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

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (1989)

An annoying kid in a terrible fucking wig and an old, fat wizard come across a warrior (but not that warrior) and a queen (but not that queen) in their quest for three magical totems to unite the kingdom. Or something like that. No surprise whatsoever, but this has nothing to do with the first film. Since this is a family film, it doesn't even have the gratuitous nudity to fall back on, so you realize the limited appeal of bad acting and incomprehensible, nonsense character names. Honestly, if you're still tuning in at this point, that's completely on you.

1 tree upskirt shot out of 5

Pit Stop (1969)

aka The Winner

Given almost complete free rein by Roger Corman to make a "stock car" movie, Jack Hill delivered a film that's littered with rough edges, but like most of the director's early works it has enough keen-eyed style to sate his fans.
Rick (Richard Davalos) is a street racer, a kind of poor-man's James Dean who's stubbornly independent and filled with a self-destructive drive. When given the chance by an uncaring sponsor (Brian Donlevy) to prove himself on a deadly Figure 8 racetrack, Rick indulges his hungry ego.
A rival in the form of Hill regular Sid Haig playing an arrogant prick keeps things interesting, but the most memorable part for me was Ellen Burstyn.

3 big wheels out of 5

The Big Doll House (1971)

We enter the prison alongside three new arrivals who see first-hand how it's run and what life means for the women behind bars: violence and torture.
Pam Grier in a Jack Hill film is more than enough to have me staying for a screening, but Doll House was her first major role and she wasn't quite as impressive as she'd eventually become. It doesn't help that it's not a particularly memorable WiP film, or maybe my standards are set too high having been spoiled by the Japanese entries in the genre.
Pam's contribution to the soundtrack is worthy of praise, though.
Jack Hill regular Sid Haig plays a vital role as a sleazy delivery man.

2½ slippery wrestles out of 5

Galaxy of Terror (1981)

Though Roger Corman had grown weary of directing by this point, this film is overflowing with his style. In an obvious Alien knock-off, a spaceship crew is bombarded by their own fears made real by a strange planet's curious chemistry. The cast is B-movie heaven as Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie and Ray Walston fill up the roles. In usual Corman fashion, many young faces were given a chance to work on his film. Most notably James Cameron as production designer. Though cheaply made, his sets are heavily influenced by H.R. Giger. The sci-fi effects are very 70s light show, but it being such a low-budget and lowbrow production, it all fits in quite nicely. Any fan of sci-fi cinema will have a good time pointing out the literal and literary holes in this campy production.

3 rape worms out of 5

Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

It’s a typical ‘women in prison’ sexploitation flick for a while with catfights, showers and an aggressive guard with a lady-boner for the prisoners, but it changes to an on-the-run chase movie giving the two very different women their time in the spotlight. The pair, a black hooker and a white revolutionary, are pursued by three different parties as they make their way across an island. It even throws in a Western style shootout to keep things exciting.
The secondary characters have their own opposites and rivalries going on and there’s a well-defined distinction between who deserves our sympathies and who doesn't, even though no one is angelic.
More than the sum of its parts, BM,WM is another great Grier movie.

3½ strong links out of 5

Coffy (1973)

Aptly named. She's black, hot, can keep you up all night or burn you. It's a Blaxploitation revenge thriller that has a few lull moments but overall rarely puts a foot wrong. There are hilarious moments, too (I lost my shit at the pimp's onesie!). The titular female takes an active role doing what the cops won't: putting a stop to the drug pushers that infect the city. It's not for wholly selfless reasons but that doesn't negate the good she does... with a shotgun. There's a lot of nudity but it really doesn't need it, there's enough meat in the script without the need for compensation elsewhere.

4 campaigns 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

Foxy Brown (1974)

Jack Hill followed up the successful Coffy (1973) with another blaxploitation flick led by the queen of the genre, Pam Grier. You mess with Foxy’s man and you mess with Foxy, and the last thing you want to do is tangle with her, because she gives as good as she gets. She’ll even go so far as to become a high-class hooker to get revenge on your pale ass.
Buckle yourself in for some “funky”, “dig it” and “right on” violence with occasional bouts of fine comedy to lighten the savage mood.

3 pickles 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

HALLOWEEN [2007]

Getting Rob Zombie to remake John Carpenter's Halloween seemed like it might actually work, given his love for horror movies.  

The end result unfortunately isn't very good.  

Zombie sacrifices subtly building tension and smacks you right over the head with brutal violence right from the get go, which honestly wears off pretty fast.  What's interesting though, is the first half of the film in which Zombie expands upon the history of Michael Myers, would have worked had he not taken a cheap route out with the uninspiring second half.  

There's glimpses of creativity but never enough to save the film from itself.

2½ bloody bathroom stall jamborees out of 5