dsb-6

just back from seeing this. what do i think.... hmmmm.....

well, it doesn't really veer from the established template - someone sees a horrible accident - this time during a car race - one of those silly American nascar type things. lots of people get squished, smashed etc etc, last guy to die wakes up before the accident, pulls his friends and some assorted strangers out, they survive, they start to die one by one.

the opening credits feature cgi wire frame recreations of deaths from previous entries in the series which is kind of nice. what isn't nice is that ( and this isn't really a spoiler at all ), the final deaths in the film - which surely should be the best, the flashiest, the goriest, are also done in this way for no reason that i can make out.

also, death seems to cheat in this one - during the setup of the opening race crash we see screws mysteriously undoing. what was good about the first film was that you could put everything down to coincidence - the deaths could all be natural accidents for the most part.

as to the deaths in this one, some are rather gory yet in other ways tame - in part 2 one of the highlights of the film was the part where the fat kid had a giant pane of glass fall on him, causing him to splatter everywhere. in this one, when people have heavy items fall on them that doesn't happen - they are just gone. there is a gratuitous topless shot in this - but the makers didn't take the advice i offered after seeing my bloody valentine 3d and use someone with comedy breasts - they are totally normal ones.

and then onto the 3d effects... they are impressive in part but the problem is, after about 15 minutes you tend to not notice the 3d anymore - you forget that you are watching it except in certain bits - often subtle ones like a safety plaster floating in the foreground while in a swimming pool.

some of the deaths here are inventive, others less so - i still don't think they top what we saw in part 2 which for me remains the best of the series.

overall it's worth watching, good fun but any attempt at innovation seems to be gone from the series.

Lots of memories on this one! - from the perspective of someone who was a young kid at the time....

This show really appealed to me at the time as it was somehow more brutal than other series of it's ilk - thunderbirds, terrahawks etc. in this series people got blown up - done with, they didn't survive, the bad guys wore bandages as the series went forwards (!), main characters were killed off - this was not the usual! i also have strong memories of the evil guy's catfish shaped spaceship - the series built up it's showdown with the red robot in the same way a pro wrestling show would build up an upcoming match! - so when the showdown finally came.. what an adrenalin rush for a 10 year old boy!

i dare say if i were to view it today i'd be less forgiving of technical qualities - plus the undoubted fact that the series was re-cut and edited on it's journey from japan to england - but even so, great memories!

a bizarre film for sure! I feel the director certainly had artful intentions despite the lurid happenings. whenever we see the protagonist at work he is doing the most boring job imaginable - fold a sheet of paper, stamp it, sign it, move on to the next. in comparison to his work, his extra curricular activities are based around sexual violence and indeed violence in general. perhaps the director was trying to show that people leading boring everyday lives wish they could do something, anything to relieve the tedium, desperate to break the rules of their society just for once... as if to convince themselves that they really do matter and can make a difference.