Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots
“Til Death Do Us Part” is a “Kill Bill” rip-off that’s not an inherently bad movie, but it does have its fair share of problems. The idea of a killer bride certainly isn’t original, but the film isn’t helped by the fact that director Timothy Woodward Jr. isn’t the greatest storyteller. His film lacks brevity, and it’s painful to watch scene after scene of filler that could’ve easily been cut. He can’t seem to get to the point quickly, which makes this a draggy chore to sit through.
After running away on her wedding day, the Bride (Natalie Burn) finds herself in a fight for survival against her former fiancé (Ser’Darius Blain) and his seven deadly groomsmen (including Cam Gigandet, Orlando Jones, Alan Silva, and Pancho Moler). It’s a story of revenge and independence, with plenty of bloody fighting and clandestine history that will eventually be revealed.
An experienced martial artist and classically trained ballet dancer, Burn performs her own stunts and it shows. The fight scenes are extremely well done, and her athleticism gives them an authentic look and feel. The stunt fighting is good, but the timing between action and dramatic scenes is too long. Woodward Jr. also has a lot of bad habits, like setting his bloody fistfights to oldies from the 50s and 60s (yawn!), and refusing to even make a minimal effort to suppress his obvious obsession with Quentin Tarantino.
It’s one thing to have a couple of inspired homages to another writer and director’s films, but here it feels like the work of a straight copycat that’s distracting and desperate. I lost count at all of the similarities and references to Tarantino’s written and filmed work, including “True Romance,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and obviously, “Kill Bill.” A couple of winks at the audience would’ve been fun, but the film goes too far with too many dead ringer scenes (not to mention the blatant knockoff of Hans Zimmer’s iconic theme to “True Romance”).
The story is really confusing early on, and is exasperatingly obtuse. There’s the runaway killer bride tract that’s continually interrupted by a dreamlike flashback of the bride and groom with a vacationing couple (Nicole Arlyn and Jason Patric). It’s unclear how the two stories fit together, and a bit more explanation is needed because the narrative feels like two very different films rolled into one very long one. Eventually there’s a payoff to the long and slow setup, but it takes far too long to get there.
“Til Death Do Us Part” is the kind of movie that would play well at the local drive-in. It’s not as good as it could’ve been, and it would’ve worked much better as a short. This is a simple story that’s made into something unnecessarily convoluted, is drawn out into an overly long movie, and sadly becomes more repetitive than fun.
By: Louisa Moore / SCREEN ZEALOTS
