By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- A wronged female assassin continues her roaring rampage of revenge in "Kill Bill - Vol. 2" (Miramax), the concluding chapter of director Quentin Tarantino's violent and vapid two-part vengeance drama.

Originally conceived as a single feature, then split in two at the 11th hour, both films are pulp-packed pastiches of pop culture references, which, though at times visually elegant, result in highly stylized exercises in cinematic self-indulgence, reflecting little else than the filmmaker's own obsessions with B-movies. And though more dialogue-driven than the first film (released in October 2003), with hardly a blood-squirting limb in sight -- allowing for at least the pretension of character development -- underneath its slick facade "Vol. 2" is just as morally vacuous as its more overtly gory predecessor.

"Vol. 2" follows the first film's time-scrambling, nonlinear narrative, which may prove confusing for viewers who did not see "Vol. 1." The movie opens with a surprisingly tasteful black-and-white sequence which recaps the earlier installment and elaborates on the fateful event that got the bloody ball rolling. The bare-bones revenge plot revolves around a nameless femme fatale known only as "the Bride" (Uma Thurman), a former assassin gunned down during her wedding rehearsal (along with her unborn child and all the guests present) by her spurned former boss-lover -- the eponymous Bill (David Carradine). She survived the shooting, and, after awakening from a four-year coma, systematically hunts down her former associates and would-be killers in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, or DiVAS -- each named after a poisonous snake -- who assisted Bill in the massacre.

Having already dispensed two cutthroat colleagues in the first film -- killer-turned-suburban-soccer-mom Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), aka Copperhead, and the Yakuza hellcat O'Ren Ishi (Lucy Liu), aka Cottonmouth, -- the samurai-sword-wielding slayer (whose name is revealed to be Beatrix Kiddo) zeroes in on the two remaining Viper members.

Less exotic than "Vol. 1," the film shifts backdrops from the Far East to the American Southwest, where the Bride slices and dices her way through the patch-eyed Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), aka California Mountain Snake, and Bill's trailer-trash brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), aka Sidewinder -- the sole male member of the elite hit squad -- on her way to a refreshingly reserved showdown with Bill in his Mexican hideaway.

Though the body count in "Vol. 2" is considerably lower than in its mayhem-mired predecessor, the violence is still gratuitous and exploitative, including a centerpiece catfight that ends on a grisly "eye-popping" note. And while some viewers may prefer Tarantino's cartoonish, consequence-free carnage to the raw realism of such films as "The Passion of the Christ," the superficiality of his synthesized savagery promotes a video-game attitude toward violence which seems to say killing is cool. Even Bill and the Bride's young daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), whose favorite bedtime viewing is the violent cult-action film, "Shogun Assassin," seems emotionally immune to the death swirling around her. At one point, the Bride even admits to enjoying a sadistic satisfaction in taking people's lives.

That being said, there is much cinematically to admire in the sanguinary saga, including two beautifully shot black-and-white segments: a get-viewers-up-to-speed prologue that pays homage to Lana Turner's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) and the El Paso Chapel massacre which gloriously echoes the exquisite photography of Gregg Toland in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940).

Though many of the dialogue scenes serve merely as bridges between fight sequences, the film does exhibit a marked departure from "Vol. 1" in its trying to establish an emotional core by fleshing out the lingering feelings and dysfunctional relationship between Thurman and Carradine -- both of whom shine in their roles.

Tarantino is obviously a filmmaker in love with cinema, a passion that translates onto the screen. "Kill Bill" is laced with flashes of visual brilliance and juicy dialogue, but it is also weighed down by a propensity for self-indulgent, showoffy camera work.

As in the first film, "Vol. 2" is a campy collage of many different genres -- among them Sergio Leone's "spaghetti Westerns." However, unlike Leone in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," Tarantino has chosen to create a celluloid universe with only two types of characters -- bad and ugly. Fans of the 1970s' chop-socky martial arts movies will find the intentionally cheesy flashbacks of the Bride's harsh apprenticeship under stern kung fu master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) particularly appealing.

Catholic viewers should not be blinded to the fact that, despite its hip veneer, the film's underlying theme of revenge is incompatible with the Christian understanding of justice and forgiveness.

Taken together, the "Kill Bill" series is Tarantino's first film in over six years. Unfortunately for viewers, it was not worth the wait.

Due to recurring gratuitous scenes of violence, much rough and crude language and drug content, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

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DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.