"Kill Bill: Volume I," the proudly proclaimed "Fourth Film By Quentin Tarantino" (following "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," and "Jackie Brown"), is a deliciously over-the-top picture that both celebrates all kinds of B-movie genres and expands upon them. It's the story of an ex-assassin who seeks revenge on her former partners in a multitude of creative and violent ways after they destroy her wedding party, murder her unborn child, and almost manage to kill her. Well, sort of.

It's also the story of a movie geek who grew up determined to pay homage to the blaxploitation, horror, kung fu, and samurai flicks that he spent his 1970's childhood viewing in local grindhouses. Since it appears as if Tarantino had thought up every single cool idea he could and tossed it on the screen, it's difficult not to get caught up in the movie's excited spirit and eager, honest desire to entertain its audience.

"Kill Bill" is not exceptionally layered in terms of plot or even character. A character simply named "The Bride" (Uma Thurman of "Pulp Fiction") is determined to kill the five people who have deeply wronged her (Lucy Liu from "Charlie's Angels," Darryl Hannah from "Splash," Vivica A. Fox from "Independence Day," Michael Madsen from "Reservoir Dogs," and David Carradine from the television series "Kung Fu" as the titular Bill). She spends the entire movie fighting and killing their henchmen, and then fighting and killing the bad guys themselves.

Ostensibly, a good portion of the second volume will feature her killing the ones she didn't manage to knock off the first time around. Then again, plot isn't really the point of the movie -- the plot seems more like a loose framework upon which to drape some incredibly choreographed, jaw-dropping fight scenes, augmented by hysterically funny moments, and odd gimmicks such as one entire part done completely in anime to "introduce a villain." It also is used to showcase as many of Tarantino's favorite character actors as possible, such as Michael Parks ("From Dusk Till Dawn") and Sonny Chiba ("Invasion of the Neptune Men"), who are billed in the credits in much larger type than is awarded to even the A-list female stars.

A lot of times, certain filmgoers walk out of action and horror movies muttering that they aren't not "extreme" enough to properly satisfy their tastes. For that particular type of movie fan, fear not. The level of violence in this film is absolutely beyond belief. Special effects house KNB provides everything needed for a proper gorefest extravaganza, from "the little painful things" like bitten-off tongues and yanked-out eyeballs, to "the big hilarious things" such as the improbably gushing geysers of blood that spray everything in sight whenever somebody loses a limb or a head. At certain times, it becomes near-agonizing to watch for all but the most callous of viewers, but generally, so long as you're not completely squeamish, the gore is so overdone that it immediately lets you follow up your winces with giggles.

Even the mid-afternoon theater audience I saw the film with seemed to be transformed by the awe-inspiring craziness of the movie. Cat-calls, gasps, and obscenities jubilantly screamed as if they were hallelujahs rang through the theater, and at the end of every well-done fight sequence or dryly-delivered punchline, there was thunderous applause. It was as if everyone watching "Kill Bill" had been transported back in time to the period when movie-going crowds knew the art of interacting with a movie without being obnoxious, how to get involved in ways far beyond loudly complaining about its quality by means of cell phone.

"Kill Bill" carefully sidesteps the most annoying recent trend in action movies, which is attempting to add "deeper layers" and "moments of great meaning" in places where there should be none. That doesn't mean "Kill Bill" is dumbed down, either. In fact, in a gutsy move, which could have easily alienated a good portion of the average viewing population, Tarantino has shot a great many significant scenes completely or almost-completely in Japanese, with English subtitles. Another director might have taken the cheap way out and performed an all-too-common tiresome riff on bad dubbing, with goofy sight gags involving characters appearing to talk for much longer than the dubs. Tarantino, however, has far too much respect for his original source material to do such a thing; he seems to know it would, in a sense, go against the same values of honor that his characters prize so deeply in the film.

One probably wouldn't consider "Kill Bill" a work of great cinema, and the sequel will also most likely not live up to the standards of great works of art. Despite its lack of the scintillating conservations and sheer innovation which made "Pulp Fiction" so beloved in multiplexes and art houses alike, "Kill Bill" is enjoyable in its own way, and serves as proof, at least, that Quentin Tarantino still possesses whatever gift made him such a popular success in the mid-1990's.

Compared to other films of its kind that have come out recently, "Kill Bill" stands head and shoulders above all of its competitors. It gracefully and easily maintains the delicate balance between two of the greatest movie delights: the pleasures a big-budget action movie can give and the lovable charm an underground cult classic has to offer. It is a balance that only Tarantino seems to be able to strike perfectly.