Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011) Review

Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011) Review

 

Some of the most insane sci-fi/fantasy/action/horror films I’ve ever seen have come from Japan. Let me give credit where credit is due: no other country has been making films that are as off-the-wall and as insanely creative for so many decades as them. Some are so scary they aren’t even enjoyable (Audition), and some are so insane they can barely be explained (Infra-Man). Karate-Robo Zaborgar is definitely one of the strangest tokusatsu (Japanese special-effects-heavy sci-fi/action films) I’ve ever seen, but let me at least attempt to describe it.

Yutaka Daimon has a robot brother named Zaborgar who can transform into a motorcycle and is really good at karate. Zaborgar also has gadgets and special abilities, which help out Daimon a lot when they have to fight against the evil forces of Sigma, an organization that is trying to extract DNA from politicians to help them build a giant mech. One of Sigma’s creations, Ms. Borg, is a seductive fem-bot who bewilders a bunch of cops by flying her detached head around with a little rocket booster coming out the bottom of her neck and kissing one of the cops right on the lips. This bewilderment happens in the first couple minutes of the movie, by the way. Daimon sort of has a relationship with Ms. Borg after they accidentally kiss while they are fighting in tandem with Zaborgar fighting her own female robot sidekick, then they make out while riding on their robots in motorcycle form alongside each other in a shot that is so absurd it’s hilarious and almost beautiful. What follows is an extremely uncomfortable, ah, shall we say, intimate moment? And it involves a bunch of tentacles coming out of her. And that isn’t even the weirdest part of the movie.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar is practically a critic-proof movie. How can you criticize something like this? Despite the way it might sound, it’s actually very easy to follow, and is not an accidental disaster. The filmmakers were very intentional in the design and execution, and there are many purposefully funny moments throughout. Then there are parts that will make you scratch your head, like when a flashback explains Daimon had a human twin brother and their father fed his brother man breast milk (!)(?), which may have been what killed him, and Daimon always blamed his father for his brother’s death, then after Sigma killed his father, Daimon watched a film reel that introduced him to Zaborgar, which was created by his father using his brother’s DNA, so the robot is also his brother, technically. Then there are parts that are completely out of nowhere, like three robo-women wearing bikinis under football gear and playing pass with steel footballs that are actually bombs and they throw them at Daimon and Zaborgar before attacking Zaborgar with dinosaur heads that grow out of their breasts and buttocks. I mean, seriously...what? 

These might sound like some of the strangest and most original ideas to be featured in any movie ever, but actually, not all of them are. This movie is part homage and part remake of the TV series Denjin Zaboga, with many of the same characters and concepts. I had no idea the movie was based on a pre-existing show when I saw it for the first time, but it didn’t diminish the entertainment value—in fact, I think I found it even more entertaining when I was clueless about its origins because I was just so taken aback by what I was seeing. Clips of the original show are featured during the end credits, and it’s an effective demonstration of how thoughtful the filmmakers were in paying tribute to it, recreating many of the visuals almost to a tee. That being said, most of the green screen effects are quite bad, and the action utilizes too much shaky cam, but it still feels like a modern update on the 70’s-era films and TV shows that it’s trying to emulate.

In case it isn’t already obvious, I have to make it clear that this is supposed to be a funny movie and it should not be taken seriously in any way shape or form. The humour comes from many of the weird ideas, but mainly it’s from the characters. Daimon is whiny and annoying in the first half of the film, but it mostly helps add to the comedy. I have to mention the villain, who is a wheelchair bound old man with a partially burnt face covered with half a robot mask, and he has many bizarre goons working for him in addition to Ms. Borg. The dialogue, too, is very humourous, but there are a few talking scenes between the wacky action scenes that drag a bit, which the dialogue usually helps carry, but not always.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar has some of the most unbelievably ridiculous shit I have ever seen in any movie, and as someone who has seen many movies like this, that’s saying something. I do not recommend watching it alone or with a sober state of mind. Get your friends over, have some drinks or dabble with whatever substances tickle your fancy, and put this thing on to have one hell of a schlock movie night.

