3+ hours of kung-fu chop-socky action does not a fine cinematic experience make. The scheme to slice it in half Ginsu style seems like a good one, both from marketing & average-film-goer-attention-span perspectives. Hopefully Tarantino hasn’t scribbled himself a role- my man is stiffer than a Wooden Indian when he puts on those actor’s shoes. I’ll definitely see it, but I’ll probably be dropping my expectations in the trash receptacle with my torn ticket stub.

Re: Jackie Brown- I actually dug this one more than Reservoir Dogs. Sure it’s slow & long, but Forester was great and it was a pleasure to see Pam Grier in something far cleverer than anything in her bulging Blaxploitation film folio. The whole thing had a stoned out quality to it too that I found appealing.

Jackie Brown was my favorite Tarantino movie, so I'm only sporting a semi w/r/t Kill Bill, because it looks to be pure visuality, with as little thought as required to get from Fight A to Fight Z. Not really my cup of splat.

The point of larger interest, to me anyway, is the trend of movement away from sequels and towards multi-part sagas: LOTR, Matrix, Kill Bill...what's next, the return of the adventure serial?

I'm glad to see someone mention "Alias." What a great show!

Unbelievably, the television channel showing it here in Belgium decided to drop it in the middle of the second season, as Sidney was trapped under the ice (please don't tell me how she got out). Needless to say, I was not pleased.

Anyway, isn't this supposed to be a music site? What's on the soundtrack?

Oh man, don’t get me started on the classic cliffhanger serials. There was a three year stretch where I was a total junkie for that shit: DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (w/ the totally offensive Snowflake character), SPY SMASHER, KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED, ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE, FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS… (and that’s just my favorites of the Republics). I’ve still got around 40 VHS editions of those things down in my basement, all collecting dust. Damn, this almost deserves it’s own thread.

Mke, near as I can gather, Bagatellen is an ‘everything-under-the-sun-as-long-is-it’s-remotely-related-to-improvisation’ site. In other words, as long as a topic sparks conversation, let’s chew the fat about it.

Here’s an unconfirmed tracklist to the soundtrack:

1. "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" - Nancy Sinatra
2. "That Certain Female" - Charlie Feathers
3. "The Grand Duel - (Parte Prima)" - Luis Bacalov
4. "Twisted Nerve" - Bernard Herrmann
5. Queen Of The Crime Council - dialogue from film (Lucy Lui and Julie Dreyfus)
6. "Ode To Oren Ishii" - The RZA [New]
7. "Run Fay Run" - Isaac Hayes
8. "Green Hornet" - Al Hirt jazz tune
9. "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (Shin Jingi-Naki Tatakai) [teaser theme] - Tomoyasu Hotei
10. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" - Santa Esmeralda latin dance tune
11. "Woo Hoo" - The 5.6.7.8's
12. "Crane"/"White Lightning" - The RZA/Charles Bernstein
13. "The Flower of Carnage" - Meiko Kaji
14. "The Lonely Shepherd" - Zamfir flute tune
15. You're My Wicked Life - dialogue from film (David Carradine, Julie Dreyfus, Uma Thurman)
16. "Ironside" excerpt - Quincy Jones
17. "Super 16" excerpt [remix] - Neu!

Kung Fu Stings and SFX:
18. Yakuza Oren 1 - The RZA [new]
19. Banister Fight - The RZA [new]
20. Flip Sting
21. Sword Swings
22. Axe Throws

The RZA reminds me of how much I enjoyed "Ghost Dog." Does anyone have the original soundtrack (not the "inspired by" soundtrack)?

I liked "Pulp Fiction" more than "Dogs" or "Jackie."

(Voting on everything is just so much fun!)

Yeah, but why Pulp over Dogs or Jackie, Walt, why? (I'm with you, Pulp is the best of the three)

Ain't heard either soundrack mke, but I remember digging the original music in Ghost Dog (Jarmusch's humor's drier than The Old Pueblo in August). I seem to remember there was a snippet of Silva in there somewheres.

dunno about Silva, but there's part of a Lyons/Cyrille track on Forrest Whitaker's car stereo towards the end of the movie.

my two Quentin cents: Pulp Fiction's the best of the three because it combines the highest degree of ambition and accomplishment, the way the various plot lines are intertwined is very impressive. Reservoir Dogs is also great, but more linear (or at least two-dimensional as compared to PF's three dimensions). Jackie Brown is well done, but too long, and less ambitious in scope.

it's not surprising at all to me that QT has remained silent for so long, I predicted it as Pulp Fiction was being released. it's very difficult to continue creating great art when everyone around you incessantly tells you what a genius you are, rather than actually helping you to separate the diamonds from the crap.

