Ridiculous, amazing, unbelievable, mind-numbing, remarkable, single-minded, unrelenting, exceptional, extraordinary, unusual, singular, phenomenal. These are all words that can be used in descriptions of Quentin Tarantino's new movie, Kill Bill. Just don't forget to add "-ly violent" to each of those descriptors.

It has become a truism that violence & entertainment go hand in hand in contemporary American life, particularly where Tarantino is involved. The constant, low-level bombardment with images of violence probably does desensitize people. But I always imagined desensitization as a subtle process akin to having a drunken little leprechaun on your shoulder whispering violent nothings in your ear. I had not seriously considered the possibility that desensitization could be like a punch to the gut, or a brick to the face. Well, consider my gut punched and my face bricked.

Still, I have to give a lot of credit to the film for keeping my attention despite the rampantly pointless violence that saturates it. The film looks good. The animated section is gorgeous. The use of chapters, told out of sequence, is effective in keeping the story rolling. The characters are interesting, in a flat, cartoony sort of way. The influences (westerns, martial arts movies, etc.) Tarantino draws on are well blended and subtle. There are a whole host of good things about this movie.

There are also, however a whole host of things that turned me off early and kept me that way despite the compelling nature of the rest of the movie. Fountains of blood and severed limbs aren't too bad. Most of that is pretty cartoony and obviously ridiculous. I can think of a number of movies featuring that kind of violence that I enjoyed regardless. However, Kill Bill mixes the cartoony with the excessively visceral, including the vicious beating and attempted murder of a pregnant bride, the pimping of the comatose bride by a male nurse, the stabbing of a houswife in front of her daughter with the subsequent awkward explanation, and one or two other things as well.

After the movie was over, I was left at a loss. Was it deliberate? Was the movie intended to lampoon or condemn the exessive use of violence? Was the point of all that blood and gore to make us think about the overuse of violence for entertainment purposes? Without another viewing of the movie, I can't really say. But I doubt it.

It would be nice if I could add some sort of witty summing-up phrase here. You've probably been waiting for something besides my own vaguely coherent rant. But I have to say, the movie left me so ambivalent, all I've got left is a shrug and an, "I don't really know about this one." You'll have to see & judge for yourself.