The esteemed comedian and film critic Matthew Blevins(who joined Kyle on the Mad Max series) brings his perspective to the Kill Bill series. Kyle, Seth, and Matthew bring three very different perspectives on what may be Tarantino's best work. We discussed pacing, length, and writing as areas of differing thought among Tarantino fans.

The podcast episode features a compelling dialogue among the hosts, including the guest, comedian and film critic Matthew Blevins. The discussion centers on Quentin Tarantino's renowned cinematic work, the Kill Bill series, with a particular focus on the distinctive elements that characterize this film. From the outset, the hosts express their excitement and anticipation for the conversation, emphasizing their admiration for the intricate layers of storytelling and visual artistry that Tarantino employs. Matthew Blevins, with his background in film critique, adds depth to the discourse by analyzing the thematic and stylistic nuances present in the film, including its homage to various cinematic genres. The hosts engage in a lively debate regarding the pacing of the film, with opinions varying on whether the length enhances or detracts from the overall experience. Ultimately, the episode captures the essence of a passionate film discussion, blending humor and insightful analysis, making it a delightful listen for cinephiles and casual viewers alike.

Takeaways:

• In this episode, we welcomed the esteemed comedian and film critic Matthew Blevins, who provided valuable insights into the Mad Max series.
• We explored the intricate nuances of Tarantino's directing style, particularly highlighting how it evolves from his earlier works to Kill Bill.
• A key discussion centered on the significance of the sound design and soundtrack in enhancing the film's overall atmosphere and emotional impact.
• Matthew emphasized the importance of genre influences in Kill Bill, showcasing how Tarantino weaves various cinematic styles into a cohesive narrative.
• The episode delved into the pacing of the film, with contrasting opinions on whether it effectively maintained viewer engagement throughout.
• We concluded with a reflection on how nostalgia and previous viewing experiences shape our current perceptions of Tarantino's films.

Foreign.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Movie wars podcast.

We're back with my friend Seth in Seth's house.

What's up, y'all?

And we have Matthew Blevins.

Yeah.

Hey, it's about time.

I'm here in studio in the flesh.

In the flesh in person, not just digital.

And, hey, Harrison Ford has joined us.

He might end up on camera.

There's a cat named Harrison Ford that making evil eyes at me.

Oh, no, he's harmless.

You haven't come out in a while, Harrison.

It's been a while, buddy.

He's not gay.

Oh, it's true.

I bet he gets a lot of tail.

We are talking about.

Well, actually, no.

I want to go back to Matthew real quick.

If you listen to the Mad Max, the very first thing I did when I reignited this podcast is I went.

I was like, we're gonna do Mad Max.

And we did it digitally, but we had Matthew doing that.

We just wrapped up with Furiosa.

So, yeah, we gotta.

We gotta come in better with, like, a better movie after leaving our last series with Furiosa.

Yes.

You know, it just like all of the months of time and effort and watching all of those movies and everything, and then you just end the series on Furiosa.

Yes.

I mean, better than ending it on the Crow reboot.

Yeah, that's true.

And then I came in here and we did the Northman, and I had.

I had so much Anya that week I was on you out.

There was no joy in that.

Yeah.

But, yeah, we did that.

And I've been aching to get Matthew in person with Seth and I and Kill Bill.

I talked to you about how him and I were talking about, dude, like, you wanted to be a part of that.

So I'm glad to get this arrangement.

Heck yeah.

Dude.

I haven't gotten.

And I haven't gotten to see Seth in a while, so.

That's exciting, man.

We're gonna.

We're gonna tear this podcast up.

Absolutely.

But as a reminder, for those that haven't met, Matthew, stand up comedian, previous life, professional film critic.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was.

Yeah.

Hell yeah.

Interesting times.

I interviewed Tommy Wizu.

That's my.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Is that how he pronounces it?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Tommy Wisu.

That's how no one else pronounces it.

I get it.

But I've had.

I've had a conversation with him.

He's a literal vampire.

Oh, no, I believe you.

Yeah, I now believe you.

I don't believe the way because everyone else says Wiseau.

And that's what I've always thought it was.

So that's good to know.

They're putting on airs.

Putting on airs.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

That's Hollywood.

Yeah.

Well, good stuff.

So this is going to be great filmmaker.

We do.

If you want to come hang out on our podcast, please, we would love to have you.

Mr.

Wowza.

He was selling underwear at the time, so.

Nice.

Yeah, we might be able to get a sponsorship on that deal here.

Hey, I'll take some new underwear.

It's kind of intimidating though.

The emerald couch.

We got a filmmaker, a film critic, and a complete hack.

Yeah.

That has no business talking about any.

Of it, as we discovered with the Adventures of Tintin.

So fuck that movie.

Fuck you.

We are talking about the Kill Bill series.

We're going to do one episode per volume.

Even though originally they were.

They were looked at coming out together.

That was kind of Tarantino's original plan.

But, you know, really interesting stretch with Tarantino here.

He does a lot of new things with Kill Bill.

He's kind of in a lot of.

Old things and a lot of old things.

He's kind of.

This is an evolution for him in a lot of ways.

Like we're a long way from both Reservoir Dogs and we're a long way from Once Upon a Time.

Yeah.

And Jackie Brown.

So the coming at it from.

I had already loved all the movies, and Jackie Brown was the last one to come into this new kind of.

He hadn't done these genre busting, kind of, you know, trope centric things until Kill Bill.

And now all of a sudden, here's a whole new Tarantino that we hadn't seen before.

And where some people kind of discredit the.

The constant references as a filmmaking style, as someone who went down every rabbit hole presented by the Kill Bill universe and all of the movies that kind of influenced and inspired it.

It's.

It's like that rabbit hole goes deep.

And I have a lot of.

I guess it's.

It's very interesting to me how someone could take that much stuff and make one piece of art out of it.

Yeah.

I mean, it definitely has every single genre of Japanese filmmaking in it.

You have anime, you have.

You have kung fu movies, you have just a lot of the ways that they do their straight dramas a lot.

I noticed a lot of.

Some people might call it copying, some people might call it homage, but a lot of references back to Seven Samurai and Rashomon and a lot of the Kurosawa movies.

