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All reviews written by David Brook.

A Knights Tale
I had no real interest in watching this film, but was talked into it somehow. However, although it was in no way great, I did enjoy my self most of the time. In this dismal year for films, I find myself repeating the same phrases again and again; "Enjoyable, but not great", "Fun, but forgetable" etc... Again, I'll probably repeat myself here, so you might want to just read some old reviews instead, but here goes. The plot is minimal and predictable, the romantic scenes terrible and some ill advised flashbacks cringeworthy at its worst. However, (gritting teeth) this is still enjoyable at times, and a couple of the supporting cast members are very good, especially Paul Bettany as an alcoholic, gambling Geoffrey Chaucer who warms up the crowd before the jousts (I would have prefered it if he wore more clothes during the course of the film though). Yes, its not historically accurate, but its not supposed to be. I think they were going for an 'alternate' history, which I think aids the enjoyment of the film, by just making it that little bit different. However, the historical rejigging isn't enough to stop this film from being little other than a very average rags-to-riches 'sports-movie'. 5/10

Kill Bill vol. 1
Being a big kung-fu and Tarantino fan I've been almost literally drooling over the prospect of Kill Bill for some time, and although it ended up being a different film than what I initially imagined, it certainly hasn't dissapointed. Kill Bill vol. 1 is an incredibly violent (almost too much so), crazy and insanely enjoyable film, that knowingly borrows from a number of exploitation genres from anime to spaghetti westerns to samurai revenge dramas, but manages to meld them all into the ultimate exploitation film. Heads, limbs and gallons of blood fly at the screen as we are catapulted through Uma Thurman's quest for revenge. One of the things that surprised me was that this isn't just a string of fight-scenes like a lot of kung-fu films are though. It is very violent throughout, but the proper sword fighting is left for the end and we are instead bombarded with executions and brutal beatings in the first two thirds. The only problem I found with this was that these scenes were possibly too brutal and were often more unpleasant than entertaining. This is my only complaint though, and those with a stronger stomach would probably disagree, and it didn't bother me enough, as the rest of the film is an incredibly stylish masterpiece of low-brow cinema.
Tarantino's trademark sharp dialogue is kept to a minimum here, but its not a problem as the visual aspects and the knowingly over the top but very strong performances he gets out of the actors more than make up for it. And in the final third he proves that he can handle action better than anyone. The final 'House of Blue Leaves' section in particular is absolutely astounding as badass Thurman hacks and slashes her way through countless hordes of Lucy Lui's cronies. The anime chapter too was disturbingly beautiful in its graphic (no pun intended) depiction of violence. As always Tarantino's use of music is fantastic using a bizaare mixture of styles from Morricone style fanfares to Pan Pipe music to the dark and sombre Nancy Sinatra song that opens the film. A lot of this music could sound terrible if listened to on its own or put in the wrong context, but in the warped world of Kill Bill it compliments the on screen action perfectly.
Overall, depraved as some may think this film is, it is just too damn cool, too damn enjoyable and too well made to be passed off as action-pornography though. The whole film seems almost like a study of violence in all its forms, although this is clearly not an intellectual film made to be studied by academics. All I can say is that as long as you're not easily offended by gore and general brutality you simply have to experience this film, because you'll have a hell of a good time (and you'll desparately want to watch the next volume). 9/10

Kill Bill vol. 2
After the great first volume I thought nothing could go wrong with the follow up seen as they were shot together and originally going to be one film, but unfortunately I was a bit dissapointed. I certainly wouldn't say I disliked it though, there were some fantastic moments, especially the buried alive sequence and the no holds barred bitchfight between the Bride and the one eyed Elle. Its more spaghetti western influenced style was welcome too. Unfortunately though the second film backs up the opinion that this should have been cut down into one film rather than extended and split in two. The finale especially is over long and actually rather dull, especially when compared with the mind-blowing ending to the first film. Instead of an exciting or tense showdown we get a number of poorly written (especially for Tarantino) monologues from Bill, although when the action abruptly starts it is very effective, if brief. The performances are all very charasmatic and the music is great as usual, although not as memorable as the previous soundtrack. All in all this is still very good, but with some careful trimming both volumes could have been shaped into the ultimate trash epic that it originally promised to be. 7/10