'Kill Bill,' 'Timeline' come out on DVD

A couple of films from late last year have made their way to DVD this week.

"Kill Bill, Vol. 1" (Miramax, 2003; R for violence, language, sex; $29.99). It's way too violent, of course, and as over-the-top as it can be, but this stylish first of two features on a theme by Quentin Tarantino is also, here and there, quite fascinating.

Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, left for dead at her wedding ceremony by the title character (a barely seen David Carradine). So, when she awakens from a coma, she does what any self-respecting trained assassin would do — she gets revenge. Most notably on Vivica A. Fox and Lucy Liu (and dozens of others), as she makes her way to Bill. (There's also nice work by Sonny Chiba, a kung fu-movie icon in Hong Kong.) And that's really all there is, with little in the way of character development or witty dialogue (though the second film apparently has more of that and less mayhem).

The bloody violence is of the Hong Kong spurt-and-squirt variety, and there's also plenty of profane language, as you would expect from Tarantino. But fans of "grind-house" cinema will appreciate all the references to other movies, ranging from the Shaw Brothers' kung-fu pictures to Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill." (There's even an animated sequence.)

On the featurette, Tarantino talks about his influences and motivations, and what he wants to do with his career, but he doesn't really say anything that will surprise fans who have read or watched other interviews.

Extras: Widescreen, making-of featurette, musical performance of two songs by the female Japanese band The 5.6.7.8.'s, trailers of Tarantino films, etc.

"Timeline" (Paramount, 2003, PG-13, $29.99). This silly adaptation of Michael Crichton's time-travel novel, directed by Richard Donner (the "Lethal Weapon" movies), has characters who always seem out of breath. And yet, the movie tends to drag.

Of course, it's by design that the characters are always running away from or toward something — they don't want to give the audience time to think about the plot too much. But you will, and it's pretty much unfathomable.

To some degree, that's OK. Time-travel plots seldom make much sense if you examine them too closely. But "Timeline" takes itself too seriously and has performances that seem, at best, perfunctory. The time travel you'll be most concerned about is how much more time there is before you can travel away from this movie.

The story has a group of young archaeologists being "faxed" back to 14th-century France in search of their mentor (Billy Connolly). Among them are his assistant (Frances O'Connor) and his son (Paul Walker), who manage to find some time for a bit of romance in between battles with the British, who are laying siege to France.

But never mind the plot; it's indecipherable. (Even three featurettes don't help make sense of it.)

And so is the casting. Accepting Walker as Connolly's son is about as easy as accepting Walker as an actor.

Extras: Widescreen, making-of featurettes, trailers, etc.

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E-mail: hicks@desnews.com