Yeah, for sure.

And from the very first splash screen where you get that Shaw Brothers, you know, splash screen in the beginning, that, to me, it was like, okay, I.

I need to find out what that logo is about, because it obviously has history.

There's some context here.

I need to discover this entire world.

Yeah.

Which, you know, you're.

By that time, I might have been familiar with like, the 36 chambers of Shaolin or something like that, but then I went down, like a deep dive of all of those films once I saw that Shaw Brothers logo.

And then you have Gordon Liu coming in as a character in both movies.

Different character in both movies.

His whole filmography, you know, you've got the Chang Che and Lau Kar Leung films of the 60s and 70s from that Shaw Brothers studio.

I don't know.

It was just.

It just opened up whole new passageways of cinema that I hadn't been familiar with before that time.

Yeah.

So as someone who was 10 years old when these movies came out, do you think that Japanese film in general was pretty underrated in the US at that time?

So amongst nerds like me and my friends, it wasn't.

Yeah.

Because we were all anime geeks at the time.

We were.

We had already discovered the films of Kurosawa.

We were already kind of down those rabbit holes.

It kind of led me to some more of the Hong Kong.

Hong Kong cinema that I wasn't familiar with at the time.

But, you know, for us, this was like, holy crap.

Someone has taken all these nerdy influences that we love so dearly, feel so.

Personal, but I feel like to society, like at that point in time, really, a lot of the.

Even just Asian in general, because a lot of the Chinese and Japanese and Korean influences kind of boiled down to, like, Godzilla movies.

Horror started to come into the play a little bit there.

Everything was a Japanese horror.

But I feel like this was one of the first mainstream American films to really bring that Japanese style of filmmaking into the forefront, into the spotlight.

Yeah, yeah.

It.

It was the only thing like it I had ever seen at the time from American cinema.

And.

Yeah, you know, that's.

And a lot of our American filmmakers, like even Scorsese and other directors that we would lump together with.

With Tarantino, like, they obviously, even if at the watching level, as a.

Just a civilian, at the director level, there was obviously an admiration because eventually they would.

There was be a lot of remakes and things like that that would come along, or American films that were strongly based on premises from Japanese films.

So the influence was definitely brewing amongst directors.

Yeah.

Or auteurs.

Yeah.

Because now you've.

You've essentially opened the entire Crayola box of cinema all like.

You look at a piece like Pulp Fiction.

It is heavily influenced by a lot of the French New Wave films of the 60s, things like that.

But no one had taken genre films in such profound way and used it to.

To make like a cinematic masterpiece out of pieces of genres that no one would give a second look.

You've got kung fu movies, you've got spaghetti western movies.

All of these little pieces that, you know, one, a director might get influenced by the spaghetti Western genre for, for instance, and then make Last Man Standing or something like that.

But you.

You never saw quite the.

The collage, I guess, of all of these cinematic influences coming together in such a profound way.

And what's interesting is you could go down rabbit holes on every shot in the Kill Bill movies and open yourself to a new world of genres that you hadn't necessarily known about.

Oh, definitely.

Like the.

The nurse scene, for instance, as she's walking through the hallways with that split screen that harkens back to Mario Bava in the Italian giallo films.

I mean, those.

Those don't necessarily.

You don't think of Italian cinema when you think of Kill Bill, but it is one of the most, I guess, as far as national input versus Japan.

And like the Hong Kong cinema, obviously Italian cinema is a major player in the Kill Bill movies as well.

Well, if you think about it, a lot of the Italian spaghetti Western films that did influence the way Tarantino ended up making movies, a lot of those were inspired by the original Japanese films.

In which Kurosawa himself was then influenced by the American Western genre.

Exactly.

So it's all this.

It's this snake eating its own tail thing.

But to me it's so cool because then what you end up with is like a John Ford who is neither from that Japanese element nor necessarily that the American Western element that existed prior to John Ford.

But now he's defined all of these new genre tropes and then you're seeing those genre tropes play out in Tarantino movies.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's really interesting.

I think he did a really good job because I loved the times where he would put like the Mexican music in.

Out of nowhere, you have, like, a Mexican mariachi song happening.

But he brought, like, that style of filmmaking along with these old, traditional ways of making movies that I do think visually blended incredibly together.

Unfortunately, I think the pacing is absolutely atrocious.

Now, I went into this expecting to love it again, because I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time I watched it, but I've only seen it one time before this.

I came into this ready to love it, and it's a slog to get through it.

I tried to watch the first.

I was gonna watch both parts last night, and I got through part one, and I was so mentally exhausted.

I never thought there would be a movie that would make the Snyder cut feel fast paced.

And this was such a slog to get through of either, in my opinion.

Very needless background.

It.

It definitely plays like a novel, which for me, as a filmmaker, I don't like that.

There's a reason novels and films are two separate mediums.

And.

And the way that he structures this storytelling, there's so much unnecessary lingering in certain shots and unnecessary detail.

Like, you could give all of the backstory for all of those characters, even easily in a third of the time, just because for whatever reason.

And.

And this is also coming from someone who loved the Hateful Eight, despite how slow that movie is, this felt way more of a slog to get through than that even did for me.

I'm laughing because you literally just described every reason I love Tarantino and I love this film.

So well in so many other movies.

And.

And this was just so over the top that I would.

I would be halfway through a scene.

It would take four minutes to get halfway through a scene, and then I'd realize, oh, literally nothing has happened.

They've just been staring at each other, talking about things that don't do anything to further the plot or even get to know the characters better.

Like, it's just.

And.

And.

And normally I don't like to use this way of describing things, especially with Tarantino because he has done such an incredible job at creating his own signature style.

But this, to me, was like, the most overindulgent version of Tarantino.

I think his pacing was very off with this.

I think the storytelling is fine, but it's like it really comes down to the fact that not much happens over this four hour movie.

Yeah.

And most of the things that do happen are very drawn out.

And what I find fascinating is each one of those segments, each one of those character introductions, to me it indicates.

It's like it's an encapsulation of a particular cinematic movement.

Sure.

