Alive (2002)

[Post #6 of the Blaugust Challenge.]

The maker and some of the cast of Versus are back in yet another manga-like production, again dealing with prison and prisoners. The main character, a man who violently killed a bunch of rapists, actually begins the movie on the electrocution chair but after a strange turn of events finds himself trapped in a different environment (a large room) with a convicted serial rapist. The two are free to do whatever they like (except leave) and can order from the supervisors monitoring this "experiment" almost anything they like.

Up to there it's a pretty good premise, but then they add a third female prisoner - one possessed by an evil alien spirit and things get a bit wonky when she starts messing with their heads. Then comes the last third of the movie where I think the script writers went "Yeah, that's enough intrigue. Let's just start everyone getting killed!" Usually I enjoy when the crazy violence starts but here it's almost out of place, especially when they bring in another genetically modified alien spirit fighter thing for a showdown. What? Wouldn't they be better off trying to placate the overly powerful being instead of surrounding it with automatic weapons that are ludicrously within arms reach?

Mysterious for all of two seconds.

While the story is more cohesive than the last outing alas all the good fighting done in Versus is missing here, switched out mostly for special effects. This brings its score down for me to another two bullets out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: Some of you might be wondering whats with my scoring system, and why I don't just leave it as simple as 2/5 in this case. Basically it is Tom Vasel's fault! For those who don't know, Tom Vasel is one of the board game reviewers for the Dice Tower and when I started getting into board games it was his clear and passionate reviews on Youtube I would turn to first to get a feel of what I should and shouldn't buy. In his later stuff he gives everything a numbered score followed by something relevant to the game which I obviously found cool hence I am trying to emulate it here.

Versus (2000)

[My fifth Blaugust post!]

This Japanese action film is a bit of a mix mash in its content AND its story telling. Starting out by following two escaped prisoners to their getaway group sounds like an interesting enough setup. Until I mention that the same getaway group has brought a kidnapped girl with them, and the forest they are meeting up in is spawning zombies (armed with firearms no less), and the big bad guy uses swords, guns and magic. By the time the two comedic policemen come looking, one with a still bleeding decapitated hand, you might have forgotten that there were escaped convicts to begin with.

It's also like the director was trying to make a manga in some shots where you have all the actors standing in somewhat un-natural positions, not looking at each other while they talk (sometimes for an entire dialogue) but they are all visible and posed for the camera.

Plot aside, the comedy and the acting is a bit hit and miss but at least the action and violence makes up for a fair bit of that. It's pretty aptly named too since everything else is just a big wrapper of fluff around the good guy vs the bad guy. 

One can never have enough weapons!

Definitely not one to be taken seriously, but if you enjoy a bit of brawling, wire work, gun and sword play and can endure Japanese humor (and a little gore) then you might actually enjoy this one! I give it two and a half bullets out of five.

Blaugust Bonus: I began enjoying foreign films after I got into anime, which led me to getting used to the whole subtitle thing. As a strange bonus, I've watched so many Japanese ones that I can sometimes tell when the subtitles have a wrong translation for some of the words - despite me not being able to speak Japanese in the first place.