Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2006)

Screened exactly twice in 2006 and 2011, this year finally marks the official wide release of the complete work, restoring it back to Tarantino's original unified vision, before it was insisted on being split into two volumes at the behest of Miramax's Harvey Weinstein. The result is a four-hour martial arts/exploitation/samurai epic (plus 15 minute intermission) with pacing that flows better as one cohesive whole, with some of the fat trimmed out of it.

Watching this 20 years after the fact in a packed theater makes it clear how well the material ages. Enormously entertaining and never boring, it's an homage to all the greats of the past, blending so many disparate styles in a pastiche of Americana, which doesn't take away from the artists it so liberally borrows from. As the ultimate revenge story (summed up in the title), it favors style over substance, but the mission is clear and the emotions are real: You're with The Bride every step of the way. It's not without its flaws, but there's no denying this is Cinema; there aren't many filmmakers left making epics of this caliber. To put it even more bluntly, this is just a cool fucking film with iconic visuals and a killer soundtrack. And Uma Thurman looks damn good doing it.

5 Deadly Vipers out of 5

Note: Exclusive to this 2025 print is a new chapter entitled "Yuki's Revenge," which was animated using the Unreal Engine, with Uma performing the voice acting and motion capture. Luckily, this is tacked on at the end of the credits and doesn't interrupt the flow of the film. You can view it in its entirety here.

Note 2: The original Nutshell reviews can be found here: Volume 1, Volume 2

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Two criminals on the run take a few hostages and head for Mexico. Seth Gecko (Clooney) is smooth and calm under pressure. His brother Richie (Tarantino) is a trigger-happy prick who needs protecting from his own impulses.
It's a movie of two uneven halves. For a while it's an edgy crime flick with QT-penned dialogue. It doesn't go anywhere particularly interesting, but there's at least the feeling that it might. The latter part of the film, however, has no such aspirations. Instead, it goes all out to please fans of a very different genre. I'll say no more, to avoid further spoilers, but the direction it takes will either float your goat or it won't. My goat was thoroughly sunk, but I have to hand it to the creators for trying something so outrageously divergent.

2½ lapdogs of Satan out of 5

THE HATEFUL EIGHT [2015]

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino packs in some good ol' fashioned snowy film-making with his off-beat Western/thriller The Hateful Eight.
A pack of thugs, all strangers to each other, are trapped in a isolated cabin during a snowy blizzard, which inevitably leads to...well...some serious cabin fever aka obligatory Tarantino bloodshed and vulgar but engrossing monologues.
With this film, it's become clear the smug director has the rights to be smug, as he's got a confident and well-developed grasp on the art of cinematic storytelling.  It's beautifully shot, well-paced, jammed to the brim with wonderful performances from it's genre cast and never ceases to keep you guessing who's who and what's what.
It's essentially Rawhide meets Reservoir Dogs but, hot damn, if it's not a fully captivating mash-up of the two films.

4 Silent Nights out of 5

Pulp Fiction (1994)

QT’s second film is a nonlinear collection of about half a dozen stories that overlap in interesting ways, even though none of them really go anywhere meaningful. On one hand it’s deserving of being pulped, but the performances, dialogue and love shown to established filmic techniques (rear projection car rides, long tracking shots, split-focus lens and even a McGuffin) are indulgently entertaining. It’s not unlike the tasty burger that Sam Jackson makes a big deal over in one of the stories: it’s constructed from chopped up pieces and satisfies for a brief time. However, at 154 minutes I do feel that it pushes against the limits of acceptability for that kind of thing.

4 moral tests of oneself out of 5

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Revisiting RD was as entertaining as I'd hoped. It’s still an excellent film, proving that it wasn't just riding on a timed wave of counter-culture hype.
If you didn't already know, it’s a heist movie but whereas most films focus on the planning and preparation, only getting to the actual theft in the last half hour, Dogs focuses on what happens afterwards, when it all goes sour.
Outfitting bad guys in matching suits was a striking image before QT’s time and it still is today. And having the action take place primarily in locations that rarely change means the remainder of it hasn't visibly dated.
The importance of music is felt even though there’s no actual score; any music in the film is heard by one or more of the characters.

4½ Super Sounds of the Seventies out of 5

Jackie Brown (1997)

I've seen all but one of Tarantino's films and all but one of those multiple times. From that incomplete selection, JB is the best.
It has the usual long takes heavy with dialogue, but they serve a purpose other than to show off. It’s mature thematically. The storytelling has some twists and turns but it’s not struggling to adhere to the usual gimmickry, perhaps because he didn't write it from scratch (it’s an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch (1992)). It spends a long time building up to the pay off, longer than many films run in entirety, if truth be told, but because it’s a story for adults, not just post-pub thrill-seekers with undiagnosed attention deficits, the time invested is rewarded with more than just gunfire and spectacle. Bravo, QT. Bravo.