So you, you, you, you know, you end up with Orenishi and then all of a sudden you've got this whole Lady Snowblood thing that had been unlike anything else in the movie.

And for me, it's.

I don't know what it is, but the, it still has the capacity.

After endless rewatches in like 22 years of watching this movie, I still get goosebumps.

It's got some beautiful moments.

Do not get me wrong, there are some great moments throughout the film, but the fact that when she gets to Bill, there's still an hour left in the movie.

I literally was just like, what the actual fuck is going on right now?

It got to the point where I was fast forwarding the scenes of the two of them talking.

That's the best part.

It just kept losing me.

And in order to be able to like get through the movie, I had to fast forward the parts with her and the daughter I really enjoyed.

But it's just like when, when the last hour of your movie is literally them just sitting there talking.

And it's all philosophy.

None of it again, moves any part of the story on for this.

It just didn't do it for me.

And again, let's like, it's not that I don't like these things in other movies.

I have, like, the before trilogy is a great example of dialog, dense philosophical discussions, and that's all the movie is.

But for whatever reason, it works better in that scenario for me than it did here.

I think a lot of it's because, first of all, it's wrapped up in James Carradine's Persona, I think, I think it's harkening back.

And again, if you don't, if you're not familiar with the meta level of why Carradine being the one delivering so much of that is.

Is interesting.

Yeah, you're right.

You're gonna be, you're gonna lose out on that.

But also, I almost viewed him, like, he was almost Jesus teaching in parables in so much of those.

Like, there was like, yeah, it was philosophy, but almost everything he speaks of is.

He's speaking in parables and lessons and.

All in comic book references as well.

Yeah, it's Kind of.

It's an interesting.

It's.

It's Tarantino writing his own philosophical, you know, Persona into the movie.

It's funny you say that because you have used that exact description to describe why you hate other movies.

Yeah, well, yeah.

When it's done.

Done a different way.

Yeah.

Like massive exposition.

Yeah, yeah, I do.

I do.

I criticize exposition.

Yeah.

It doesn't fade.

All this was.

I know.

I love.

But I dug it for some reason.

I dig it this way.

No, you're right, Seth.

Like calling out my major criticisms.

We had.

We texted last night because he's literally just like, for.

For example, in theory, Kyle should hate these movies because neither one of them stands on their own as movies.

They have to have the other in order to quote it completely.

I quoted James Cameron.

I believe that half heartedly.

Yeah, I did say that, but multiple times.

But it's.

It's two volumes to the.

It's not two movies.

It's, you know.

Oh, no, no, no, I agree with you.

Yeah.

But he had, like, when we were talking about the Snyder series, in theory, all three of those movies are part of one conglomerate story.

And he was over here saying that, oh, none of them are good because they don't stand on their own.

They only set up other movies.

I'm like, well, that's literally all this is.

Now, granted, there's.

Go ahead.

Sorry.

I was gonna say, as someone, as someone who is married and has had to argue things.

It's just whatever you're.

Whatever point I'm trying to make right now, you forget about all the other shit that I said before that we're talking about.

Right.

And what I'm saying right now is I love everything about the philosophical elements of Kill Bill.

Yeah.

I am a facilitator of, of the zeitgeist.

Yeah.

I.

I have a few thoughts of my own, but I'm just out here stirring the pot.

All right.

I just.

That's my job as the producer.

I just stir the pot.

That's my job today.

Yeah, you are.

You are definitely.

No, because, look, I don't.

I don't agree necessarily that movies, especially when they're supposed to be part of a bigger thing, have to stand on their own.

Sure.

I'm just throwing it back in his face because, yeah, he's made fun of several movies like that.

And I'm just like, okay, well, here we go.

You can say what this really is.

You're never gonna forgive me for letting.

Making you watch Wicked Prayer.

No, never, Never.

You're never gonna Let me live that ever.

Any chance I can make you suffer for that?

I will.

Yeah.

Remember, folks, he called them the Deftones.

That's right.

I.

I deserve death.

Death.

Deathtones.

The.

The.

Yeah.

I deserve death by the guillotine.

By the guillotine, not Guillotine.

While the Pixies are playing in the background.

That's right.

Damn it.

That's right.

Damn it.

Fun fact.

Christopher Lee, who played Saruman in Lord of the Rings, witnessed the final use of the guillotine.

Really?

Yeah.

Interesting.

1977.

I think it's about time we bring that thing back.

Yeah.

You know, before we go into the next.

The next thing after the shit on Kyle segment that Seth invented today.

No.

Do you have a bill in your life that needs to be killed?

No, I was just going to say, and we have a category for this, but it is weird and it's interesting.

So I definitely can see your perspective.

But use the word linger.

I actually use that word, but I use it in a positive way.

Yeah.

And to me, that's.

That is Tarantino's biggest gift and skill is forcing you.

Like he did it.

The.

The beginning of Inglourious Bastards is literally you just zoned in on this 10 minute conversation knowing who's living under the boards, who's talking, and you're just living with it, knowing, like.

Yeah, but there's tension there.

There's actual tension there in 90 of that style in this movie.

I don't feel tension really.

I feel a lot of tension in Kill Bill, personally, but.

Dude.

Yeah, I get it.

I.

Even in.

When he did it in Pulp Fiction is really the first time you see it with the wallet scene.

Yeah.

And like just zooming in on it, like just.

You're just forced to face it.

I like how Tarantino does that.

And with each film he gets better and better at it.

I.

I think personally, and I think this is kind of that middle part where he's really coming into his own, forcing you to linger on.

On what's on the screen.

But I.

I dig it, but obviously it didn't do anything for you.

Yeah.

And again, like Django Unchained is my sixth, seventh favorite movie ever made.

I think that is the perfect culmination of the Tarantino style.

Things are long when they need to be.

Things go very quickly when they need to.

But even in this, when, when things start moving quickly again, you're still going through like a 20 minute battle scene.

Yeah.

That at times just feels too much.

Can you believe this?

It has a 20 minute battle scene.

You gu.

That's what I'm saying.

That's like.

You're selling me more.

Yeah, I know, right?

I'm just like.

