This movie was a lot of fun and continues the theme of sadistic punishments visited upon Uma Thurman. The Bride is a heroine that gets beat down again and again -- you have to wonder how she isn't a lump of scar tissue by now -- but Tarantino manages to make it highly entertaining, with plenty of black comedy and fun action.

Vol. 2 isn't as stylish as the first volume, nor is it nearly as bloody, but you get all the reward of the setup from the first movie as Tarantino reveals each of the plot secrets one-by-one. Judged as individual chapters, my favorite chapters were in the first movie; judged in their half-wise entirety, I thought that the second volume has the most to offer.

At Comic-Con, Tarantino mentioned that in some countries they might experiment with releasing the movie as individual chapters instead of two volumes. I think that this would have been very interesting and enjoyable, though I would have dreaded that many trips to the movie theater.

Side Note: One of the trailers was for "Tarantino Presents... Hero." Woohoo. I'm not sure I'll pay more to see the movie now that I already have it on DVD, but it's such a fun movie.

Update: saw this quote in the NYTimes: "Miramax is planning to release a half-dozen different DVD editions related to "Kill Bill." Ugh.