Cube 2: Hypercube (2002)

Nowadays, everything gets a sequel. If a movie doesn't have a sequel, something's wrong with it. Case in example: Cube. A low-budget movie from Canada that received much critical acclaim, it was only time before a sequel was made. And as of this writing, a third one is in production. See? Sequels and trilogies really are taking over Hollywood, even the "direct-to-video independent movie" market. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. I have a review to do.

The movie's plot is similar to the first Cube, yet with a few twists. Our story revolves around seven strangers: Kate Filmore (Kary Manchett), detective Simon Grady (Geraint Wyn Davies), blind college student Sasha (Grace Lynn Kung), Jerry Whitehall (Neil Crone), video game designer/computer hacker Max Reisler (Matthew Ferguson), the senile Mrs. Pasley (Barbara Gordon), and Julia (Lindsey Connell). The seven find themselves trapped in a futuristic "hypercube," where the rules of time and space have absolutely zero relevance. We soon see various alternate realities and timelines within the hypercube begin to overlap, and those realities and timelines quickly begin to collapse atop one another as the group tries to find their way out.

I loved the original film, and I was quick to watch the sequel when I saw it air on the Sci-Fi Channel. Predictably, Cube 2 borrowed some from the original. But that's unavoidable, because what else can you do in a setting like this? While I do appreciate the sequel for trying to further the story behind the existence of the cubes and trying not to give the viewer the same thing, the movie is still a mixed bag. On the downside, the need to explain the origin behind the cubes dented the original's ambiguity. Another faux pas was the lack of unpredictable and random booby traps that gave the original its excitement. The sequel only had one really fake-looking CGI shredder. Cube 2 also spent way too much time talking and not enough time being exciting. I don't always have a problem with that, but the dialogue was just so horrible. It made the actors look bad and the characters look worse. I also disliked the bright lighting and each room's white walls. In the original, the varying colors of the walls added to the mood of each scene. But here, it's harder to get an emotional grip for things, and it's tougher to connect with how the characters feel.

On a positive note, the concept behind the movie is neat. It gave the filmmakers carte blanche to mess with our heads and make the movie as weird and psychedelic as possible, and they tried. Norman Orenstein's techno-esque score can be chalked up in the "thumbs-up" column as well. I also thought that hiring Andrzej Sekula as both director and director of photography was a good idea. His background in cinematography (you might have seen his name attached to such movies as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and American Psycho) really helped the movie. The idea of timelines and alternate realities overlapping was a great way for creepy sound effects to work their way into the movie too. Had the rooms been a bit darker (see also: my beef with the wall color), it would have almost been like a haunted house.

In the acting category, I really liked Geraint Wyn Davies as Simon. Even though Simon is built as the villain over the course of the movie, he ended up being the only likable character in the movie. I thought Simon's growing collection of watches and nametags near the end of the movie was a neat twist, but that's just me. The rest of the cast was okay with the horrible script, but I absolutely hated the character of Mrs. Paley. I just wanted to reach through my TV screen and smack her around. Mrs. Paley is probably the single worst character I've ever seen in any movie ever, quite possibly worse than Heather Donahue in The Blair Witch Project. She's that awful.

There's just so much you can do with the concept of people trapped in a maze of cubes, and Cube 2 at least made an attempt. Unfortunately, it tried too hard with too little, and it ultimately came off as being a Sci-Fi Channel Original with a bigger budget (which is odd, considering I first saw it on the Sci-Fi Channel). A lot of the mystery and tension from the original were gone, and the dialogue is crap, but the trippy audio experience and the neat idea behind a "hypercube," as well as having a lunatic you can cheer for, boosts my rating a little. Overall, I'll give Cube 2: Hypercube two stars. Not awful, but nothing that you should beat yourself up over if you miss it.

Final Rating: **

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Way back in 1991, a video store clerk from California wrote and directed his first movie. The movie was the talk of the Sundance Film Festival, it became a cult classic after its 1992 theatrical release, and it made its director one of the hottest underground filmmakers in Hollywood. That director is Quentin Tarantino, and that movie is Reservoir Dogs.