It's like, in theory it should be great, but it's just like there, it.

It hit a wall for me where it just crossed the line.

Sure.

And.

And there's so much context in history that comes with each fight sequence as well.

Because you're talking about Tori Hanzo and all of the Sonny Chiba movies.

Oh, yeah, you're geeking out on.

Because it's like, there's Sonny Chiba right there, man.

Street Fighter, Sister Street Fighter, Return of Street Fighter.

He's right there, dude.

Gordon Liu from like all of the 36 chamber movies and.

Oh, sure.

You know, it's.

It's just like this film is just drenched in.

In all of those, like honest, cinematic.

All of the forefathers are not only referenced, but brought into the.

Into the project.

Oh, no, I completely get it.

And I have a very healthy respect for Japanese cinema and.

And these artists.

But not to shit on Kyle again, but to throw something back in his face that he has also said, if you have to have all of this history to be able to understand and appreciate a movie, I think you failed.

See, I view this differently, though.

I think the backstories are the story.

Oh, no, no.

I'm talking about history of cinema.

If you have to have a healthy understanding of stylistic influences and references to outside media and this and that and this.

I think you failed as a storyteller.

But there's another way to look at that one too though, is it's like, okay, what am I looking at here?

Where are these influences coming from?

And now it's kind of opened up this entire new world for me to where it's like, I need to understand these influences.

I need to search these out.

Yeah.

I want to have context for the.

For these references.

I want to know, you know, who these actors were in their prime.

And like that and Kill Bill.

I don't know what it was, but for me, as soon as I saw it, it's like, this is all I'm gonna do now.

I'm gonna figure out, like every reference.

I'm gonna figure out where that tracksuit came from.

I'm gonna figure out where that logo came from.

Yeah.

And it's also like there are.

There are movies that channel influence subconsciously.

Like directors, writers are.

They're influenced.

And you can see it not because they're Trying to show it to you, but.

Because that's just how they were raised.

Yeah.

Or that was how they studied.

But Tarantino is purposely using a specific set of.

Of tools and pants, and he's pulling from.

And he is.

He's painting with those brushes here.

And I think that's one of the differences I see is.

Yes.

Like, you can.

You can see influences, and you can see external media and all that, but then we actually have Tarantino here, who's constantly using a very specific toolbox and hues to paint his picture with.

And I think.

I just think that's how he creates, and I think that's how he makes things.

Sure.

I just.

I think he's done it significantly better in most of the other movies.

Later, though.

Later, though?

No, I think Pulp Fiction is a significantly better movie, and it's.

It was my least favorite Tarantino movie.

And now this has become really.

Which.

This was higher up for me until I rewatched it.

I kind of am mad that I rewatched it.

Interesting.

Would have sat higher for me in hindsight, but looking at it now and again, I'm not saying it's bad.

Like.

Like, do not take my criticisms as saying that this is a bad movie.

No.

At him.

At Seth Case comedy.

So just so you know, just track him down, let him know that he's wrong.

I think.

But.

Yeah, the.

But in the scale of Tarantino, I think this is one of his biggest fumbles as the.

As a whole.

Interesting.

We haven't.

We haven't gotten to Death Proof yet, but that's the only.

Yeah, I know.

The only ones of his that I haven't seen, as far as his official nine are concerned, I haven't seen Jackie Brown, I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs, and I haven't seen Death Proof.

Okay, so this is in context of the other seven or six that I have seen.

Now, I'm really curious what you would think if you went and watched Death Proof.

See, that's interesting, because I've.

I've heard vastly more mixed things about that one than I've ever heard about Kill Bill.

Kill Bill is like the less douchey version of loving inglorious bastards.

Like, the people that I know who absolutely swear by Kill Bill, I prefer to be around them than the people who think Inglourious Basterds is the greatest movie ever made.

It's kind of like Fight Club.

Usually those people are just very insufferable to hang out with.

But, yeah, I mean, I know what it was, and I've explained what it was, but yeah, it's just.

It has definitely gone to the bottom of his list.

But it would still be, like, interesting.

A 7 1/2 to 8 out of 10 as far as, like, good movies go.

But in terms of Tarantino, it's bottom run.

You actually just generated a question for me for the questions I didn't have.

And now I have an amazing question.

Okay, but before we get there, are you a disassociated assassin?

Did your master put a baby in you and then try to kill you?

You need this podcast.

You need it more now than ever.

You're in a coma.

And I even think.

I even think at a subconscious level, if someone puts earbuds in your ears and you're hearing Movie wars podcast, you are having the best coma of your life.

Probably it's a coma you want your friends to experience.

Get in on the Movie wars podcast, send it to your friends.

And I know you got a Tarantino fan friend in your life.

I know you do.

We all do.

We all do.

Or maybe you got these fight club people that keep chasing Seth around, you know, I don't know.

What do you think?

I have so many swords.

He has nine swords and a lightsaber.

Yeah.

In fact, we showed up, his door was open, and I was still afraid to come in here.

I was like, what if he beheads me and beheads Matthew on accident?

He's got a wish a motherfucker would.

Living room situation happening now.

Yes.

Yeah.

You don't want to mess around.

Yeah.

Fuck around.

Find out.

Share Movie wars with your friends.

The questions.

The question.

You generated a great question here.

So let's take all the feedback that we all just gave.

Yeah.

Take it.

How much of our feedback is shaped and kind of pressurized by this 10 film quota that Tarantino that nobody else has ever done, has ever said they're going to do?

Scorsese keeps making endless movies, but we know that Tarantino.

So as people that talk about film, that's what we're doing.

How much of a weird pressure does that put on how we form opinions, knowing that he's going to have a limited run and knowing that we're almost to the end, like, does that shape how we interpret his films versus if we came in here talking about Scorsese Coppola?

Not for me.

I really.

I honestly like that he's decided he wants to go out on top instead of keep making movies into the ground.

Francis Ford Coppola, I think, is a solid example of people who probably should stop Trying to make movies now.

Yeah, he should.

I think Marty Scorsese is pretty damn close to that if he's not already there.

Hell, even Spielberg is getting to the point where he should probably just stop because he's had enough misses in with his 10.

