10 Most Bitterly Disappointing Movie Showdowns

9. The Bride vs. Bill (Kill Bill: Vol. 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL7nLSSSWjw This is a slightly difficult one as the long-awaited confrontation between Uma Thurman and David Carradine at the end of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is about so much more than just how long and how impressively the pair can go at it with Hanzo swords. It's about The Bride's emotional state as she copes with the shock revelation of her daughter's survival, the brief glimpses of a potential happy family life, and her final conversations with Bill in which they eventually confirm that they cannot be reconciled, that they cannot forgive each other for their past deeds, and that, as Beatrix delicately puts it, they have €œunfinished business.€ Baby, you ain't kiddin'. As Tarantino fans would ardently declare, the man can do substance as well as style. I can respect that, but I still think this is a moment where the film would have benefitted from a bit more of that style. The sword duel really is one of those blink and you'll miss it moments, over in a matter of seconds. Don't get me wrong, what is there is very well choreographed and polished as expected, and the final revelation that Pai Mei taught Beatrix the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is hugely effective, making for an especially iconic exit for the Snake Charmer; I just wish that it had gone on a bit longer beforehand. In fact it almost did. It's hardly a secret that the film's climax was originally written as a sword-fight on a beach under the moonlight, with Beatrix clad in her wedding dress. Bill even suggests such a fight to Beatrix at the beginning of their final conversation, and one of the film's posters also showed Thurman in the dress brandishing her sword. But Tarantino was forced to cut the scene back upon Harvey Weinstein's insistence when the production ran long. It's a shame since we never get to see Bill display much of his skill with the blade, although there is one deleted scene showing the pair in their earlier happy days which goes a small way towards addressing this. Interesting fact however: every person killed on screen over both Kill Bill films, with the exception of those in the anime sequence in Vol. 1, is killed by a female character.