The movie opens on a nondescript diner, with our main characters finishing breakfast and discussing pop music. One analyzes Madonna's "Like A Virgin," claiming that it was all about a sexual veteran who hooks up with a well-endowed man. Another, totally oblivious to the conversation at hand, flips through an old address book trying to put a face to one of the names inside. This quick opening scene introduces us to our cast, then leads into the story itself. Through a series of flashbacks, we get to know Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), and Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino).

The six total strangers have been hired by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son "Nice Guy Eddie" (Chris Penn) to steal a shipment of diamonds from a local jewelry store. Each have been given their odd codenames with the intention of nobody knowing anyone else's real identity. That way, if any of the thieves are arrested, they'll be unable to implicate their accomplices.

The flashbacks help to fill in the gaps in the main story. From the dialogue, we learn that the diamond heist went bad. An employee pulled the alarm, Blonde started shooting random people, and the cops were on the scene before anyone had time to blink. We learn that Brown is dead from a gunshot to the head, nobody knows what happened to Blue, Pink stashed the diamonds in a safe hiding place, and Orange took a nasty shot to the stomach and has passed out on the floor of an abandoned warehouse that serves as the group's rendezvous point. Pink theorizes that the police had the jewelry store staked out, and that a member of the group is actually an undercover cop. As Pink, White, and Blonde look back at the events that transpired, it becomes more and more evident that Pink's theory just might be right. But which of the six was the mole?

A quasi-remake of one of Tarantino's favorite movies (City on Fire, a 1987 movie from Hong Kong starring Chow Yun-Fat), Reservoir Dogs is the kind of movie that might take multiple viewings to completely get what's going on. That's how it is with most Tarantino movies, so if you're unfamiliar with his work and decide to go rent his movies after reading this review, be warned. Tarantino's trademark out-of-sequence scenes actually help to further the plot here, because if we'd seen them in order, the entire context of the movie would have been changed. The movie would have gone from a "whodunit" to a "when will they find out" movie.

Tarantino's script is well-crafted, yet the characters don't do a whole lot besides stand around and talk. The script's dialogue and character development are frequently entertaining, though those offended by excessive profanity will be turned off. And although it isn't apparent on first viewing, or even on second viewing, Tarantino uses the opening scene in the diner to firmly establish our characters. Mr. White butts heads with Joe, at which point Mr. Blonde offers to shoot White for him. Mr. Pink protests when the others say he should leave a tip for the waitress, after he stubbornly refuses to leave one. Mr. Orange squeals on Mr. Pink when Joe notices the tip is short. Nice Guy Eddie establishes himself as a daddy's boy. All of these characteristics are reprised over the course of the movie. But the idea here is that except for Joe and Mr. Blonde, all of the characters are bluffing. They act tough, but aren't exactly great at handling themselves in desperate situations. The majority of the movie features the group panicking and jumping to conclusions.

The script is supported by the stellar cast. Having a small cast means that those involved have to work harder, and the cast does that and more. Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, and Steve Buscemi carry the entire movie on their shoulders. Buscemi is hilarious as the paranoid Mr. Pink, Madsen is both humorous and disturbing as the calm-yet-psycho Mr. Blonde, and Keitel is strong as Mr. White. Having Keitel in a crime drama should be a license to print money, because he's awesome here. Tim Roth is fine as the apprehensive Mr. Orange, and is really good in the scenes that don't require him to be unconscious and covered in blood. Also noteworthy are Lawrence Tierney and Chris Penn, though they don't exactly drive the movie or anything.

Along with the profanity-laden dialogue, people may also may be turned off by the violence. While the majority of the violence is implied, the idea of such carnage is enough to make squeamish members of the audience squirm. Meanwhile, I loved the soundtrack as well. Punctuated by a mock '70s rock station featuring deadpan comedian Stephen Wright as the DJ, the movie has some of the most memorable use of music I've ever seen. Michael Madsen's big scene, in which he tortures a police officer while "Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealer's Wheel plays on the radio, is proof enough of that.

