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Yes, the R-rated DVD the kids have been waiting for: the ultra violent and a tad clichéd Kill Bill – Volume 2. A dulling experience that is never more than the sum of its well-crafted parts, there’s a lot less action second time out, and a strange, tired melancholy taking the place of the adrenaline saturated buzz saw of fury that pulled young men into Volume 1. The story begins in the same place as its predecessor: in that El Paso wedding chapel where the villainous title character (David Carradine) left his nameless protégé-assassin (Uma Thurman) with a bullet in her head — only this time we see the whole setup to the crime. From there, the script jumps back to where Bill 1 ended, four years later with the heroine on the vengeance trail. As dramatically underwhelming, pointless and downright silly as the first volume, Quentin Tarantino’s love of 70s blaxpolitation and chop-socky junk films finally becomes what we’ve suspected all along: a dubious aesthetic in compensatory service of the director’s lonely childhood.
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In my book, Julia Stiles can do no wrong. In The Prince and Me, a traditional fairy tale wrapped in a cloak of modernity, Ms. Stiles plays Paige Morgan, a hard-working pre-med student whose every waking moment is devoted to achieving the grades necessary to ensure acceptance to Johns Hopkins. Into the picture comes Prince Edvard Valdemar Dangaard (Luke Mably), or Eddie as he is sometimes known, the wild and bored crown prince of Denmark who, in looking for a distraction, decides to spend a year at an American university. Next thing you know, the two are in love, and …. Director Martha Coolidge brings a nice feminist twist to what is most assuredly the very best of the plethora of teen-oriented Cinderella-themed movies which have saturated the multiplexes this year. A great DVD rental.
