Thurman's performance inspires Tarantino

Thurman is Tarantino's crimson-soaked muse. Her character The Bride in Quentin Tarantino's ruthless revenge fantasy "Kill Bill - Vol. 1" and the new "Kill Bill - Vol. 2" began when the two worked together 10 years ago on "Pulp Fiction" and began making up stories about a woman, marked for death on her wedding day, who goes on a gruesome killing spree.

"Together, we talked about The Bride forever," Thurman said. "We were out one night talking and he was telling me about genres and filmmaking, and (the 1973 blaxploitation revenge film) `Coffy' and different movies ... "

Thurman, who turns 34 April 29, said their conversations would run hours. "We got going back and forth and cooked up the character of The Bride together. Like, wouldn't it be great to play this woman ... assassin ... wedding chapel massacre ... and da da da da dah. Usually that kind of talk is cheap but not with him. He went and sculpted the seed ideas of the movie."

Thurman, he said, would play a sexy assassin who wants out of the business. Her boss and lover, Bill, would slay her groom and entire wedding party and leave her for dead. Resurrected years later, she would embark on a mission of revenge to kill you know who (David Carradine) and his squad of hired murderers (Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael Madsen), report ktvu.com

When Miramax decided to release Quentin Tarantino’s "Kill Bill" in two parts, the company knew what it was doing. Four hours would not only have been too much Tarantino in a single dose; it might have revealed that the movie sets up a tantalizing premise and then fails to follow through.

This self-consciousness extends to nearly every aspect of the film. The music and camera movements in the wedding scene deliberately recall "Once Upon a Time in the West." Carradine invokes his "Kung Fu" television series in an extended episode about Beatrix’s visit to a Chinese kung fu master (Gordon Liu). The cinematographer, Robert Richardson, does an artful job of mixing black-and-white sequences (the wedding looks especially glorious) with full color episodes, but it’s often style for the sake of style.

Perhaps only Tarantino’s most devoted fans can appreciate what he’s attempted here. For non-believers, "Kill Bill (Vol. 2)" could be just as empty an experience as "The Passion of the Christ," inform msn.com