Brush up on the Bride's revenge
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
I was more than a little surprised to hear that the DVD of "Kill Bill Vol. 1" (Miramax) precedes by only three days the release of the second half of Quentin Tarantino's tribute to every grind-house movie he ever loved. But since "Vol. 2" turns out as promised to be simply the second half of a single movie, the reasoning may be less odd than it seems. In fact, I might suggest watching the first installment before seeing "Vol. 2" at the theater, to get the full effect of what is now revealed to be a true B-movie epic.
The story is simplicity defined: An assassin known only as the Bride (Uma Thurman) is presumably murdered, along with everyone else unlucky enough to be in the church on her wedding day. ("Vol. 2" reveals this is not technically true, but never mind.)
The hit was ordered by her former employer, Bill (David Carradine, who is heard but not seen until "Vol. 2"), and carried out by her former and exceedingly lethal teammates, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS), each of whom is named for some exotic snake.
The Bride's revenge is illustrated in four subsequent chapters, each specifically inspired by (mostly Asian) movies Tarantino loves, beautifully choreographed and filmed and unapologetically violent, often to the point of absurdity. The emphasis on action may have disappointed fans of the verbal dexterities of "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs" — rest assured they will be adequately compensated in the more dialogue-driven "Vol. 2" — but anyone who appreciates the sheer exhilaration of a genre movie taken to outrageous extremes will be floored by its go-to-the-limit gusto.
The DVD gets a good digital transfer, but special attention has obviously been given to the audio mix, which can be heard in either Dolby Digital or DTS, both fairly awe-inspiring, especially in the climactic showdown at the House of Blue Leaves.
The extras are minimal: a 22-minute making-of documentary that traces the film's inception from Tarantino's wasted youth to the decision to release it in two parts, and two music videos by the Blue Leaves house band, Japan's all-female 5,6,7,8's, which were excerpted in the film itself.
Sashay and swordplay
The TV boxes available this week include "Charlie's Angels: The Complete Second Season" (Columbia Tristar), six DVDs worth of episodes from the first post-Farrah Fawcett year, with Cheryl Ladd picking up the hair-care endorsements; and "Highlander — The Series Season 4" (Anchor Bay), a six-disc set containing the installments many fans of the syndicated sword-and-sorcery fantasy consider the best.
Time-travel flop
The only recent theatrical release of note this week is "Timeline" (Paramount), which sends some anthropologists and their bodyguards back in time to 14th-century France to retrieve a professor who has gotten stuck there.
It's available in both wide-screen and full-screen versions, and is terrible in either. A three-part documentary exploring how the film was adapted from the Michael Crichton best-seller does nothing to suggest how it all went so terribly wrong.