Reservoir Dogs is, for all intents and purposes, a low-budget B-movie that viewers will either like or hate. While his work improved with his subsequent movies, It is most definitely fun, though, and it was a great debut for Quentin Tarantino. If you claim to be a Tarantino fan and have yet to see Reservoir Dogs, you owe it to yourself to at least run out and rent a copy of it right now. I'm sure you won't be let down.

Final Rating: ***½

Kill Bill: Volume Two (2004)

We've all seen movies that end in cliffhangers, endings that are essentially advertisements for the next chapter. It happened with the second and third installments of the Back to the Future and Matrix trilogies, and it happened with Quentin Tarantino's would-be epic Kill Bill.

While the Back to the Future and Matrix cliffhangers were intended to be two separate movies from the start, Kill Bill was different. Believing that nobody would want to sit through a four-hour movie, Miramax had Tarantino chop Kill Bill in half, leaving us with Kill Bill: Volume One and Kill Bill: Volume Two. I've already reviewed Volume One, so let's get to Volume Two.

In Volume One, we learn that a group of assassins had crashed a wedding, killing everyone but the pregnant bride (Uma Thurman), who was left in a coma. She awakens four years later, missing her baby and swearing revenge on the five people who attempted to take her life. The bride crossed two names off her hit list in Volume One, and in Volume Two, she hunts the other three: Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Budd (Michael Madsen), and her main target, Bill (David Carradine).

Along with the bride's vengeance, we're also treated to the back story. Via flashbacks, we see what exactly took place at the wedding four years earlier. We also see how the bride prepared for her life as a mercenary-for hire, as Bill delivers her to Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), a harsh sensei who hates white people, Americans, and women. Flashbacks also show us how Elle lost her eye, and how and why the bride decided to abandon her life as an assassin.

Like I mentioned in my review for Volume One, Quentin Tarantino once said Volume One was "kill, kill, kill," and Volume Two was "Bill, Bill, Bill." He was right. While Volume One features two hours of action and violence, Volume Two centers around the intricacies of the relationship between Bill and the bride (whose real name we learn during Volume Two). Despite being one long epic, the two volumes are quite different. Volume One is a high-speed kung fu flick, while Volume Two is a slow-moving spaghetti western, reminiscent of the work of Sergio Leone. In fact, some musical cues from Leone's classic A Fistful of Dollars appear in Volume Two.

While I didn't care too much for Volume Two at first, since I hadn't admittedly seen Volume One yet, it's to grow on me to the point where I actually prefer Volume Two. First off, I really liked the cast, and the way they portrayed their characters. Uma Thurman and David Carradine were absolutely brilliant as the revenge-fueled bride and her intended target Bill, while Daryl Hannah was good as Elle Driver and I really liked Michael Madsen as Budd. The fight choreography is also good, despite the small amount of actual fights.

The final confrontation between the bride and Elle is a sight to behold, as the two practically tear down Budd's run-down shanty of a trailer. I also thought The RZA's score for Volume Two was quite possibly better than Volume One's. No stranger to the "karate western" genre (having scored Forest Whitaker's 1999 movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai), The RZA's score gives the movie the same epic feel as Volume One.

Finally, Tarantino's direction is still wonderful. A sequence in which Budd buries the bride alive is proof of that. Tarantino plays with various styles in the scene, switching between black-and-white and color. He also plays up the claustrophobic confines of the bride's casket, shrinking the screen down from the 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio to a smaller 4:3 ratio. Tarantino's script is also excellent. Budd giving the bride the choice of either a flashlight or a shot of Mace is both cringe-worthy and humorous, while a scene where Elle details the dangers of black mamba snakes is wickedly funny. Tarantino's crowning achievement in the dialogue department comes near the end of the movie, when Bill gives his comic book monologue.

When I first saw Volume Two, I probably would have given it three stars on my usual scale. But after having time to ruminate on it, I'll go ahead and give it four stars. However, it should be watched back-to-back with Volume One, or it doesn't have the proper impact that it should. As I said in my review for Volume One, I hope that Miramax will eventually release Kill Bill in its full uncut form. But until them, Kill Bill will be two excellent films instead of one.