5 levels set just right out of 5

Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

The Bride, armed with her Hattori Hanzô sword, continues to pursue Bill so she can do what the title says she wants to do. Yawn.
Volume 1 (2003) was mostly about action, whereas Volume 2 is mostly about talking. Neither film offers a satisfying viewing experience.
I believe a filmmaker's desire to express his/herself in a creative way should be fulfilled as much as possible, but their first duty should always be to the story. QT delivered self-indulgent wankery for both of those things. I prefer a well-written dialogue scene to an explosive action scene, so this one should've been more engaging for me, but there's only about ten minutes in total when I wasn't bored out of my mind.

2 lonely sides out of 5

DEATH PROOF [2007]

Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof is the 2nd half of the Robert Rodriguez/Tarantino Grindhouse double feature.
Tarantino's low budget ode to 70's exploitation slasher flicks should have been more fun than it actually turns out to be.  Instead it's filled with long scenes of senseless babble which he usually writes quite well, which is a shame because here he had a chance to do it with a nearly all female cast rather than his usual all male cast.  There's two wonderfully entertaining vehicular carnage chase scenes that are well worth checking out but the rest is boring garbage that doesn't rise to the potentially campy fun it could have been.

2 twisted nerves out of 5

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

QT's first misstep is 100% style over substance. It's the film equivalent of a kid in a Lego store who builds a structure that threatens to collapse under the weight of its own aspirations because it has no real foundation. It's the director saying: I like Chanbara, Westerns, Blaxploitation, Wuxia, and Uma's feet, so I'm going to put them all together. Aren't I the coolest?
I didn't much like the film but I'm glad QT is in the business. His framing is nearly always perfect and his passion for his craft is plain to see.
If the two films ever get re-edited and commercially released as the rumoured Whole Bloody Affair then I'll happily reassess the work, but it'll need to be a complete pacing re-edit and not just a lazy-ass joining.

2½ splatters of blood in snow out of 5

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS [2009]

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's self-proclaimed masterpiece Inglorious Basterds seems to be a "love it or hate it" type of film.

Giving the WWII film a spaghetti western makeover, Tarantino dumps his morals out the window and inserts cartoonish entertainment, laughter and brutal violence into the holocaust days with a smug look on his face.  It might be an enjoyable ride for some, while others it's an offensive, disrespectful shit-bucket.  Depending on how you feel about the subject material is what will measure your enjoyment of the film.  Christophe Waltz's performance turns the long, drawn-out scenes into something worth watching.  Basically in the end, it's like a script from a high school student who has no idea what WWII was and then shot & edited by a film school art student, which gives it all a certain type of likeable flair.  

3½ Nation's Pride out of 5

DJANGO UNCHAINED [2012]

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is a violent love story given the cosmetic makeover of an exploitation Western.  

It's filled with geysers of blood, hypnotizing villain monologues, great music and some fantastic performances but in the end of it's near 3 hours it leaves much to be desired.  Jamie Foxx has the acting charisma to carry it for the first hour but after awhile you realize Tarantino wrote him with hardly any depth or attempts to explore the potentially interesting inner conflicts he faces, which has no excuse considering the insanely long running time.  With maybe 25 minutes shaved off and some better scene set-ups I might have been a little more pleased with the end results.

3 horsey dances of victory out of 5

PLANET TERROR [2007]

Robert Rodriguez sets out to make crap and has a pretty good time doing it in the Grindhouse zombie exploitation film Planet Terror.

From hokey performances to scratched film & missing reels, the film feels pretty genuine to what Rodriguez was aiming for.  Unfortunately, the films run way too long and the joke wears off long before it's over, although I get the feeling the film-makers didn't give a rat's ass.  No matter, Marley Shelton is always funny and I think I found myself drooling over Rose McGowan once or twice.

...oh I should probably mention, the DVD's actually smell like BBQ sauce. 

2½ melting penises out of 5

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Oliver Stone makes political films; NBK is different in approach only. It explores the controlling nature of the media through a violent journey filled with themes of incest, sexual abuse, murder and corruption. It’s a film-lovers film, full of quick cuts, emotive lighting, and utilising eighteen different types of film stock to achieve a canvas of chaotic satire that lets up for just a moment - that moment becomes the pivot upon which the film revolves. It helped make Woody Harrelson the man he is today.

4 snake tongues and shotguns out of 5

TRUE ROMANCE [1993]

Hookers. Cocaine. Guns.
...and Elvis.
Quentin Tarantino's first screenplay for the Tony Scott directed True Romance is a wild and stylish romp of a road movie. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette lead an all-star ensemble supporting cast through a fantastical, glamorized violent world that looks more fun than intimidating. It's a little immature and offensive at times but this is Tarantino so it should be expected.
Filled with characters so stereotypical it's gleefully absurd, an in your face "too cool" soundtrack and Gary Fucking Oldman in one of his best roles, True Romance is a pulp cult classic that is pure guilty fun.

4 tips of the hat to Gassenhauer out of 5