Monday, April 12, 2004

Tarantino's Star Wars

Quentin Tarantino doesn't just do his best thinking out loud, he does all his thinking out loud. And he thinks twice as much when someone has a camera trained on him. So here's hoping his recent comments about making a third installment of Kill Bill dissipate in a haze of marijuana smoke.

I don't often get angry after seeing a movie, but Kill Bill Volume I got me fuming. What an easy, lazy film to make. Tarantino's ability to play with character - a talent that requires discipline and restraint - was forfeited when Mirimax gave him a blank cheque to indulge in visual spectacle. Now Tarantino is making his own Star Wars movies, and receiving the sort of media treatment that prods a begrudging public into theatre seats ("I wasn't going to go, but then I saw the commercial, and it looked, well, kinda cool...").

If it helps anyone reading this, I'll confess I'm tempted to see volume II. I think Michael Madsen is capable of saving almost any movie: witness Thelma & Louise, or Free Willy. But I once thought that of Uma Thurman - and Quentin Tarantino for that matter - and Kill Bill I gave us three hours of proof that it ain't necessarily so. So be strong. If we, who were conned into seeing the first installment, can just stay home for the next three hours, perhaps Tarantino will be dissuaded from adding another six to the mix.

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