Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Just an excellent movie.
Uma Thurman is so deliciously good as "The Bride," who we see in the beginning of the opening credits shot by a man named "Bill", later revealed to be her former boss of the Deadly Vipers assassination squad. Bill, played by David Carradine, has squad members Vernita Green (played by Vivica A. Fox), O-Ren Ishii (played by Lucy Liu), Budd (played by Michael Madsen), and Elle Driver (played by Daryl Hannah) break up The Bride's wedding rehearsal, killing her guests and fianceé and attempting to kill her with a shot to the head.
After years in a coma, The Bride survives and takes vengeance on each member of the Deadly Vipers one by one, with Bill as her final boss (hence, "Kill Bill"). This film shows us the defeats of Vernita and O-Ren, and they are so good in different ways. Vernita's is just excellent fight choreography, it's so sharp and I love the setting of this cute small house all in front of a 4-year old. Vernita pretending to be cool with The Bride only to attempt to shoot her through a box of cereal was caught me off guard. O-Ren on the other hand is just this massive scale temple, with The Bride killing off her many henchmen who put up a solid fight, and then the funny spanking of the last henchman, a young boy. The fight out in the snow is breathtaking visually and it's very entertaining.
Along the way to fighting O-Ren, we get to learn more about O-Ren and how the murder of her parents sparked her bloody path to get to being the leader of the Tokyo underground. We also learn more about The Bride and her backstory as she learned to walk again from her coma. She also is gifted a sword from Hattori Hanzo, a legendary swordsmith, after explaining her vengeance against Bill.
There's a great mix of action with comedy with drama, Uma Thurman is incredible, great callbacks to older action movies, the pacing is tight. It's just really fun to watch.