Over the course of his decades-long career, Quentin Tarantino has been open about the many genres he has riffed on. One of his most obvious riffs came with the Kill Bill movies, which were released in 2003 and 2004. The films follow Uma Thurman as a female assassin who is out for revenge against the team that betrayed her.
The movies were a riff on Hong Kong action films and featured some genuinely great action in and of themselves. If you were bewitched by those films upon their release, there are plenty of other movies like them that you should be sure to check out. Here are three of the very best.
Death Proof (2007)
If you’re looking for something that closely resembles Tarantino’s Kill Bill, look no further than the next project he worked on. Death Proof follows a stunt driver played by Kurt Russell who likes to take women for deadly drives in his spare time. When he comes face to face with a stunt woman, though, he may find that he’s a little bit over her head.
While Death Proof is the Tarantino most likely to be forgotten, this ode to the down and dirty B-movies that Tarantino loves so muchfeatures plenty of exhilarating car action.
Death Proof is streaming on Starz.
Hanna (2011)
Another movie about a female assassin who is on a mission, Hanna tells the story of a 16-year-old girl who has been trained since birth to become the perfect assassin. When her father sends her on a mission, she begins to discover surprising things about her own past, and questions her humanity as a result.
Featuring an unsurprisingly great performance from Saoirse Ronan (Foe) in the central role, and some genuinely great action set pieces as Hanna roams across Europe, Hanna is every bit as good as any action movie of the 21st century.
Hannah is streaming on Peacock.
Lady Snowblood (1973)
The movie that served as the direct inspiration for Kill Bill, Lady Snowblood tells the story of a woman who has been sworn since birth to hunt down the men who raped her mother and left her to die in a prison during childbirth.
Kill Bill rips several sequences whole cloth from this film, including the final sword battle in Kill Bill Vol. 1, but even more importantly, the movie spends plenty of time on the enormous cost of its central character’s quest for revenge. She may find the blood that she seeks, but what will she lose along the way? Hugely influential to not only Tarantino, but cinema as a whole, Lady Snowblood is also just riveting from beginning to end, and an important watch for any Kill Bill enthusiast.
Lady Snowblood is streaming on Max.
