Kill Bill Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room, according to multiple news reports. BBC News says that he was in Thailand filming his latest movie, Stretch. He was 72.

The eldest son of character actor John Carradine made more than 200 appearances in films and television shows, first rising to prominence with his starring role as Caine in the TV series Kung Fu. At the time, me and my friends thought he was the coolest thing on the planet: he sought peace with everyone he encountered, yet could quickly put down any opposition that arose simply by using his hands and feet (and head). Later I caught up with his 70s film work: a union leader in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha, laconic race car driver Frankenstein in Paul Bartel's Death Race 2000, and, especially, his embodiment of folk singer Woody Guthrie in Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory.

More recently he starred with Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies, which were widely viewed as a "comeback" for him, but, really, he never went away. He had a trio of very solid performances in the early 80s: as Paul Gaugin in the TV movie Gaugin the Savage; as Cole Younger, an outlaw trying to hold his family together in Walter Hill's The Long Riders; and as a police detective tracking down a flying serpent run amuck in Manhattan in Larry Cohen's Q.

James Hyman is a DJ, turntablist and music supervisor who built a name for himself in Europe and around the world by creating a series of mash-up albums combining movie clips, dialogue quotes, and pop songs. Following the release of a James Bond/ 007 mix in June 2004, Hyman mounted his most ambitious project to date, a single-disc masterpiece entitled Pulp Mixin', a dizzying blend of Quentin Tarantino's dialogue and movie music set against the backdrop of the hottest pop music of the day. Not content to relegate his recording to a purely stereoscopic assault, Hyman recently announced that he is currently assembling a feature-length film that will make Tarantino's own genre mash-ups look as complicated as a kid combining two colors of play-doh.

Specifically, Hyman plans to use not only music videos and film clips from the samples he originally employed for his Pulp Mixin' CD, but throw in some new ones as well, and then dig up obscure performances from bands included on Tarantino's eclectic soundtracks in order to combine them all into a blitzkrieg mosaic of movie references and music cues. Provisionally titled the James Hyman / Quentin Tarantino Movie Mash-Up, you can check out the trailer after the jump.

Erik Davis' puke-filled Scenes We Hate debut inspired my offering. I'm not a horror or gore connoisseur like my other co-editor, Scott Weinberg, but I can hold my own when it comes to blood and guts. There are a few exceptions ... and one of those is definitely anything to do with eyeballs.

When Elle Driver turned up in an eyepatch in Kill Bill Vol 1, I should have suspected we'd see some eye-oriented gore, but I was left unprepared and downright sick with what happened to her other eye. Actually, it was one of the only times I've heard an entire audience groan and retch along with me -- and it wasn't the plucking (although that was pretty bad), it was the squishing. Once was enough for me. I close my eyes every time she flings it down on the carpet.

Actually, I really do hate this entire fight scene -- it's depraved, disgusting, and unspeakably painful. Squirting limbs and gallons of blood are all well and good, but a can of tobacco spit and a visit to Budd's toliet bowl is just foul. Needless to say, this clip is not for the weak and it's definitely NSFW.

It's been six years ... SIX YEARS since Kill Bill hit theaters, yet we still haven't gotten the Whole Bloody Affair. It was to come in 2007, then in 2008, and now, right on schedule, the rumors are starting up yet again.

In a discussion with the director himself, The Quentin Tarantino Archives learned some interesting things. It seems that ol' QT has been putting a lot of work into the package, mainly that rumored animated sequence. In 2008, Uma Thurman had said that the sequence would be based on another character, and speculation centered on Bill. But considering this statement from Tarantino, "it's this little seven minute sequence, it's really cool, it's in the O-Ren chapter," it looks more like some animated O-Ren love.

However, aside from that, Tarantino said he's been putting the whole movie on hold for a while -- presumably to focus on Inglorious Basterds. Putting the movie on hold seems rather pointless since his extra work on the feature is already completed, and how long fans like me have been waiting to buy the real frakking discs, rather than cheap knock-offs that ignore the integral Kill Bill version. Give the a-okay and release it already!

Tonight, the screens will be full of James McAvoy and his Wanted co-stars bending bullet paths and pulling off funky tricks usually relegated to superheroes. The storyline sounds a lot like The Matrix, but luckily that also means keeping one of the previous flick's best features: a tough-arse female mentor. Tonight, Angelina Jolie will put aside her drama and revel in toughness and assassin death, but she's not the only one to do so.

Before Jolie took on the role of Fox, Uma Thurman rocked as The Bride. Above is my favorite scene from the first volume of Kill Bill -- the insidious whistling hospital scene. Considering all the NSFW elements of the two films, I figured this whistling teaser would be best. (But if you want more violence, watch them fight here.) It's Daryl Hannah at her finest, and Uma Thurman getting a nice bout of shut-eye.

Of course, there are a million different films that somehow tie into Wanted. If you're looking for more mainstream, successful action, you might want to check out Christopher Campbell's list of top critically acclaimed action flicks over at Spout.

The Last Rewind Answer: Believe it or not, while consensus has picked Marlon Brando as the man who wasn't considered for Fear and Loathing, it was actually Dustin Hoffman.