10.

No, that one's a solid win.

He should have stopped right there.

Yeah, yeah.

No, no.

Cap, my ass.

Well, so many good.

The other thing is, is, like, how.

How much can you take Tarantino's whole deal at face value?

Because it's like he's.

Oh, 100.

He's been saying stuff since I was a teenager, like, my next movie is going to be Star Trek and it's gonna be badass.

Or it's.

Well, he wrote one.

He wrote one, right.

But it's like Tarantino, every three years is like, holy shit, I never thought that he was going to make that one.

And so here's what we get.

He's already turning into the old man that he didn't want to be, you know, making movies that, you know, he's got to be in his 60s by now.

Something like that.

Something like that.

Late 50s at least, but probably 60s.

I don't know.

I mean, I just, you know, I just, you know.

Sorry, I.

So here's the thing that I have heard him say out loud is he's still going to be involved in the making of films, but he's only doing the 10 written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

He's writing other movies.

He's actually writing and directing a stage play soon.

That's what he.

That's what his next project is, is a stage play.

There's other forms of entertainment he's still going to be involved in.

And I.

I have a feeling he will still direct another movie or two after this, or he'll definitely write a couple more movies.

But it's specifically that credit of written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

He's going to leave it at 10 and call it good.

Yeah.

And I admire it, but it doesn't have any bearing on how I watch his movies, okay?

Because the movies are the movies.

They'll speak for themselves.

If he ever comes out with one that doesn't speak for itself, then I'll have concerns about the career, because to me, he's almost like Andrei Tarkovsky in a way that the guy never had a miss.

Yeah, he never had a miss.

Yeah.

Death Proof comes close to a miss, but that's, you know, I.

I think genre movie.

I think if he'd gone through with what he was saying, his last movie was going to be the Film Critic.

It was going to suck.

Yeah.

I'm so glad he threw that away because I was like, this sounds awful.

I remember that.

Yeah.

Death Proof, like Kurt Russell saves that though.

He saves that movie big time.

And for what it is, for what it's representing too is a fantastic example of a 70s genre movie.

And you're going to have weird pacing issues in 70s genre movies.

That's the way it is.

But yeah, I didn't feel those pacing issues with Kill Bill, honestly, because it, for me every, every sequence was like a kid in a candy store because it's like, oh, now we get the Italian giallo sequence and it has badass music to accompany it.

It's like every piece of it is something that I, I don't know, I geek out all over again.

Yeah.

I don't know.

For me, I just feel like every sequence could have been tightened up by five to 10 minutes.

I think this could have been a really good 2 hour 45 minutes single movie.

I do agree with that.

I think that that first, that's what it was initially supposed to be is like he had talked about having these like a three hour epic.

It's a little too ambitious.

But now two 90 minute movies, now you've got something.

And then he ends up making like 22 hour 15 minutes.

Yeah.

In total it's literally four hours because the first one's an hour 45, the second one's 215.

And yeah, like I said, by the time.

And we're still on the first one, so I'll stick with that and save my criticism of the second one specifically for the second one.

But even by the time we got to the crazy 88s, I was like, there's, there's still so much left.

Like we're still, there's another 45 minutes left to this movie and it just, it got, it got very slow.

Interesting.

Fascinating.

Yeah.

The pace is why I love it.

It's crazy.

I'm like absorbed.

Frenetic to me.

Yeah.

So I, you know, but we come from.

We're old men now.

Yes, we are.

I think that age by children.

Yeah, yeah.

Those two and a half hour run times are an escape.

I mean remember though, you're talking to the guy who is so down to spend 11 and a half hours in one day watching all three Lord of the Rings back.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Like I am no stranger to long movies and I love, for the most part, I love longer paced movies.

A great example recently people completely shat on Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon movies.

But then the director's cuts came out, which was the original way he made the movies significantly better movies.

And weirdly, the pacing is better in those movies because it's longer.

When you watch the shorter versions, a lot feels like it's missing.

This does the opposite for me.

Interesting.

Yeah, Yeah, I think.

I think, actually, I.

It's funny.

I'm gonna answer differently here.

I.

I definitely do think it leaks into my.

How I view these movies, mostly because I do.

I.

I'm admitted.

Tarantino fan.

Love him.

And I think it's like.

It's like innings of baseball.

You know, we're like, getting close to the end, and every time I watch one, I'm thinking we're almost out of these.

It's just like.

And so it puts this weird pressure on how I view it, and I feel like more.

So I'm always stack ranking things.

Right.

Like, within director portfolios.

But here I'm like, I feel this pressure, like, well, I got to rank them more because he's only going to have 10.

It's like, how do they rack up?

You know?

And so I'm actually looking at details more.

And I do think.

I do kind of.

It forces me to, like, really look in places and look in the corners and really assess them in a different way than I would someone else who's.

Who doesn't necessarily have that limitation.

Yeah.

So that's interesting.

Did anyone else think about what their assassin animal name would be?

Because I'm so far removed from the assassin life, but a copperhead, you know?

You know, I'm just like, wow, that's amazing.

Well, he is my spirit animal.

So my.

My assassin animal name would be Seth Rogen.

Yeah.

I was gonna do a pangolin.

Yeah.

The penguin.

Yeah.

I would definitely be a golden retriever.

Yeah, There you go.

Yeah.

I am not built for the assassin life.

I wouldn't make it two seconds in this life.

Although I would be the one to get pregnant, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'd probably be the rhino.

Yeah.

Like, I'm a big boy.

You don't think I can move that fast?

But then I just come at you, and you're like, what the just happened?

Yeah.

Well, I'd get in a codependent relationship with my, like, handler as well.

Yeah.

Start having, like, having babies and have them come sabotage my wedding, all that.

I see me falling into those traps.

I'd be the rhino.

He'd be the bird that, you know, eats the bugs off the rhino's back.

It's a symbiotic relationship.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I was in a band and my lead singer described to me we were drinking at a bar in Michigan after a show, and he described him.

He's like, you know, I would never want to get in a bar fight with you, Kyle.

I was like, why?

Because it's.

I'm a pansy.

Yeah.