28 Weeks Later (2007) Review

28 Weeks Later (2007) Review

 

“When days turn to weeks, the horror returns…” So reads one of the taglines for the sequel to 28 Days Later: a sequel that had a lot to live up to. The first movie was a gritty, adrenaline-pumping post-apocalyptic horror-thriller, and is still talked about today as one of the movies that contributed to a resurgence in the zombie sub-genre (even though the monsters aren’t really zombies), but 28 Weeks Later isn’t brought up as often, especially not in the discussion of great horror sequels. Is that because it’s bad? Well, no, actually. I don’t think a sequel was strictly necessary with the way 28 Days Later wrapped up at the end, but 28 Weeks Later, despite not being quite as revered as the first movie by most, is a top-notch sequel.

It begins with Don and Alice, a couple holed up in a cottage with other survivors during the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus, discussing if their absent children will be OK. Soon, the infected are busting their way into the cottage, and Don does the unthinkable: he abandons his wife so he can escape, and it is a harrowing chase sequence. We skip ahead several months and a safe zone has been established, called District One, which is protected by American forces. Don managed to survive, and he is reunited with his two kids who were out of the country when the outbreak occurred. He lies to his kids about their mother, saying she died, and already there is significant tension in the audience knowing the truth that the kids don’t know. The brother-sister sneak out of the safe zone in search of their old home, and what they find leads to the virus breaking out again. The military forces put all their efforts into protecting an individual who may carry immunity in their blood and trying to keep the virus from reaching the mainland.

The cast is good, but a bit distracting with how famous some of the actors have become. This was before Jeremy Renner was in several action movie franchises or Idris Elba had played several badass characters in genre films or Rose Byrne was known for her comedic roles. For the time, Renner seemed perfectly apt as a sniper soldier and Elba made a great US army sergeant and Byrne played a convincing (if somewhat dull) scientist. It’s strange that neither Elba nor Byrne use their British accents though. It makes sense for the characters they’re playing, but with it still being set in Britain I find it curious they didn’t get cast as British characters, but I think the international success of 28 Days Later influenced this outcome. The original’s success also meant a slightly higher production budget for the sequel, and it definitely achieves a larger sense of scale compared to 28 Days Later, with a more refined look, bigger cast, bigger moments, and more special effects, but not to the detriment of the story being told.  

28 Weeks Later recaptures much of the grittiness and humanism depicted in the first movie despite having a different director. 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle (who handpicked the new director, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) and writer Alex Garland only returned as executive producers, and none of the actors from the original returned, so aside from the location and general premise, there’s little continuity from the first movie story-wise or in terms of who was behind and in front of the camera. One of the only carryovers is composer John Murphy, who re-uses his own theme from 28 Days Later quite a bit. Normally I would be more annoyed at a sequel re-using the same music repeatedly, but he’s the guy who came up with it in the first place, so I can’t be that annoyed, though I do think the score is a little repetitive at times. But, with a theme that effective, I get why it’s used so much. You might think since it’s basically a whole new creative team and a different cast of characters and it’s a bit more polished that it might pull some punches, but let me assure you the brutality is just as severe as before, if not even a bit more severe. 

There’s more action in this one than the original, but it doesn’t turn into a full-on action movie, it’s still primarily about the horror of living in post-apocalyptic Britain. There is one particularly horrific moment that’s a bit of a callback to something horrific that happens at the end of 28 Days Later and this time it’s even more blatant and disturbing, though overall the sequel is still not excessively gory for this kind of movie. One scene that’s a bit of an exception is when a helicopter flies into a horde of infected and chops them up with the rotor blades. Isn’t it weird that another zombie movie came out the same year as 28 Weeks Later that also has a scene with a helicopter chopping up infected people with the rotor blades? The same thing happened in Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez’ half of Grindhouse, but Planet Terror came out first. It’s probably just a weird coincidence. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this.

