A very different beast

Watching Kill Bill 2, you're struck with the realisation that Quentin Tarantino knew he was making two films all along. It's almost impossible to conceive the two running as one super-long uber-violent revenge-fest, such are the differences in tone, style, characterisation and plot.

This leaves the reviewer in a quandary. Comparing it directly with Volume 1 isn't helpful- the unrelenting violence, huge fight set-pieces, kung-fu homage and minimal dialogue is all done away with in this second installment. It owes much more to the spaghetti western, and the hot dust-bowls of Texas than it does to the clean minimalism of October's offering. So you have to try and look at it with a clean-ish slate - while reminding yourself of the story so far.

Uma Thurman's The Bride has already despatched with two of her would-be assassins and now is on the tail of, respectively, Michael Madsen's Budd, Daryl Hannah's quite fantastically evil Elle Driver and the man himself, David Carradine's Bill.

The film gets off to a slow, stoner start, with an unnecessarily long set-piece showing Budd's fall from DIVAS member to alcoholic club bouncer. It's not until the angular, lanky form of The Bride appears - and, we also finally discover her true name - that the film kicks into gear.

A horrific, excruciating live burial scene segues into flashback, revealing more about her relationship with Bill and how she acquired her incredible fighting skills. This segment, with the excellent Gordon Liu playing the masterful, camply beard-flicking Pai Mei is a delight and a welcome respite from the downbeat redneck tone of the Budd sequence and the truth about the Bride's wedding murders.

Daryl Hannah's appearance is all too short - her revival should rightly kick in after this demonic performance as Elle Driver - but her much-touted catfight with The Bride is pure Tarantino: both horrifically destructive and hilarious at the same time and worth the price of the admission ticket alone.

Finally, after yet another slow-paced, slightly dull sequence, we arrive at Bill, and the culmination of four hours devoted watching. There, the film's denouement occurs, but not as we would have expected. Some have complained about the relative calmness of the final combat, but it ends the dizzying 'rampage of revenge' in quite a mature, realistic fashion.

Kill Bill 2 isn't quite vintage Tarantino: some of the dialogue - and there's plenty of it - is rather ropey, and there are - dare we say it - actual moments of boredom.

The unrelenting suffering of The Bride has you wincing and squirming all the way through, but anyone expecting the incredible, precipitous fight scenes of Volume 1 will feel shortchanged.

But that's not to say Volume 2 is a disappointment: it's merely different, save for the glorious, emotionally raw, physically tough presence of The Bride.

Kill Bill Volume 2
Cert: 18