STUDIO: Buena Vista
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2008
STARRING: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Michael Parks, and David Carradine
WRITTEN BY: Quentin Tarantino
DIRECTED BY: Quentin Tarantino
FEATURES: The Making of Kill Bill Volume One
The "5,6,7,8's" Bonus Musical Performances
Tarantino Trailers
The Making of Kill Bill Volume Two
"Damoe" Deleted Scene
"Chingon" Musical Performance

I loved the Kill Bill movies when they were first released in 2003 and 2004 but I hadn't seen them in the years since I saw them on the big screen. It's not because I didn't want to revisit the story of The Bride. No, I was waiting to pick up the Kill Bills for what we all assumed was the inevitable DVD release of the "complete saga" put back together. The films were initially conceived as one movie and Quentin Tarantino himself has even suggested that he would re-edit the two movies back into one in a lavish DVD set. It's even been on schedules before only to be delayed and canceled. What better opportunity to truly present the Kill Bill saga than with the debut of the films on Blu-Ray, right? Wrong. There are must-own, gorgeous special editions of Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Reservoir Dogs, but Kill Bill remains the most mistreated of Tarantino's masterpieces. It's not just that the two volumes of Kill Bill haven't been re-edited back into one film, but there has been no commentary and very few featurettes. The special features on both films aren't just lacking. They're pathetic. With special features this weak, it's saying something that the following is true - every Blu-Ray owner should buy the two-pack of Kill Bill. It's clearly going to be a while until we get a more special edition and the films themselves and the unbelievably gorgeous transfers make these a must-buy until then.

In the Kill Bill films, Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, a woman who took a bullet to the head on her wedding day. She was left for dead by the man she loved and the first film, which is more of an action film than the more dramatic tone of the second volume, features The Bride's search for vengeance against the deadly assassins who betrayed her. The second film features, of course, The Bride's final encounter with Bill, a brilliant David Carradine. Kill Bill features dozens of nods to Asian cinema, '70s action films, exploitation movies, and much more. It's really the warm-up to the Grindhouse movies that QT would make with Robert Rodriguez but without as much tongue in cheek.

Great movies don't age. They change. I can watch Hitchcock and Scorsese's masterpieces and get something different every time, either catching things I didn't the first time or just interpreting them differently based on where I am in my life. Watching both Kill Bills again this weekend was a similar experience. The films haven't just "held up". They're even better than you remember. Uma Thurman's completely fearless and stunning performance is quite simply one of the best of the decade and Tarantino's never been as visually confident as he was in the Kill Bill films. Robert Richardson's cinematography is gorgeous and Sally Menke's editing of both films should be used in film classes.

What's most remarkable about the Blu-Ray releases of Kill Bill, besides the quality of the saga itself, is that the films look absolutely stunning. The 1080p high-definition picture ranks among the top video transfers that have yet been released on the market. If not for Dreamworks' mind-blowing transfer of Transformers a few weeks back, I might go as far as to say Kill Bill is the best video transfer on the market. It's close. Tarantino's visual palette is vibrant and stunning in Kill Bill and the high-resolution audio perfectly matches it. The Kill Bill movies are sensory experiences and they've never looked or sounded as good as they do on Blu-Ray. The special features are the exact same paltry lot that was available on standard DVD and that's clearly a disappointment, but these are two of the best looking movies yet released on Blu-Ray. If you're still on the fence, keep in mind that the studio is currently offering a $10 rebate per movie if you upgrade from the standard to the Blu-Ray version. So, if you already own both volumes of Kill Bill, you can upgrade to Blu-Ray for $20 off. They may not have provided what they should have with the special features, but the video and audio make these worth the upgrade and, until we finally get the special edition that The Bride deserves, the Blu-Ray versions of Kill Bill will get the job done nicely.