Like, I've never been a fight, but I know you can't fight, but you're crazy.

He's like, you'd be the guy to smash a beer bottle on your head and eat the glass and, like, scream.

Come on.

You know.

He's like, you would freak people out.

Sure.

He's like, you're unpredictable.

So that's why I wouldn't fight you in a bar.

There you go.

So whatever that is.

Barfly.

Is that my animal?

Yeah, Barfly.

Yeah.

There we go.

Barfly.

AKA all right.

Rando.

Rando.

Hey, that was good.

Oh, yeah.

He's had some practice.

Hell, yeah.

He's brought the randos on occasion.

He was.

He was floored by my first rando.

Yeah.

When I took over for an episode, I was.

They had to pick me up.

Really.

Off the floor.

Yeah.

But it's just the chesty nature of it.

It was so good.

Like a good, chesty rando.

That's why I hang out downtown.

That's right.

That baseball that Uma slices in half.

That was real.

They actually sliced that baseball in half.

Nice.

Yeah, it's.

It says here I'm trying to figure out who.

Oh, it was her stunt double who cut it in half.

That makes.

Oh, Zoe Bell.

Yep, Zoe Bell.

Right here.

Nice.

Zoe Bell.

Cut it in half and did it on the first try.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's fantastic.

That's pretty cool.

Those.

Those are the stories you love hearing where it's like some.

Some big stunt.

They're like, we really only got, like, two or three of these, and they just nail it.

First take.

Yes.

And it pisses me off, too, because you guys know how much I love commentaries.

There were no commentaries for either of these, so I had to, like.

Does he do commentaries?

I don't know.

It would be awful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You have to do cocaine prior to listening to the commentary just to be able to.

I don't know if he does it, but it would make a lot more sense if he.

If you did.

Listening to him, it's weird because he.

Says that he only makes movies that he wants to watch.

That's like, his rule.

Like, he makes movies and he.

He watches his movies over and over again.

Yeah, he thought, I just watched an interview with him.

He's like, I love watching my movies.

Like, well, maybe just turn on the microphone for one of them.

Yeah, well, he literally.

He'll do screenings of the.

The whole bloody cut of.

Of Kill Bill.

Yeah.

At his theater in la.

Like, he'll bring.

He'll.

I think it's.

I think it's like a 50, 60 person theater.

And he'll have little events where people come and watch it with him and then he'll do Q&As.

Yeah.

So which, which, which cuts of the first movie did you guys watch leading up to this?

I didn't know there were multiple cuts other than the whole bloody cut, which isn't available anywhere to purchase as far as streaming is concerned.

Right.

No, I have an old DVD copy and there are a few differences.

Like the anime sequence is slightly longer.

The Crazy 88 fight sequence in the House of Blue Leaves is in full color through the whole thing.

And.

Oh, instead of switching to black and white.

Switching to black and white.

That was a choice in that scene that I was like, why?

Why are we doing.

Yeah, well, and it was deliberate.

It was because of ratings.

They were trying to avoid that.

Okay.

So okay for me is if you've got to make conceits, it's not a bad one.

No, it just.

But that makes sense now.

That makes sense.

Knowing that.

Yeah.

So in the scene where own.

Am I going to say this right?

O Renishi.

O.

Yeah.

Oen Ishii in the part where they're fighting.

Right.

Yeah.

So the quote that she says, she says, I hope if you.

If you haven't saved your energy, you're not.

You may not last five minutes.

From the time she says that until her scalp gets cut off is exactly 4 minutes and 59 seconds.

Oh, that's really cool.

Okay, nice.

So actually she didn't need five minutes.

It's incredible.

That's such a stupid small thing.

But no, I love when like that happens.

Yeah, that's.

That's cool.

Yeah.

And I even brought a picture for this one, the airplane ticket.

You don't know her name in the first one, Right?

But her name is clearly printed on the ticket.

You see, Beatrix Kiddo.

You have to really look and it's really fast.

But her name is actually shown that early in the film.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

But you know, but she's referred to as a bride, so.

Sure.

Hmm.

That is another thing.

I didn't like how he bleeped out her name in the first one, just like, why.

Again, it's like this does.

This doesn't add anything.

People clearly know her name.

It's not like no one knows her name.

So why are we bleeping it out just for you to actually tell us in the next one?

I had a heated debate with my friends when I was 23 when we came out of the theater about this very subject.

And my conclusion is it's because Tarantino is just a fucking nerd.

That's.

It's just a nerdy thing to do.

It's.

It's a.

It's a little genre piece that you might find.

I'm not sure if there's a direct reference to bleeping out someone's name like that, but if you think about, like, the man with no Name, Westerns and those sort of things where it's not actually spoken, and then, you know, what would you do if it was actually spoken and you wanted to conceal that identity still?

You bleep it.

I guess it's kind of a neat little dorky thing to do, I guess.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Again, just one of those things.

It was like, this doesn't make sense.

It felt contrived.

Yeah, it definitely was.

But, you know, I think it would.

Have been more interesting if they had just used her code name.

Right?

Just Black Mamba.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, if all the assassins only know her by Black Mamba, and then Bill's the only one who knows her as Beatrix, I think that would have been cooler.

Beatrix is a weird name.

Is it?

Is that a real name?

Yeah.

Beatrix Potter.

I know.

Beatrice.

No, with an X.

With an X, yes.

Beatrix Potter.

Beatrice.

Peter Rabbit and all that.

Beatrice is someone who churns butter.

Beatrix is someone that.

That wears leather and whips people.

Sure.

Right.

Am I thinking about that?

Right.

You want to remember?

Well, the.

The suffix tricks actually means woman.

So if you're an AVA Tour, you're a man pilot.

If you're an AVA tricks, you're a female pilot.

Wow, that's.

Yeah, that's.

The actual word for female pilot is aviation.

You're some kind of cunning linguist, this guy, in his linguistics.

Am I right?

Holy.

What side of the mountain did you grow up?

What was some kind of tricks, like.

Having college degree or something?

I got one too, but it was in Arkansas.

The.

The number one thing that people do in my school I graduated is like, ffa.

Like, they become farmers.