Jon, you right, it’s the Lyons/Cyrille car stereo snippet I was thinking of. The cinematic-free jazz nexus continues with Joe Maneri’s “Paniots Nine” in the title credits sequence of AMERICAN SPLENDOR. I’m not sure I’d call any in Tarantino’s triumvirate ‘great art’- but they’re certainly clever & entertainingly well done. When I saw Pulp in the theater I remember not being able to pry the grin from my face for the entire film. The puzzle-piece structure of the plot has been imitated, but never duplicated, along with so many other facets- truly a groundbreaking slice of movie-making.

I'll go along with Jon's reasons for the superiority of "Pulp": they sum it up well. I just want to add that it also has really great (and often very funny) dialogue. I don't remember others having that.

It's also funny that every time something big and dramatic happens, Travolta is in the can. "Dogs" is molto serioso, and "Jackie" is kind of dull by comparison with either of the other two.

Well, I'll throw in a vote for Pulp Fiction, although for whatever reason, I missed Jackie Brown - maybe it wasn't pushed so hard here or something, and I don't go see many films in the cinema.

I agree that the trailer for this doesn't bode well in terms of it being anything more than a silly action flick. But I'll probably go see it anyway, and it looks like a fun silly action flick.

Saw it yesterday & I’m still digesting. Some folks are denouncing it as a muddled self-indulgent mess, the pet project of a $65 million carte blanche camera in the hands of a geek-boy cineaste. Others are touting it as a work of adrenalin-charged pop-blender genius. I can definitely see both sides of the polemic.

The Grand Guginol cartoonishness of the penultimate fight scene with the 88s was pretty amazing & even hilarious. But it was undercut (no pun intended) by the interminably long Sonny Chiba cameo (a far cry from his Street Fighter glory days). That’s really how this first installment hit me, as a riffing string of highs and lows. Brilliant scenes balanced almost evenly by others that felt hollow & left me wanting. The violence was weirdly discordant too, especially when you compare the savageness of the opening face-off in suburbia with the finale showdown outside the House of Blue Leaves. The first scene with Uma and Vivica was actually my favorite of the film. Brutal and yet bone-crunchingly realistic, its outcome was inevitable, but surprising just the same. Especially the shot of the loser, haloed in blood, lying on the linoleum amidst the colorful scattershot of children’s cereal balls.

Based on the unevenness of this first half, I’m thinking chopping the damn thing in two was probably the wrong move.

I liked Kill Bill less than I expected, but still enjoyed it very much. There is ZERO closure in this first installment so I naturally await Vol. 2's release. The performances were superb, most notably those from Lucy Liu and Uma. I got a huge kick out of Gogo too, for numerous reasons. there's much to like about the movie, especially the violence, which is so over the top as to be keenly artistic. The "House of Blue Leaves" chapter is one of the most bizarre, fun, relentless and snazzy bits of cinema I've ever experienced. One thing I liked about this movie, as in all of Tarantino's, is that he never tries to say or do too much with his story. He allows lots of imagery and music to fill gaps, and he does it well.

mmm, Uma.

Anyone seen part deux yet?

Still haven't even seen the first one, and I actually don't plan to (Tarantino ennui set in long ago). But hey, I did order the first Sin City collection!

I've seen Vol. 2 now, and I loved it. I enjoyed Vol. 1 well enough when it came out (it's an hour & a half of non-stop, well-choreographed fighting, what's not to love?), but seeing the 2nd half just made the whole thing come together perfectly. The movie as a whole now seems a lot more considered, a lot more in line with the rest of Tarantino's work. In stark contrast to the first, there's very little action here, but a lot of backstory and character building. This makes me very excited to see them both together as one 4-hour movie later this year, because I think the emotional rollercoaster from the frenetic pace of Vol. 1 through the emotional denoument of Vol. 2 will be quite a trip to take in all at once. I won't spoil anything for anyone by going into further details, but the final chapter made the whole thing just so worthwhile. It's brilliant.