon, RZA, GZA, Ghostface, U-God, and Old Dirty Bastard (RIP) on the tongues of youth all across the world. So when I heard RZA was directing a Kung-Fu flick with the help of Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth, I was a bit intrigued to see if The Scientist could bring his directoral game like he can his rap game.

Synopsis: A blacksmith in feudal China teams up with a prince, Lucy Lu, and Russell Crowe to defend a village from the onslaught of the Wolf Clan.... or Lion Clan... I'm not really sure.

The Man with the Iron Fists is pretty much exactly what I expected. It's a glossy looking film that rides the line between classic and modern martial arts flicks. There was lots of wire works, well performed fights, and blood, but nothing that stood out as new or unique. It was fun and entertaining, but from a technical stand point there are some major flaws.

The score is very bad... and seemed really out of place in a lot of parts. I had a feeling RZA would add hip hop into the fold, but it just doesn't work here. His narration is pretty awful too and took me out of the film every time. The story is kinda shitty too and seem overly complicated.

I had read about RZA's acting being really bad, but you know what... he was ok in my book and seemed to get the job done.

I'd say go ahead and pass on this, unless you're a die hard kung-fu fan... but then again maybe it'd be worse if you are really into that genre... who knows.

The Expendables 2

The Expendables 2
(2012) [Trailer]
Director: Simon West (IMDB)

Synopsis: Stallone and crew go up against an enemy who has gotten ahold of some plutonium.... lots of people blow up. Not from the plutonium, from Stallone and crew's guns.

I liked the first installment of this franchise and I pretty much enjoyed part two about the same, but maybe a little less. It's apparent draw is that it employs every action star ever under one roof. I felt like they could have trimmed out a few people that really didn't add much to it... mainly Chuck Norris (who had the personality of a brick wall in this), the girl, and also Jet Lee. There are a lot of cheesy one liners, mostly from Schwarzenegger, and while I enjoyed many of them, they were painfully obvious.

This best thing about this is the violence. It's gory as hell and like I said earlier.... people get blown up left and right. There are tons of guns, explosions, tanks, gunships, and lots of people getting knifed. I'd say one of my highlights is Jason Statham's fight scene in the church-- it was pretty incredible.

This film is pretty much exactly what I expected it would be and I feel like I got my money's worth.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
(2010) [Trailer]
Director: Edgar Wright (IMDB)

Synopsis: A bass playing Canadian falls for a girl with a lot of ex boyfriend baggage.

Upon my first viewing of Scott Pilgrim I wasn't really sure what to expect. It somehow slipped under my radar and I literally knew nothing about the film going into it. I ending up loving it and after my second viewing last night the movie just gets better, it's a perfect blend of comedy and action.

One could say SPVTW is nerdy or quirky, I could see that I suppose. It infuses a lot of elements from video games, especially Street Fighter II, which is my favorite game ever. It somewhat panders to the gamer crowd and also strangely enough... Smashing Pumpkins fans (also my favorite band ever.) The editing in this is very interesting, both visually and with sound queues, it really feels like no other film I can think of.

The movie serves up a lot of funny dialog which is mainly delivered successfully by Michael Cera. I know he has a certain schtick that he's known for (awkward teen), but for this role it was perfect. The rest of the cast are pretty hilarious too, highlights would be Macaulay Culkin's brother and Captain America. Last but not least, the fight scenes are well paced and don't overstay their welcome.

This is a winner in my book and I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for a funny action movie.