This is interesting.

The only member of the assassin crew that dies by the sword is O Ren Everyone else does not get slain by this amazing sword.

Oh, yeah, no, that makes sense.

Five finger palm for Bill.

Ls eye plucked out and she runs into like.

So she forced him out of retirement, forced him to spend a month making this thing.

And then she only uses it once.

That's just.

I think she kills the 88 with it.

Right, though.

But not really because she's just chopping off limbs, making them go home with their limbs.

I don't know if she actually.

Well, no, a lot of them are dead.

A lot of them are dead because.

Yeah.

I noticed in that scene, like, only about half of them are crawling out.

And Gogo Yubari was killed with a wood, like a wooden thing, so.

Yeah.

Huh.

Yeah, it is kind of interesting.

Maybe.

Maybe I missed it because I was bored.

Did.

I thought he just gave her a sword.

I didn't think he made her.

No, he made one.

You must have been bored, because that's my favorite part, actually.

I'm gonna go spend a month.

You can hang out in my creepy attic for a month and just train, I guess.

Yeah, I missed that.

Yeah.

He told her to practice and he makes her one beautiful sword.

Yeah.

Oh.

So actually, Uma Thurman got really hurt on the set of this film.

That's not surprising.

Yeah.

And it actually was for a driving scene.

The crew actually came out and said it would be unsafe for her to drive this car.

And Tarantino did not want to do it with cgi, but some of the crew disagreed.

Ended up wrecking the car, and she hurt her knee and her wrist and got really jacked up.

Yeah.

And apparently they didn't work together for a while after that.

Yeah.

Yeah, she.

She wouldn't.

They weren't on speaking terms.

I guess he had.

He had to apologize to her publicly, apparently, for that.

So, anyway, those are the randos.

Did she ever work with him again?

I don't think she's been in anything else that he's done since.

Yeah, I guess not, because she was.

In Pulp Fiction and then this, and then that's it.

She also has not done a lot in general.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure she's done stuff.

Just nothing like crazy.

Like, I know her daughter is kind of jumping into the limelight now, which I think is cool.

But it's also.

She's the one who was saying that it's absurd that you have to have X number of followers in order to get cast, even when you're, like, stupidly famous now.

Brolin was just talking about that, too.

And her dad.

Yeah.

Oh, really?

Oh, yeah.

She's Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawkes.

I didn't know that.

What a power couple, right?

Those Thurman girls, they really can pick them.

Well, that's why when Tarantino has tossed around the idea of a Kill Bill three, Maya Hawk would play the.

The daughter.

Yeah.

I did not know they were married.

Uma's one of my favorite actresses of all time.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty sure they're divorced, but.

Oh, yeah, that destroys the whole thing.

Poor Maya.

Yeah.

She needs Kill Bill 3.

Yeah, it's not happening for her.

Psych.

Tarantino is very much said it's not happening.

I love it, but I don't need a third.

I'll believe it when I don't see it.

I'll believe it when he's dead.

That's right.

Shall we kill Bill?

Let's do it.

Shall we get a fancy sword and only kill one of the categories?

Yeah, if.

Can we spend a month making it?

Yeah.

I spend months trying to make a point, so.

Yeah.

Yeah, Get a whole ass sword at the end of it.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, there we go.

Hanging on.

Hell yeah.

Let's war.

Top Bill cast.

Top Kill Bill cast.

Oh, I'm going home.

Are you not gonna.

Yeah, I can't do puns.

I'm rattled.

I'm still rattled from you getting on my ass earlier.

Barely know, yo.

What?

Yeah, we're gonna.

We're gonna give the crew a break from the barely knower categories.

And there are, you know, and there are no errors, Er, good, er, endings.

But I'm sorry, er, endings.

What?

I'm missing something here.

It's.

It's.

It's Movie wars tradition that if something ends in, like, our, like, you know.

What was a good example?

Barely Knower.

It's just Tarantino.

It's just us being seven years old.

This goes.

This is a tradition that goes back five years.

All right.

What's the one we did for the Northman?

Oh, Berserker.

Yeah.

Apparently nowhere, because I originally had just picked Berserker and I was like, like, barely know.

It was just subconscious.

But yes.

Positive.

Affirmative.

Affirmative.

That really was a Hanzo sword.

Or you can just say Hansa sword, but that's where it comes from.

And then if it's negative.

Nay, my favorite quote from the first movie.

You don't have a future.

I love that.

I literally stood up when she saw.

Here we go.

Top Kill Bill Cast.

Our top build.

Uma Thurman, David Carradine, and Daryl Hannah.

Who did Daryl Hannah play?

Daryl Hannah?

El Driver.

Oh, yeah.

Yep.

Her name is Daryl.

Yeah.

Her name is Daryl.

Yeah.

I did not know that was a gender neutral name.

D A R Y, L.

Is it Daryl?

No, it's Daryl.

Daryl.

It's Daryl Dale Hannah.

I know she looked like somebody else and I remember looking up.

I don't know that, but I had seen her.

I feel like I'd seen her in something else.

There's a lot of actors in this I felt like I'd seen in other places.

And then I looked through their IMDb and it was like, nope, I really haven't seen you anywhere other than this movie.

Movie.

I.

I give it a Hanzo sword.

I think everyone brought their.

Their A game to this and did their absolute best.

Yeah, definitely a Hanzo sword.

And it not only you reassess the entire, like David Carradine, like you look back at Kung Fu with a whole new eyes because it's like, this guy's amazing.

Yeah.

He's cool.

It's.

And then, you know, Daryl Hannah, I think she does her best work in the second movie, but is.

Is great in this one too.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

I.

I think even as far as Uma Thurman's concerned, the second one does get a better performance out of her, but this was quite good.

Yeah.

As far as Uma Therma is concerned, it's like that's a.

That's a career defining role.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was a Hanzo sword like this.

Uma creates such a aura and she does this in Pulp Fiction too.

I don't.

I don't know how to describe it other than like she's.

She generates an energy around her, like a mystery, a sexiness or whatever you want to call it.

But there's just like you're watching her like in this role and she's kicking ass, but she still has this like, mysterious vibe around her.

