Saved by a samurai sword

A good friend of mine asked me to list some movies from this year that would go into the classics list. No problem I replied... and then I thought about it.

And thought about it.

And searched the web.

And found...

Nothing.

We all got excited at the prospect of the return of Neo, Morpheus and Trinity in Matrix:Reloaded. Instead we were treated to an hour of 1-dimensional storytelling, a brief look at the (Star Wars-esque) political situation, and a heavily overplayed sex-scene between 2 people with no on-screen chemistry at all. The rest of the film was just a mish-mash of poor fight scenes strung together with a vague and unoriginal (Star Wars-esque again) storyline.

We had a whole raft of sequels to look forward to. Some fun (X-Men 2, Terminator 3, American Pie: The Wedding), some so embarrassing you wondered how the makers could sleep at night (Charlies Angels 2, Tomb Raider 2). We had an alarming number of comic book movies. And while X-Men 2 was a laugh it's not something people are gonna look back on in 10 years and put on their top 100 movies of all time list.

Of course, there's always Return of the King. True, and I know it will be magnificent. I have no reason to doubt the vision and genius of Peter Jackson after Fellowship and Two Towers. But to have to wait 12 months from one great movie to the next while there's money being thrown into the film industry for fun is ludicrous. And besides, what do we look forward to after December 17th?

And then the end scene rolls on the finest movie of 2003. The audience has just been thrown a masterpiece cliffhanger. The music kicks in. The screen fades to black. And up pops the credits...

"Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino"

My cinematic year of hell is over.

Enough reviews have been written about Kill Bill Vol. 1, by people far more eloquent than I (Guardian Review, Empire Review), so I won't bother.

I'll just leave you by saying that this is the finest film of the year and with Volume 2 out in February, there is actually a reason to go to the movies next year.

Cheers Quentin!