"Kill Bill, parts I&II" were genuinely fun films. I liked them better than "Reservoir Dogs" or "Jackie Brown", but not sure I'm whether I would rate them higher than "Pulp Fiction.".

The plot is simple. The Bride, as played by Uma Thurman, is gunned down along with her wedding party. While everyone else dies, The Bride remains in a coma for four years. When she wakes up her goal is to use her martial arts training to kill everyone involved in the wedding massacre.

The Kill Bills are extremely violent films. I won't give away when things happen, but at one point someone gets the top of their skull removed and there are two scenes where eyes get plucked out. The first film is almost non-stop killing and fighting end to end. There is also rape, torture, and pedophilia.

Despite my distaste for the violence, I really found myself enjoying these two films. There were so many stylistic references: old kung fu films, spaghetti westerns, and Japanese anime. David Carradine is basically playing an evil version of Caine from the seventies series "Kung Fu" and Tarantino even got in a subtle nod for Darryl Hannah's performance in "Blade Runner". The music was perfect.

In homage to those old kung fu movies, there's that one scene where there are fifty thugs standing around getting their asses kicked in melee combat by one woman with a samuari sword, and all a person can think is "Why doesn't anyone just freckin shoot her!" It's like those cheesy horror films where you think, "Wait! Why are you all splitting up? Again!"

There is an unforgettable set of scenes with this immortal Shaolin Kung Fu Master. Every time he brushes his long wispy white beard out of the way it makes that swooshing sound effect that was used to indicate the someone was moving very fast in the old cheesy martial arts movies. His subtitles are hilarious.

David Carradine really shines as Bill, the evil mastermind. I've been a Carradine fan since the first time I watched "Death Race 2000" when my family discovered that we could get HBO by balancing our channel changer in between channels 8 and 9 back in the seventies. I also liked watching his series "Kung Fu" in reruns. Carradine as starred Caine, a 1/2 Chinese, 1/2 American martial arts expert who wandered the American West seeking peace, but accidently kept running into another group of outlaws every week. "I do not believe in violence." Wack. Wack. Wack. "However, I will defend myself." Wack. Wack. Wack. Carradine as Bill, the evil version of Caine, has that same calm, deadpan delivery. "You may think of my actions as sadistic, but at this moment I am at my most masochistic", he says as he guns down The Bride and her wedding party. There is a speech in "Kill Bill II" where Carradine talks about comic books that is unforgettable.

Besides the violence, the films' other main weakness is the unsympathetic lead character. "The Bride", played by Uma Thurman, is only a shade more likeable than the people she is seeking revenge against. She's a killing machine, and she barely has enough human qualities to make me care about what happens to her in the course of the film. Of course, for a martial arts film that should be enough, and it is. The real reason to watch is the neato action scenes, not the drama and character development.

I was prepared not to like these movies, but on a gut level I enjoyed myself despite my expectations.