Kill Bill: Volume 1 UMD-Video For The PSP Review

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Title: Kill Bill: Volume 1

Region: One

Genre: Revenge Action Exploitation Flick

Stars: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chak Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, and Michael Parks

Writer: Quentin Tarantino

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Feature length: 111 minutes

Extras: Making Of Featurette, Bonus Music Performances By “The 5, 6, 7, 8’S”

Languages: English Stereo Sound

Subtitles: English Captions

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 19

Sound: Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2003/UMD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Miramax Films

Home Video Distributor: Miramax Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

After the mega success of “Pulp Fiction,” I think Writer and Director Quentin Tarantino suffered from a lot of overexposure. In addition to producing several films, three of his screenplays were already adapted into feature films shortly before and after “Pulp Fiction” hit and he seemed to be everywhere on both the big and small screens too. Then after “Jackie Brown” was released he suffered a sort of backlash from the fan base he built up from “Pulp Fiction” three years earlier. I think there were many who were expecting another “Pulp Fiction” and were disappointed by his third feature. I also think this was nearly inevitable. The expectations were simply too high, but I also think given some time to pass “Jackie Brown” has garnered a larger audience and plays much better now than it did back in 1997. I think the wisest thing Tarantino ever did was to take a break because regardless of what he was doing with his time, in 2003 people were ready and curious to see what his next film would be.

After I watched “Kill Bill: Volume 1” I thought to myself this is probably closer to what people were expecting to follow “Pulp Fiction” back in the 1990s, but I also think if he made “Kill Bill” then somehow and in someway it would not have gone over well in part because of the cartoon like violence and in part to the possibility that people would have labeled him as a genre filmmaker that only makes a certain type of film and despite following his love for 70s exploitation cinema, I would guess and hope Tarantino would eventually want to branch out more. So in my humble opinion the time was right to release “Kill Bill: Volume 1” in the fall of 2003. I think I’ll always prefer “Reservoir Dogs” over the other films he has made so far, but I really enjoyed “Kill Bill: Volume 1” a lot more than I expected to. To put it simply, “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is fun. The film opens on action and never slows down too much to take itself too seriously.

To paraphrase what Tarantino states in the EPK like featurette included on the UMD entitled “The Making Of Kill Bill: Volume 1," he took what he liked about all his favorite 70s films and presented them as how he would like to see them in a manner not unlike George Lucas and Steven Spielberg finding inspiration in late 30s and 1940s serials to create “Raiders Of The Lost Ark.” While both films could not possibly be more different, on a basic level, I think Tarantino is right. I also liked the way he added little extras for his fans to expand the universe in which his stories take place like having Michael Parks and James Parks reprise their roles as Earl and Ed McGraw as seen in “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money” respectively. For fans this gives “Kill Bill: Volume 1” a sense of time in terms of when the story takes place.

Four and a half years after she was left in a coma following a massacre on her wedding day that left all she loved dead, The Bride (Thurman) returns seeking revenge upon all who wronged her while working her way up to the main guy, Bill (Carradine). The choreography of the fighting is terrific and if there is any one thing I wish were different, it is that the last big battle between The Bride and the Crazy 88s were presented in color as they were shot since one can recognize the black and white scenes from the original full color teaser trailer. My guess is that the scenes were changed to black and white perhaps to make the chopping of limbs and spurting of blood seem even more removed from reality so as not to disgust an audience while also maintaining an R rating from the MPAA. Please note that this was a guess on my part and for all I know the black and white tinting of the fight sequence may have been intentional from the very beginning.

Miramax Home Entertainment’s “Kill Bill: Volume 1” UMD edition also features some additional performances by “The 5, 6, 7, 8’S." The film is presented with a letterboxed (2.35:1) aspect ratio, which is sharp, but I think considering we have a 16 by 9 display on the PSP, presenting a film letterboxed is almost as bad as presenting it modified to fit a (1.78:1) aspect ratio. There's also an aggressive English Stereo Soundtrack and optional English Captions for the hearing impaired. The UMD menus feature animated transitions as well as motion scene selections and all are easy to navigate. “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is available on UMD-Video now for the PSP at retailers on and offline courtesy of Miramax Home Entertainment.

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