Photo courtesy of Miramax Films Uma Thurman, star of "Kill Bill," was the only actress Quentin Tarantino had in mind for the part. She also starred in his 1994 film, "Pulp Fiction."

Rating: 5 out of 5

Blood gushes 10 feet into the air out of a man's decapitated body, which still sits upright in a chair. Lucy Liu holds his head up along with her samurai sword, and tells the other Japanese crime bosses to not mention her Chinese-American heritage again in a negative light, or they will meet a similar fate.

This is when I got out of my seat and cheered for "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" writer and director Quentin Tarantino. "Yes! Thank you, Mr. Tarantino!" Your brilliant bloody kung fu action spaghetti western anime movie is just what everyone needed.

And bloody might be the most important word here. Be forewarned, Tarantino must have used half of his $55 million budget on red dye. But he recognizes the gore is over the top, and that excuse is good enough for me.

Plus, most of this is cartoon type violence! There's even actual extreme cartoon violence in one brilliant anime scene.

The movie's plot can be summed up in its title. But to delve a little deeper, Uma Thurman stars as The Bride/Black Mamba, a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DIVAS). After getting pregnant and leaving the gang, they turn on her and kill her entire wedding party in the church. Bill, the leader of the DIVAS, puts the finishing touches on the massacre, shooting Black Mamba in the head and leaving her for dead.

But Black Mamba doesn't die. She lies comatose for four years and when she wakes up, she immediately starts planning her revenge on every one of the DIVAS. The fighting rarely lets up for the rest of the movie as she takes out some shady characters in the hospital before moving on to her former co-workers.

And in spite of the ultra-violence, fighting has never seemed so graceful with superstar kung fu choreographer Woo-ping Yuen ("Matrix") helping script the action.

While the conclusion of Vol. 1 leaves much to be desired, it provides two of the greatest action scenes in movie history. One battle takes place at the home of newly reformed housewife Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), while another involves O-Ren Ishii's (Liu) new gang of the Crazy 88s. The latter, entitled "House of the Blue Leaves," lasts 20 minutes and took six weeks to shoot.

But don't be fooled by the mostly female action stars. This is not a wimpy "Charlie's Angels" copycat. I forgot during the first fight that these characters had any gender at all.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I think "Kill Bill" is really great. It's like an uber-cool, blood-covered roller coaster with non-stop loop-the-loops. And it's quite remarkable how everything is so stylish, since Tarantino is a big lanky white dork who has a closet full of

ridiculous Wu Wear.

This may be Tarantino's first action flick of his four films. But this former video store clerk has been preparing for this his whole life, making him an incredibly seasoned rookie.

And that's why I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of the top four films that Tarantino's ever made.