The only thing more annoying than double-dipping DVDs is refraining from buying the first release of a film you really love, and then waiting, waiting, waiting, and more waiting for a better version to come out. Of course, as soon as you finally cave in, eager to see the film again, that's when it will happen. I'm beginning to think that I should just go out and buy the old Kill Bill releases, just to get this whole production up and running.

Last June, it seemed like we were finally getting the Whole Bloody Affair, but November came and went without that super-tasty disc release. Almost a year later, we're getting teased again. In a talk with MTV, Uma Thurman says that Quentin Tarantino's animated stuff is really on the way, and she teased that the long-awaited and desired big DVD release could actually arrive soon.

One anime companion film has been made, and Thurman says: "It has nothing to do with me. It has to do with another character. You'll have to see." This, as MTV points out, probably means an extra helping of Bill himself. But she also says that this short could be part of a larger re-release, sort of Grindhouse style. "Right now he's putting the two films together with an intermission with an added anime sequence he had already written. So additional stories are in there, in animation."

Anime or not, just get us the damned DVD set, QT. I'm sick of waiting! I need my geysers of blood and Elle Driver.

Mermaids don't need cars, which must be the reason that Daryl Hannah is auctioning off her 1983 Chevrolet El Camino. And you can bid for it on eBay! Sure, it's not the same as having a car that appeared in a movie, but you'd still be buying a car that you can say was driven by Pris from Blade Runner. Plus, you can make a copy of that photo of her and the car and tape it to the dashboard. But why else might you want the thing? Well, it runs on biodiesel, which means it's better for the environment than whatever you're driving. Don't know anything about biodiesel? Don't worry: Hannah is throwing in a resource guide and a fueling station that's said to be about the size of a garbage can.

Apparently Hannah has been trying to sell the car for a couple months now, but this is its first time on eBay. According to Ecorazzi.com, it wasn't a matter of not being able to sell the car; rather, she had too many inquiries and couldn't figure out a better way to make a deal than to auction the car off fair and square. You have until Friday evening to attempt to reach the actress' reserve, which must be more than $9,700.00, since that's the current bid as of this writing. So, what do you think? Interested? Then do as Roxanne, I mean Elle Driver, I mean Daryl Hannah says: "woo hoo! kick oil! no war required... 2 see more about bio-diesel + the el camino - ... go 2 dhlovelife.com ... so get up and get off the fossil fuels!!!"

It's about bloody time! If you're like me, you refrained from getting the DVD releases of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 because it was completely inevitable and obvious that something else was coming out. And, it wasn't just the opportunity for a box set (or rather special box set, since a simple one already exists) -- the releases were ridiculously bare-bones -- especially for QT. The first had a brief featurette with some interview clips from major players, some music videos and Quentin Tarantino trailers, and the second had its own featurette and one deleted scene. As much as I wanted to see the films again, I wasn't about to fork over money just to have to spend it again in a few months. Unfortunately, months turned into years, but finally there is a big box set on the way, which Amazon lists as Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

They don't even have a picture up of the cover yet, but nevertheless, there are a number* of things worth noting. First, it will come out in less than five months -- on November 6th, so we know how long we have to wait. Secondly, it should be a hell of a lot better than the previous DVD offerings, and this isn't just the words of hope. There is no list of features or specs yet, but the set includes four discs -- which I assume means two per movie. I think it's safe to say that we should get ready for a crap ton of features. As for the last two tidbits -- it's run-time is listed at 247 minutes (4+ hours long) and that's probably why its rating is NC17. I can only imagine what this extra footage holds! Now if you'll please excuse me, I feel an incredible urge to whistle.

*Edited to add what readers below noticed.

I was fortunate enough to attend a special screening of Smokin' Aces a few months back, and after the movie ended I (and a bunch of other writers) got to sit down and shoot the breeze with writer/director Joe Carnahan. First off, say what you will about the guy, but he sure does know his movies. I've met filmmakers whose eyes got all glassy when I mentioned Walter Hill or Michael Ritchie, but Carnahan can movie-geek with the best of 'em. But when one of the journalists raised the topic of Quentin Tarantino, well, Joe had a lot to say about that.

According to this juicy article at the Sydney Morning Herald, Joe Carnahan will bite your head off if you compare his latest movie to Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction ... but I think this writer may have misrepresented Joey's tone of voice. When we sat down and discussed the exact same things that are covered in that article, Carnahan spoke quite respectfully of QT. He did, however, make it a point to say something like "Hey, Quentin didn't invent guns and hitmen and rapid-fire dialogue, you know!" -- but I never once got the impression that he was knocking Tarantino at all.

Is Smokin' Aces, in your opinion, too reminiscent of Quentin's flicks? Is it unfair to call one filmmaker a copycat of Tarantino if QT spent his entire career copycatting other filmmakers? (Don't get me wrong; I adore Tarantino's movies, but to label his subject matter as "original" is kind of a joke.) Frankly I don't think Carnahan deserves the copycat label, although I can plainly see where the comparisons are coming from. Smokin' Aces actually reminded me more of Running Scared than Pulp Fiction, but if a director wants to do a hard-R, tongue-in-cheek action flick, it seems he's bound to get painted with the Quentin brush. Kinda unfair, if you ask me.