There are influential movies and then there are wildly influential movies. Movies like "The Matrix", "Dawn of the Dead", and "The Evil Dead" have spawned countless imitators (though "rip-offs" is usually more accurate) that have ranged from passable to bad to downright awful. They usually come off feeling like the result of a handful of board meetings where guys in Versace suits sit around saying stuff like, "Yeah, yeah...we gotta make a movie for the kids, see? With lots of kung-fu fightin', see? And lots of explosions, see?" Still, from time to time, that rare film comes along that transcends being simply "average" in its outright theft of ideas, and combines multiple and diverse influences into something that to some resembles greatness. So, instead of falling lightly into the category of also-ran rip-off movie, "Versus" mixes its diverse influences together into a great, steaming hot stew of rollicking zombie action. While "Versus" may not be "great cinema", it is very definitely "great fun". It's the kind of flick that just begs to be watched by you and your drunken pals over and over again. But...and you just knew I was going to say this...there's a little bit more than meets the eye. It's also a fairly effective microcosmic overview of Buddhist reincarnation beliefs.
The synopsis...
It all starts with an amazingly simple plot...a pair of recently escaped convicts trudges through a deep dark forest, looking for a rendezvous point so they can meet up with the Yakuza boss that was responsible for their being able to bust out so readily. They meet the boss' cronies, as the boss himself is inexplicably held up somewhere else. One of the convicts decides to give the Yakuza fellows a hard time when they start roughing up a pretty girl they have with them (for no particular reason). Threats are tossed back and forth, and when attitude boy gets his hand on a gun and kills one of the Yakuza guys, more threats and posturing ensue. Then, when for no good reason the dead Yakuza guy stands up, all hell breaks loose! The other convict is killed, and runs off into the creepy forest with the girl, while the Yakuza guys try to figure out why their dead pal won't stay down. From there, it's all about the gunfights and hand-to-hand fights, baby, as we find that this is no ordinary forest, but a cursed place where the dead don't stay dead for long. Plus, as this is a place where the Yakuza have routinely brought the corpses of their gangland rivals for many years, the forest is soon teeming with pissed off, half-rotted Yakuza zombies...most of whom are armed to the teeth.
Can our pretty-boy antihero and the cute 'n' mysterious girly make it out alive? Will the Yakuza find him and knock him off? Will the boss ever show up? What is the strange cosmic connection between all of these characters? All these questions and more will be very loosely answered in the just shy of two hours of the uncut version of this film. Don't expect to be blown away by intricate and mind-bending plot, though. This is an action horror film, plain and simple. In fact, as an onscreen rendering of the "Resident Evil" games, "Versus" unintentionally succeeds far better than Paul Thomas "Hack" Anderson's "Resident Evil" movie. This is the absolute essence of "survival horror", but it's got so much more than that, too...
What's that? You want "Matrix"-style wire-fu and bullet time action? You got it! You want "Evil Dead"-inspired goofy dude in the woods antics? You got that, too! You want hordes and hordes and ever-fuckin' hordes of gooey Romero-style zombies? Well, bro, you've got those too! In fact, the kitchen sink approach is really the best thing about "Versus". It's got some of the best, wildest, bloodiest, and most vivid gunfights and samurai sword duels in recent memory. Sure, it's not as outrageously gory as you might have heard, even in this completely uncut form. Still, there's more than enough blood 'n' guts 'n' severed arms, legs, 'n' heads to make every gore freak happy for days, and that's sayin' somethin'!
I have to stress that this is not great cinema. It's good, gory fun...and that's it. Still, you can do a lot (and I mean A LOT) worse for spur of the moment, relatively memorable kick-ass zombie and Yakuza mayhem. Along with "Junk", "Versus" is creating a viable (and bankable) subgenre out of the Yakuza/Zombie epic, and I'll take either of these highly derivative yet uniquely original films over the mounds of studio dreck any day.
There are, it seems, quite a few editions of this film available on DVD. For this review, I've watched the KSS Films Special Edition. It's not jam packed with extras, but it's no "bare bones" edition, either. It features a handful of trailers, a "Making Of" documentary (not subtitled, 'natch), an odd "side-story" short film that features some of the characters from the feature presentation, and a commentary track featuring the Director and some of the cast (also, sadly, with no subs). Still, it's a cool little package, and one that deserves a close second (or third) look. "Versus" is one of the most fun splatter epics that I've seen in quite a while. It ain't great film, but it sure is a heap of bloody goodness! Highly recommended...so much so that it gets the Atrocities Cinema Essential Award...
There are influential movies and then there are wildly influential movies. Movies like "The Matrix", "Dawn of the Dead", and "The Evil Dead" have spawned countless imitators (though "rip-offs" is usually more accurate) that have ranged from passable to bad to downright awful. They usually come off feeling like the result of a handful of board meetings where guys in Versace suits sit around saying stuff like, "Yeah, yeah...we gotta make a movie for the kids, see? With lots of kung-fu fightin', see? And lots of explosions, see?" Still, from time to time, that rare film comes along that transcends being simply "average" in its outright theft of ideas, and combines multiple and diverse influences into something that to some resembles greatness. So, instead of falling lightly into the category of also-ran rip-off movie, "Versus" mixes its diverse influences together into a great, steaming hot stew of rollicking zombie action. While "Versus" may not be "great cinema", it is very definitely "great fun". It's the kind of flick that just begs to be watched by you and your drunken pals over and over again. But...and you just knew I was going to say this...there's a little bit more than meets the eye. It's also a fairly effective microcosmic overview of Buddhist reincarnation beliefs.
