Reviews

I always saw David F. Friedman as basically a low budget Roger Corman. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed many of the David Friedman classics (such as Two Thousand Maniacs and She Freak), but those films paled in comparison next to the wraith of Johnny Firecloud.

The movie plays out like Charles Bronson's Deathwish, only more violent. The bad guys, a group of country fried bigots lead by head bigot Mr. Colby, are truly wicked. This wickedness, which includes rape, murder, and torturing of the elderly, is truly disturbing, but in the long run makes the bad guy's deaths even more enjoyable to watch. The good guys (Johnny Firecloud, the Sheriff, and Chief White Eagle), have qualities that make them likable as heroes, but also flaws that make them seem more human (like White Eagle's drinking problem, and the inner turmoil faced by the Sheriff caused by his "sexual secrete"). But with any David Friedman film, the main draw is the gore, and this film has it....boy does it have it.

Granted, there are flaws, mainly in the acting. Sacheen Littlefeather gives a rather stiff performance and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, some of the bad guys tend to put on the southern act a little too thick.

So with that said, Robot Rancher's Final Score is a big 7 points. A solid film with enough eye gouging, scalp lifting, crotch socking violence to keep any David Friedman fan happy.

Hal Warren would still lose.

The movie is so bad, its just, well bad...I had the misfortune of seeing this one without the help of Joel and the bots from MST3k, and I must say, I am lucky to come out of the experience with enough brain cells intact to write this review.

Everything about this movie was just plain wrong. The film was so grainy and washed out, it looked like the Cinematography was supervised by Abraham Zupruder. The acting was so bad it made Plan 9 From Outer Space look like Citizen Kane. And the soundtrack....ohhh the soundtrack....well all I can say about that is that for some odd reason, it fit perfectly as the theme tune for a dirty guy with big knees (at least Hal Warren got that one right).

As for things like plot and character development, well theres no need for us to worry about those since they are not even present in this film.

Robot Rancher's final score: 1. I must say this for Hal Warren: for a man who use to sell cow manure for a living....he certainly could make a stinky movie.

Gojira (the version minus Perry Mason a.k.a. Raymond Burr), is by far superior to both its American Release version and the other Godzilla knock-offs that followed. In the American Release, the story is reduced to little more than a narrative by Raymond Burr, with most of the dialogue either badly dubbed, or completely cut out of the film all together. However, in the original release, you get a better feel of the story and the characters, as well as a better sense of the movies message on the evils of atomic power, and the consequences of tampering with nature.

In the original version, you also get a much better sense of Dr. Serizawa's frustration and the dilemma he must face in giving the world the weapon that he had invented that could defeat Gojira (a dilemma that was probably shared by the scientists that helped develop the atomic bomb).

Robot Ranchers rating: 8 out of 10. Gojira is by far darker, and not as much fun as the later Godzilla movies featuring Jet Jaguar and the pantheon of other crazy giant creatures, but it is a much stronger film and shares little with the kiddie orientated nature of the other films that followed in the genera that it created.

Not a bad film, but not a good one either. Kitano's usual crisp writing style is all together missing in this film which has a rather basic plot (a pathetic middle-aged man who's goal in life is to one day have sex in a car), but at the same time is mired by the off the wall misadventures of the main character Asao. In fact, Asao's adventures become so off the wall that by the end of the film, I completely lost track of how he wound up in his final state (or maybe by the end of the film I just didnt care anymore to think about it). What makes the off the wall plot even worse is the smattering of off the wall characters to go with it (like the pink nighty wearing Yakuza Boss, the old man who steals Asao's "bomb cake", and the dying Yakuza gangster who keeps popping up every so often to give Asao a helping hand).

However, despite its shortcomings, the movie did have its moments. Kitano's scientist character was rather amusing, and it was a fresh change to see him playing a character that didnt shoot anyone in the face (its kinda like seeing Clint Eastwood in a comedy). Also the film did some pretty good lampooning on popular Japanese film genres (such as the Yakuza Film, and the Giant Monster Movie).

In conclusion, Minna yatteruka was an o.k. comedy, but thats about it. It lacked the subtle humor found in Kitano's other films like Kikujiro which I found more enjoyable. Due to that, I would have to give this film a 6 and a word of advice to the film maker: There is such a thing as having too much "stool" in a movie.

I had the rare privilege of seeing this movie in three of its incarnations: the first being on MST3k, the second being a dubbed US version on tape, and the third being a very rare uncut laserdisk version of the film in the original Japanese. And after seeing this film in all three of its mediums, I must say that it still sucks no matter how you look at it. Everything in this film is just....wrong. The acting, the directing, the kids in little shorts, and of course let us not forget the stock footage featuring the famous "Hitler Building". But if you thought that the US dubbed version was bad (which is what most people have probably seen), well then you'll probably go blind watching the original uncut Japanese version. At least whichever American company that bought the rights from TOEI to feature this film in America had the good sense to cut out the little sing-a-long Mr. Tabana and his children do at the end of the film, praising the bravery of Iron Sharp (a.k.a. Space Chief, or Chef, or whatever) in bad harmony. Too bad they didnt show that on MST3K.

All in all, the movie does have a good point, that being its so bad, its almost funny. Other than that, if your looking for a more serious Japanese Sci-Fi film, then Prince of Space might be a better choice.