Kill Bill Volume 2 // Blu-ray Review

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Kill Bill Volume 2

Conclusion
December 14, 2008

Kill Bill Volume 2 — Introduction / The Movie • Kill Bill Volume 2 — Screencaps
Kill Bill Volume 2 — Features & Specifications • Kill Bill Volume 2 — Conclusion

Kill Bill Volume 2
Features: Uncompressed (LPCM) English 5.1 audio (48 kHz/24-bit), Dolby Digital 5.1 (English and French), English SDH, The Making Of Kill Bill: Volume 2, Damoe Deleted Scenes, and a live Chingon Musical Performance.
Codec / Resolution: MPEG-4 AVC / 1080p
Movie File Size: ~28 GB
Average Bitrate: 27.26 Mbps
Distributor: Miramax Films
Region: A, B, C
Movie Release: April 16, 2004
This Release: November 3, 2008
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hrs 17 mins
MSRP: $34.99
Current Price: Check Price / Purchase

Pros

Excellent skin tones
Although not much film grain present in the first film, KB2 has even less.
Colors once again pop off the screen
Detail is even a hair (or two) better than the first film
Audio sounds great, especially with the LPCM Dolby 5.1 lossless soundtrack
Some great fighting scenes, although not as high-paced as the first film

Cons / Disadvantages

None observed.

Noteworthy Observations

The Black & White scene of The Bride being 6ft under has more grain than other parts of the film, although similar to the chapter involving Pai Mei. However, there are some crystal clear Black & White scenes in the beginning of the second film involving the wedding shot outdoors. But there are also a few scenes indoors where grain is present. Overall, nothing to be worried about, and in general, the film has less grain than the first.

AUDIO
VIDEO
CONTENT
EXTRAS

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Audio

The audio on Kill Bill Volume 2 is pretty darn good. Miramax provides an English 5.1 Uncompressed (LPCM) (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack, along with an English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Since most of the movie is dialogue, you get a biased workout from your center and front channels.

Throughout Kill Bill Volume 2 there are surround effects, and I particularly remember Budd's shotgun with rock salt scene. Having the volume turned up even modestly produces one hell of a blast with the LPCM soundtrack. The DD 5.1 tracks do fairly good as well, but if you have the chance for some good uncompressed shotgun blasts, then take advantage of the LPCM option.

Video

Just like the first installment of Kill Bill, the picture quality is excellent on this MPEG-4 AVC transfer. In fact, it's of my opinion this transfer is just a hair or two better than the first one. Since Kill Bill deals with a lot of close-ups for facial expressions, skin tone color accuracy is essential. And here we find beautiful skin tones galore. Even in the B&W scenes, the grayscale tones are wonderful.

The first Kill Bill had some natural grain throughout the film, and the second film does as well. We do see a little more of it in particular areas such as the Pai Mei chapter, B&W shots inside the wedding chapel, and when The Bride has some digging to do. However, overall I'd say the second Kill Bill film is a tad "sharper". While Tarantino's style shifts just a little in regards to the picture presentation, it is intentional but in no way distracts from the entire duology.

Content

Of course this is where you'll either love Kill Bill, or you won't. Personally, I think it's a masterpiece. It is so hard to create a film which wants to tactfully exploit the key memories we have of other films, yet creates another category unto itself by doing so. For those who were never fans of martial arts movies, these films are certainly not for you. However, if you're a fan of Tarantino, don't give this any hesitation. I would even say Kill Bill is probably the best work Tarantino has done.

What I found interesting about both movies, is how a little over 4 hours just magically disappears into the world of kicking, punching, and sword-fighting glory. This is an action-lover's dream come true.

The Extras

Kill Bill: Volume 2 has only three extras. This is too bad considering we have around 7GB of free space. That's basically an entire DVD. In any case we have a pretty good half-hour of Tarantino, Thurman, and others discussing the second half of Kill Bill. There's a deleted scene and when you watch it, you'll understand why it was deleted. Finally, you get to see Chingon perform. Chingon is a band started by Robert Rodriquez, and means "Bad Ass".

Unfortunately, we have the audio of this good performance sampled at a piss-poor 224 Kbps. Not sure what the point of this was. In any case, Chingon is a band possessing a unique flavor which fuses Mexican and American Rock music. This is a rather simple description, but you should check them out on the web at http://www.chingonmusic.com and at your favorite music store.

Conclusion

And yet another solid Highly Recommended for Kill Bill. This second part seems to be just slightly sharper in clarity than the first, which is rather impressive given I was very satisfied with the first film in the first place. A few film grain moments here and there, but absolutely not warranting a postponement for getting this title. Hek no. The Kill Bill duology should be in every Blu-ray movie enthusiast's collection.