There is no doubt that the ultra-violent, stylish and engrossing Kill Bill Volume 1 will open to decent numbers at the box office, with many experts predicting $20-$25 million over the weekend.

It could be the box office champion, beating the enjoyable comedy of the sexes, Intolerable Cruelty.

The question is whether it will stay on and whet the appetite for the second Kill Bill which opens in February 2004.

The first film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino in nearly six years, Kill Bill was made as one movie. But Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein convinced the maverick director that it would work better as two movies.

Miramax is the producer and distributor for the films.

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The 93-minute-long Kill Bill Volume 1 has no big stars: Uma Thurman, despite her spirited performance and dazzling stunts, is not big enough for a giant killing at the box office.

The film will have to survive on its own. And if it earns less than $100 million, the prospects for the second film will not look bright.

Kill Bill was made for about $100 million, which means unless both films generate at least $250 million worldwide in theatre tickets, video and DVD sales and other ancillary revenues, Miramax will be in the red on these films.

Even Tarantino's name cannot offer a box office guarantee for a big hit.

After Pulp Fiction, notable for its violence and shock value, became a hit with the critics and earned a stunning $300 million worldwide in 1994, Tarantino came out with a minor success three years later. Jackie Brown wasn't exactly a box office or critical dud. But it made just about $100 million; much more was expected from the filmmaker.

Not surprisingly for an eagerly awaited film, Kill Bill has received mixed critical response. But the reviews have been more upbeat than downbeat in the major newspapers.

A pregnant woman who is called The Bride (Thurman) is shot by the father of her child and beaten up by his four assassins -- Vivica A Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen. She goes into a coma, is hospitalised and wakes up four years later. Her baby has died, there is a metal plate in her skull and revenge tormenting her mind and soul.

'The worst thing about the first Quentin Tarantino picture in five years is that, after 93 minutes of some of the most luscious violence and spellbinding storytelling you are likely to see this year, Kill Bill ends,' wrote The Boston Globe. 'It sort of feels cheated to leave the theatre wanting more,' it said. The newspaper decided the film was a 'pulse-quickening martial arts magnum opus.'

The New York Times, which owns the Globe, liked the movie but not as passionately as the Boston daily. 'Way too cool? Not cool enough? As I said, it depends,' wrote A O Scott. 'The movie geek in-jokes are sometimes amusing and sometimes annoying.'

The Chicago Tribune declared: 'No one combines tension and release, violence and humour, dialogue and action and music and pictures the way [Tarantino] does.'

In Rolling Stone magazine, Peter Travers welcomed the film, saying, 'Kill Bill is damn near as good as Tarantino thinks it is.'

'No use hammering Tarantino for raiding the lost Ark of 1970s pop culture when his movie is killingly funny, wildly inventive, bloody as a gushing artery and heart-stoppingly beautiful,' Travers added. 'Tarantino has the talent to show us what's sacred about the profane, even if you didn't enjoy a misspent youth in seedy theatres with floors sticky from God knows what. In Kill Bill, Tarantino brings delicious sin back to movies -- the thrill you get from something down, dirty and dangerous.'

Even some of the reviewers who had reservations about the film called it watchable. The trade publication Hollywood Reporter wrote: 'This movie lacks humour, subtext, unpredictability and... rich dialogue. Instead of rethinking genre movies, here he is a slave to them.'

But reviewer Kirk Honeycutt also added: 'Make no mistake: The film is hugely watchable. Robert Richardson's cinematography, both in colour and black and white, is fluid, brilliantly lit and dazzling to behold.'

Come Sunday evening, the prelimary verdict will be in. Whether the revenge and martial arts saga will be a big profit machine for Miramax will be known after three or four weeks, especially after the film opens abroad.

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