Versus

A very poor film. Mediocre action, characters and acting. A film that uses slapstick, gore and stereotypical "Slick" bag guys, the composed anti-hero, the poor little innocent girl, a Clouseau type inspector and of course your gullible zombie hordes which march to their deaths in a series of slaughterfests. The film doesn't alter reality it ignores it, from 6 shooter revolvers firing a couple if dozen shots to throwing away your guns for hand to hand combat in the midst of a standoff. Most disappointing was the main characters portrayal as a bad ass but sakaguchis performance was so poor that rather than conveying "not caring" he conveyed "stare straight ahead and don't change that face" The movie gets one star because the yakuza leader really put some effort into his character. In all this blows, some people say that its a movie that a group can relax with a drink and laugh at and enjoy, however thats something that can be easily done with XXX2. Doesn't take much to entertain a couple of drunks and this film isn't very much. Usually when someone criticises eastern cinema by saying says "if that film was made in the west people would say it blows" In these cases I class them then and there as idiots but on this occasion I accept it. This film is just a Japanese cult fad and if it was shot entirely the same with script, plot, level of performance and even the exact same frames, no doubt the public would bomb it. Face it, this blows.

To begin with please don't take this film as serious, as you will be let down. It is in fact a very fun film, which you should really just hop on for the ride as it has some great moments that made me laugh out loud. I'm a big fan of eastern movies, and feel that it stands out on its own due to the combination of styles going on, from the zombie attacks to the samuri / yazuka influence. It travels along at a great pace, the only bad thing about this is the sour taste left in the poor ending, but take that away and its great, and i would say to anyone that they should give it a go, but please watch it with a smile on your face. The sound track is also very good and if anyone knows if it has been released i would love to find out.

This movie actually turned out to be cooler than I expected. I really didn't know what to expect when I was first about to watch this. I only knew it had some zombies,and had something to do with a portal and reincarnation. Its also totally campy, very bloody and gory, and one of the more memorable characters in it. The guy who runs around and screams all the time is hilarious. The dialog is cheesy. It has a decent story to it. Its just a fun movie. The visuals will keep you glued by themselves. This is a very low budget movie, but just remember , if you go to watch it, have no expectations. This movie will make you say " What the F" more than make you think. There is also a nice shot at Matrix movies too. Pretty cool movie and I in no way expected the movie to end the way it did. I wonder if there is more to come?

From the get-go, you'll know that this is a film that relies almost solely on its style and its visual slickness. Low budget in the good sense, Versus resembles early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson works (Bad Taste springs primarily to mind). It combines good-humored gore with Luc Besson-ish wide lens shots and quirkiness (the characters here reminded me of The Boondock Saints in their flamboyance), along with some very creative martial arts sequences. At some point, in fact, it gets so over-the-top it starts to play out more like a Stephen Chow movie. It then jumps from Night of the Living Dead to Mortal Kombat to Highlander, making a stop or two at X-Men along the way. This eastern/western mix works surprisingly well and the result is highly entertaining, if you enjoy this kind of thing. Just don't go looking for any depth, causality, plot logic, or plot altogether, really. The few dialogue scenes are a mess (excluding the one that takes place when everything turns an orange shade, about an hour into the film), and often serve only as a backdrop for canted steadicam close-ups and multi-character Mexican standoffs. This is not high brow cinema, it's high octane. And it was perfectly fine by me. It is when the film discards some of its humor that it begins to lose its charm, but even then, the spectacularly choreographed martial arts kept me entertained. I would be interested in seeing "The Ultimate Versus" – a director's cut that's ten minutes longer and has CGI special effects, according to IMDb.

P.S. There are few things I hate more than a dubbed movie, but in this case (like in Shaolin Soccer), I found that at certain scenes (particularly ones involving "the runt" – the wacky short guy), the English dubbing actually adds to the absurdity of the film. Anyway, the DVD offers both the American and the original Japanese dialogue tracks.

This movie, while made to be an action type with some subtle humor, grades pretty low to folks looking for an action movie to snuggle up with and watch alone. This movie is much, much more fun to watch with others, preferably with a sense of humor.

If you're not a fan of action, and are looking for anything remotely deep and meaningful, look someplace else.

The movie is shot entirely in a forest setting, with the times shifting from morning to twilight frequently.

The action is very well put together despite being on an obvious low budget. I recommend this movie to anyone with a few hours to kill with a few friends.