No, she was really good in Les Mis, actually with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush.

Pretty sure she was Fantine killed.

It just did an incredible job, really.

So now she.

It's.

It's sad to see that after this, her career kind of really slowed down because she was like a powerhouse actress of the 90s.

Yeah.

And it's not just the moments where she's kicking ass that are cool to me.

It's those little subtle human moments that the character has that kind of make the movie for me.

You know, it's like that.

I'm trying to think of the specific example, like at the.

At The House of Blue Leaves, for example, where it's like Lucy Liu is asking, do you really think it was going to be that easy?

And she's like, you know, for a minute, it's like a human moment.

It's like real.

It plays real.

I kind of thought it would be.

Yeah, I got that.

When she's talking to Hanzo.

And her playfulness at the beginning of that conversation is so good, actually.

Both of them.

Right.

The playful discourse and the moment she starts really speaking Japanese, she almost shifts.

She goes into third gear.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And she plays both of those parts perfectly.

Like.

Like she plays an American tourist in Japan really well.

But knowing that we're all in on the fact that she's not letting everything be known in this moment, she's playing that really well.

Yes.

All right, so we got a Hanzo sword so far.

Beautiful.

Yeah, that performance is just killer, dude.

Supporting Bill Kill Bill cast.

Yeah.

We have Lucy Liu as O Ren Ishii.

Someone I don't think gets a lot of credit because she's not in it a lot.

But Vivica A Fox is Vernita Green.

How did she end up?

She got above she.

She was up there in the page.

The pay scale for this movie, by the way, to be top three.

Michael Madsen is Bud.

He's the one.

I feel like I've seen other places and can't put place him.

Oh, he's a Tarantino regular.

He's like a.

Well, I mean, Tarantino.

I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy.

He's.

I haven't seen Free Willy the dad in Free Will, which is the most.

It's the most out of type character of anyone ever.

Yep.

Wholesome family dad.

He's everywhere, dude.

He in the 90s, he was in all kinds, I think.

I mean, yeah, I looked through his IMDb.

I could not find a single thing that I'm like, I definitely recognize him from this.

Things I've seen that I was like, ah, maybe.

But like, I don't know.

You may agree with this because you're more familiar with this work, but like, doesn't it feel like in the 90s, like if we need a guy with greased hair.

He'S gonna be your guy.

Yeah, he might cut an ear off.

You never know.

Yes, he's willing to do that.

Julie Brandon Lee.

Yes.

Oh my God.

Julie Dreyfus is Sophie Fatale.

And I'm trying to see if there's so many great ones.

Satori Hans and I, unfortunately, I don't want to butcher These.

These names, but Sinichi Chiba.

Oh, Sunny Chiba.

As.

As you're the Asian one, so.

I know, but I'm Filipino.

We're weird.

We eat earthworms.

There's so many good ones.

I.

I can't go all the way down this list, but there are just so many great Japanese actors here too.

And I want to make sure they get credit.

We'll just.

Yeah, yeah.

Even.

Even the entire country of Japan.

All of you, thank you.

Go Go Yubari.

Just of this little off side character.

Right.

Tarantino saw her in Battle Royale and became just infatuated with her as this character actress and put her in Kill Bill as a result of that.

Nice.

Yeah.

Everybody in this movie has like profound cinematic history.

Like they're involved in some way that's really neat from a nerdy perspective.

So I've got to go full Hanzo on that.

That's.

I mean, Gordon Liu and Sunny Chiba.

Yeah, yeah, no, I go full Hanzo.

Like there again, everyone.

Everyone brought their A game to this.

So I, I, Yeah, they did a really good job.

Everyone's memorable.

Even.

Even when they blend in, they're still very memorable.

Like, you still find moments where every single person stands out, even if they're just down to being an extra or.

Gordon Liu or Michael Parks playing two characters each.

And both characters that they play are equally fascinating.

Parks is awesome in this movie.

Yes.

He's such a Elpa.

I mean, I spent a lot of time in El Paso as a kid.

He just totally spoke to me.

Like just walking out of the desert with his hat on.

Gravy Marie.

So good.

Yeah.

It's a Hanzo sword, man.

And my favorite is.

Are the scenes with Hanzo.

Like, my favorite scene is it's funny that I know you didn't like the pace and that was.

Sorry.

Hard.

I love that part of the movie.

I don't know why I think it was the dialogue between Uma and between Sunny.

I just thought it was such a.

And the revelation that he is Hanzo and they're.

The dialogue and the way it kind of.

For some reason, it just really spoke to me.

And that's all on Sonny, man.

His acting was just.

He just knocked it out of the park.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Definitely a Hanzo sword.

It is two to zero writing Mr.

Quentin Tarantino.

I'm gonna have to give it a bitch.

Has no future.

I.

Yep.

And for me, I'm not gonna say it's bad.

I'm gonna say this is I have this thing.

It's either a squeak over or squeak under.

This would be like a 4.9 on the scale of 10.

As far as just it.

It just.

This is, in my opinion, of the six of his movies I've seen, this is his weakest script.

It has a lot of good moments surrounded by a lot of nothing for me.

So it's gonna be a bitch.

No future for me.

Oh, man, can I do two hanzos to overcome Seth's fat?

That's not how this works.

You can try.

Dammit.

It's my house, God damn it.

Yeah, I definitely go full hanzo on this one, just primarily because I was already deeply into the cinematic worlds.

And like I said, there was cinema before Kill Bill came out and then there was just cinema after.

Much in the way that Pulp Fiction was in the 90s.

It was like there was all the movies that.

That tried to emulate what Pulp Fiction was doing in the 90s.

And I feel like Kill Bill had a similar effect in that early aughts cinema where it's like we're going to do everything is going to be this genre busting thing.

And it's, you know, which is really interesting if you do it at a level that Tarantino is able to do it.

And also to be able to take all of those cinematic references that are, by all intents and purposes, it's all throwaway cinema.

It's all like garbage genre cinema.

But to be able to take that ember and blow on it and create a fire out of it.

I don't know.

There's just something.

I feel like that all relates more to directing than writing, though.