Final Rating: ****

Kill Bill: Volume One (2003)

A film's quality can be drastically altered by the enthusiasm of its participants. For example, a movie like Evil Dead 2 might only be sub-par if it weren't for the dedication of those involved both in front of and behind the camera. Such is the case with Quentin Tarantino's energetic homage to spaghetti westerns and '70s kung-fu flicks, Kill Bill. Originally clocking in at somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours, Miramax had Kill Bill halved during post-production, and the results were Kill Bill: Volume One and Kill Bill: Volume Two. Two separate films, released with a six-month interim. This review's gonna cover Volume One, so let's get cracking.

In Volume One, the story is exquisitely simple. When a pregnant female assassin (Uma Thurman) decides to leave her team of fellow mercenaries-for-hire, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or "DiVAS" for short), in order to get married and start a new life, her former crew shows up at the wedding rehearsal and takes out everyone there, including the bride herself. Fortunately for her but unfortunately for her attackers, the bride lives, but remains in a coma.

She awakens four years later, only to discover her child is gone and that a nurse at the hospital (Michael Bowen) has been pimping her comatose body to his friends for 75 bucks a go. She kills the nurse and his latest client, then heads to Japan to meet a legendary maker of swords, Hattoro Hanzi (Sonny Chiba). The bride convinces the long-retired Hanzi to craft her a sword because she has "vermin" to kill, and sets forth with her Hattoro Hanzi steel on a quest to get revenge on the DiVAS and their leader, Bill (David Carradine). Volume One follows the bride as she hunts down the first two names on her hit list: Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu).

In an interview, Quentin Tarantino described Volume One as "kill, kill, kill" and Volume Two is "Bill, Bill, Bill." I think that's a pretty accurate description, because Volume One is all about the action. Since Volume One's share of the plot is so simple (the bride shows up and kills people), it can concentrate entirely on the bride exacting her bloody vengeance on those who tried to kill her. It's a fast-paced, visceral kung-fu movie, no bones about it.

Even though most of the cast doesn't really get to do anything until Volume Two, the acting in Volume One isn't bad at all. Though she spends most of the movie fighting, Uma Thurman is great in the scenes in which she actually gets to play a character. I also really liked Lucy Liu as O-Ren. There should be more "former teenage assassins that become patronizing yakuza bosses that will decapitate you for questioning her" in movies.

Meanwhile, the fight scenes were really enjoyable. The choreography is just mind-blowing, so thumbs up to the stunt guys that put them together. The opening fight between the bride and Vernita is good, yet was improved on in the bride's awesome climactic fights with O-Ren and Gogo Yubari (played by Chiaki Kuriyama).

I also really enjoyed the massive fight with the Crazy 88s, yet I disliked the fact that most of it was in black and white. Even though it worked as a form of censorship (screw you, MPAA!), it also served as an homage to the censorship done when bloody kung-fu movies used to air on television. I personally feel it was an homage that could have been done without. Considering the almost cartoonish nature of the Crazy 88s fight, the MPAA should have allowed at least the majority of the scene to slide. The most graphic violence was animated anyway (the bride's anime-style story about O-Ren's life), so maybe the MPAA should lighten up.

Speaking of the Crazy 88's fight, the makeup effects by KNB EFX are brilliant. I've long been a fan of KNB and their work, and they didn't let me down in Volume One. The score (composed by Wu-Tang Clan member The RZA) is also great, with an oriental sound that enhances the movie in a fine way. Finally, Tarantino's direction is the definition of wonderful. He crafts both volumes in a way that even viewers that aren't fans of the genres that Kill Bill fall into will probably find something enjoyable. All of Tarantino's films are enhanced by their enthusiastic director, and the two volumes of Kill Bill are no exception. Tarantino is probably the biggest movie geek in Hollywood, and the movies he makes obviously show that.

Even though it's the first half of one long film, Volume One is absolutely wonderful as a stand-alone movie. The cast's enthusiastic charm and Tarantino's creativity work wonders, so I'll give Kill Bill: Volume One four stars. While better viewed back-to-back with Volume Two, it's still a good movie that should be seen. My only hope is that one day, Miramax will release both volumes edited back together as they were meant to be seen.

Final Rating: ****