Not only is 28 Weeks Later a worthwhile sequel, it stands well enough on its own that you don’t even need to have seen the original to get it and to enjoy it (but you should definitely see the original, too) and for anyone who found the first one too slow or lacking action you might even enjoy this one a bit more. While it may seem unlikely that we’ll ever see a third film with it having been so long since the second film came out, 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy has expressed interest in returning for a third entry, as has original director Danny Boyle, and original writer Alex Garland has since gone on to directing as well, so if the tentatively titled 28 Years Later ever does come out with either of those guys behind the camera and Murphy in front, I for one wouldn’t mind seeing it. Maybe they’ll wait until 2030 to release it, because by then it will actually have been 28 years since the release of the first movie!

28 Days Later (2002) Review

28 Days Later (2002) Review

 

You hear the title 28 Days Later and you just know it’s going to be a scary movie based on how ominous it sounds without even knowing anything else about it. Though it’s cited as one of the best zombie movies of the 2000’s, it’s not, actually. What I mean is it’s not technically a zombie movie, but it is one of the best post-apocalyptic horror films of that decade.

It begins with hardcore animal rights activists breaking into a lab to free some chimps being tested with a deadly virus that induces rage and is easily spread. The activists seem to be trying to do something positive, but they inadvertently do the worst thing imaginable. I think the message being conveyed here is not to test on animals in the first place. As the title alludes to, we jump ahead nearly a month to a guy waking up naked in a hospital bed. This is our protagonist Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, and he has been in a coma for the past 28 days from a bike accident, so he has no idea what is going on when he gets up and starts wandering through the desolate hospital and into the eerily empty streets of London. He ventures into a church and is attacked by a priest infected with the virus—talk about a way to shake someone’s faith. He’s rescued by two non-infected survivors and learns about what happened, as well as how brutal and unforgiving the new world order is, but whether or not it’s just London that has turned post-apocalyptic or the entire globe is unclear, so along with a couple other survivors Jim sets out to find a solution to the rage virus.

The reason 28 Days Later isn’t actually a zombie movie is because the virus doesn’t seem to turn people undead. It spreads within 30 seconds and turns victims into mindless raging versions of themselves with seriously scary-looking red eyes, but the dead aren’t rising again, nor are they hungry for flesh or brains, the living are just becoming infected and spreading the virus to other living people. For arguments sake, though, we'll still call them zombies, just a new version. Another big difference between 28 Days Later and older zombie films such as Night of the Living Dead (which, although different, influenced this film quite a bit) is how quick these infected people can move. The Dawn of the Dead remake from 2004 popularized the idea of fast-moving zombies in horror films, but 28 Days Later was the cinematic debut for them, and it’s a simple change that makes them scary in a whole new way. In fact, that’s how I feel about 28 Days Later as a whole: it doesn’t reinvent the genre (not that it needed to) but it reinvents just enough elements while telling a pretty standard post-apocalyptic survival story to make it feel fresh and new instead of stale and repetitive.

There is definitely a focus on the characters and building suspense over action and conventional horror movie scares, but that’s not to say it isn’t scary. There are several disturbing scenes with infected people attacking the survivors, and while there are some bloody moments throughout, it isn’t nearly as graphic or exploitative with the violence as many older, more traditional zombie films. On a rather low budget of five million pounds, English director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland found clever ways to evade it looking cheap or silly, like having characters exchange intriguing dialogue instead of cutting away and showing too much of the back story, or filming in dark settings and using quick cuts. This was one of the earliest films to be shot partially on digital video, which gives it a strange look at times, but also helps the whole thing feel more authentic and gritty, with an almost documentary or found footage aesthetic at times. There are a few questionable “artsy” moments though and a bit too much shaky cam for some of the more kinetic scenes. The music is interesting, but adds to the scariness most of the time, doing so most effectively in the final act. Cillian Murphy was perfectly cast as Jim, and most of the other actors do a good job as well. In a character-focused story like this, there’s a large dependency on the performances, and they sell it well. 

Like many of the great films before it in the same genre, 28 Days Later gives the viewer moments of optimism along the way only to yank that hope out from under you and plunge you back into fright and despair along with the characters. The original ending was reshot to give it a less depressing conclusion, which I think was the right decision, but I am still surprised that after the film’s international success, profitability, and contribution to the resurgence of zombie films, a sequel took five years to be released. We’ll look at the next chapter tomorrow!