Kill Bill - Volumes 1 & 2 [Blu-ray] (Amazon.com Exclusive)

Product Details

• Released on: 2008-09-09
• Rating: NC-17
• Original language: English, French, Japanese, Spanish

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Kill Bill: Volume 1
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1, is trash for connoisseurs. From his opening gambit (including a "Shaw-Scope" logo and gaudy '70s-vintage "Our Feature Presentation" title card) to his cliffhanger finale (a teasing lead-in to 2004's Vol. 2), Tarantino pays loving tribute to grindhouse cinema, specifically the Hong Kong action flicks and spaghetti Westerns that fill his fervent brain--and this frequently breathtaking movie--with enough cinematic references and cleverly pilfered soundtrack cues to send cinephiles running for their reference books. Everything old is new again in Tarantino's humor-laced vision: he steals from the best while injecting his own oft-copied, never-duplicated style into what is, quite simply, a revenge flick, beginning with the near-murder of the Bride (Uma Thurman), pregnant on her wedding day and left for dead by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DiVAS)--including Lucy Liu and the unseen David Carradine (as Bill)--who become targets for the Bride's lethal vengeance. Culminating in an ultraviolent, ultra-stylized tour-de-force showdown, Tarantino's fourth film is either brilliantly (and brutally) innovative or one of the most blatant acts of plagiarism ever conceived. Either way, it's hyperkinetic eye-candy from a passionate film-lover who clearly knows what he's doing. --Jeff Shannon

Kill Bill: Volume 2
"The Bride" (Uma Thurman) gets her satisfaction--and so do we--in Quentin Tarantino's "roaring rampage of revenge," Kill Bill: Volume 2. Where Vol. 1 was a hyper-kinetic tribute to the Asian chop-socky grindhouse flicks that have been thoroughly cross-referenced in Tarantino's film-loving brain, Vol. 2--not a sequel, but Part Two of a breathtakingly cinematic epic--is Tarantino's contemporary martial-arts Western, fueled by iconic images, music, and themes lifted from any source that Tarantino holds dear, from the action-packed cheapies of William Witney (one of several filmmakers Tarantino gratefully honors in the closing credits) to the spaghetti epics of Sergio Leone. Tarantino doesn't copy so much as elevate the genres he loves, and the entirety of Kill Bill is clearly the product of a singular artistic vision, even as it careens from one influence to another. Violence erupts with dynamic impact, but unlike Vol. 1, this slower grand finale revels in Tarantino's trademark dialogue and loopy longueurs, reviving the career of David Carradine (who plays Bill for what he is: a snake charmer), and giving Thurman's Bride an outlet for maternal love and well-earned happiness. Has any actress endured so much for the sake of a unique collaboration? As the credits remind us, "The Bride" was jointly created by "Q&U," and she's become an unforgettable heroine in a pair of delirious movie-movies (Vol. 3 awaits, some 15 years hence) that Tarantino fans will study and love for decades to come. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Movie: 4.25/5 Picture Quality: 4.25~5/5 Sound Quality: 4.5/5 Extras: 1.75/5
Version: U.S.A / Miramax / Region A, B, C

Kill Bill Vol. 1
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:50:43 (U.S Cut)
Movie size: 31,48 GB
Disc size: 36,01 GB
Average video bit rate: 30.06 Mbps

LPCM Audio English 4608 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 16-bit / 4608kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps

Subtitles: English SDH / Chinese / Japanese / French / Korean / Spanish
Number of chapters: 20

* The Making of KILL BILL Volume 1
* THE "5, 6, 7, 8'S" Musical Performances
* Tarantino Trailers: "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," "Jackie Brown," "Kill Bill: Volume 1" bootleg trailer, Kill Bill" Volume 2 teaser.

Kill Bill Vol. 2
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 2:16:57
Movie size: 38,50 GB
Disc size: 42,94 GB
Average video bit rate: 27.26 Mbps

LPCM Audio English 6912 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 6912kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps

Subtitles: English SDH / Chinese / Japanese / French / Korean / Spanish
Number of chapters: 20

* The Making of KILL BILL Volume 2
* Damoe Deleted Scene
* Chingon Musical Performance

No DTS? No deal...
This may seem a trivial complaint to some, but I for one won't be rushing out to buy this simply because it's lacking in what should be standard audio for this release. Granted, it will be nice to see the Kill Bill saga (such as it is until TWBA is released) in 1080P, but as an audiophile I'm disappointed to see PCM 5.1 as included with this release. The SD releases of Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 included DTS tracks, and I would have liked to have seen some DTS-HDMA offered for the BD releases of Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2. A poor choice on Disney's part, IMO.

Regarding "The Whole Bloody Affair"
REGARDING THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR: First off, The Weinstein Company owns the rights to "The Whole Bloody Affair" when it arrives, so you can't fault Disney for releasing the one and only cut of this movie that they own. They do not, have not and will not have the ability to put out "The Whole Bloody Affair".

And if you're waiting for "The Whole Bloody Affair" I hope you have other things to occupy your time. "TWBA" was first mentioned in 2004, and it's since been four long years without literally ANY actual progress on the front of that cut surfacing. The cut is NOT yet finished. I think people are under the impression that foreign cuts of KB are "TWBA" and they are NOT. Quentin has NOT YET CUT "THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR" TOGETHER AT ALL. Every year he makes a promise that he's about to get to it, to no avail. I wouldn't say I'm actually skeptical it will ever come out (I'm sure Quentin wants to do it) but I'm not exactly holding my breath anymore either.

So, in conclusion: Not only is "The Whole Bloody Affair" NOT coming out tomorrow or something, but it's not likely to come out for quite a long time (especially with Quentin starting Inglorious Bastards), and when it does, it won't be through Buena Vista.

Thanks.

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