Tarantino, Thurman and Liu are killer diller in this sword-sharp exploitation homage! Like a hardcore foodie with talents for crafting award-winning gourmet delights, voracious cinephile Quentin Tarantino has concocted another exhilarating shrine to cinema. This time around, exploitation/grindhouse flicks are his inspiration, and receive a hyper-homage in a referential, ferociously original, transcendent action film split into two 90-ish minute volumes.

Uma Thurman plays Black Mamba, former member of aptly named collective Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (the DiVAS). Having clearly forgone her membership (something we’ll surely delve into with volume two), on the day of her wedding Black Mamba is put down with a bullet to the head by her erstwhile cohorts and boss — Bill (David Carradine). Yet four years worth of a coma later, she’s back and starvin’ for revenge. First on the kill list: O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) aka Cottonmouth, now a feared yakuza figurehead. In Japan, Black Mamba visits legendary swordsmith Hattori Honzo (Sonny Chiba, encoring his Shadow Warriors series’ character) and prepares for the showdown...

Tarantino’s years off since 1997’s Jackie Brown, much spent watching movies and writing, have resulted in a refreshed, clearly energized auteur having the time of his life, dark, perverse humor and ability to surprise intact. He’s even developed a deeper sense of pathos: Black Mamba’s vengeance is never without emotional fallout.

There are few down moments in Kill Bill, from its fierce opening knife fight between Black Mamba and Vernita Green, aka Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), to cliffhanger ending (don’t worry — the film leaves you satisfied). There’s going to be drinking games aplenty when the Bills hit video: movie and pop culture references fly fast and furious — Darryl Hannah’s one-eyed character is a wink (ahem) to 1974’s They Call Her One Eye, the chain-slinging Go Go (Chiaki Kuriyama) a nod to 1975’s Master of the Flying Guillotine, and as with many Japanese action films, people spray blood a la Old Faithful when pierced. Apparently, Tarantino fashioned each character’s sequences after a different genre — this round, much is Japanese-influenced (next time we’re in for spaghetti westerns and Kung Fu) including a stunning anime flashback.

Queers are more than welcome to the party: like a positive omen, Nancy Sinatra’s take on Sonny Bono’s “Bang Bang” kicks things off; Thurman is deliciously ass-kicking; and there are no evil, degenerate fags.

Popcorn movies don’t get much better than this.