MBunge If Sam Raimi and gotten drunk when he was 17 and made a movie about Japanese gangsters and zombies, it would have looked a lot like Versus.A couple of escapes from a Japanese prison with "lawbreaker" in English on the front of their prison jumpsuits meet up with a group of Yakuza gangsters in the middle of the forest. T he gangsters are there to pick up the prisoners and help them escape, but insist they wait for another man to arrive. T he prisoners don't care for that, especially one who looks like the boy band version of a badass. Boy Band Badass especially doesn't like it when he finds out the Yakuza have brought a kidnapped girl along with them. They man they're waiting for has plans for her as well, but Boy Band Badass grabs one of the gangsters' guns and demands they let her go. One of the gangsters gets shot dead…and then he comes back to life as a zombie. As Boy Band Badass and the girl flee and the Yakuza pursue, we learn this forest is where the gang has been burying their victims…and they've all come back to life as zombies as well. What follows that is some really crazy stuff as Boy Band Badass fights the Yakuza and they all fight the zombies. Then the man they were all waiting for shows up and we find out this is all some re-enactment of an ancient battle for a dark power of destruction, only this is in modern times and everyone looks like they stepped out of a music video.There is an awful lot of this movie that is laugh out loud goofy. It is never boring, however, and these Japanese filmmakers do know how to film a fight scene. You can actually see what's happening and follow along, rather than the indecipherable blur of jump cuts and microsecond edits that mar most action scenes in American movies. But you can't take anything else in this film at all seriously.If you're high on some illegal or illicit mind-altering substance, you might have a nice trip watching Versus because it's very visually creative. If you'd like something you can bring home and MST3K with your family and friends, Versus might be a nice choice as well. But if you're neither stoned nor snarky, there's not much here to recommend.

Polaris_DiB In the first Matrix, Morpheus says to Neo, "C'mon, stop trying to hit me and hit me!" Then, The Matrix went on to spawn an innumerable list of rip-offs and wannabes, including this over-long piece from Japan. All of those things that The Matrix influenced, however, including its own terrible sequels, seemed to have forgotten that line. Mindless action is fun, and has its place. It can also be incredibly frustrating when the sequences are without consequence. Even martial arts movies with terrible story lines at least have set-pieces that actually move the characters towards some objective. For most of the action in this movie, not so much. This is two hours of people in the woods fighting, and the director never seems to really want anyone to die, and even if they do he CERTAINLY wants to make sure he can fit in some more people to join the not-quite carnage.So here's the deal. It may be considered lazy reviewing to try and write a summary for a movie without figuring out what all of the groups involved in the story are, but in this case I pretty much consider it the point of my review that the specifics in this movie do not matter, at all. Some people arrive in a forest. Gangsters, cops, prison escapees, a female hostage, some necromancer semi-vampire eternal dead dude, and zombies. They all fight each other. The point is that this is some recurring, eternal conflict of good and evil, or at least two sides. The main prison escapee dude is the brother of the necromancer dude, and they have had this fight before, but this time around he's "changed" so he might be able to win (read: he's going to win). The female hostage is a seer with the blood of Resurrection that operates in the forest, the Forest of Resurrection, to resurrect things. These things are made clear with what Uwe Boll-like writing there is between the majority of the Michael Bay-like action scenes that drags the playlength of this movie to two hours (a full hour forty over its necessary playlength). I compare the writing to Uwe Boll because the same basic points are reiterated again and again and again, as if the audience has no ability to connect one revelation to another. "Oh this is the Forest of Resurrection, you say? Then this must be the Forest of Resurrection! And if it's the Forest of Resurrection, than those dead guys must be alive! Oh, so THAT'S why those dead guys are alive. Well since those dead guys are alive, we must be in the Forest of Resurrection. What's that, you say? Well it's where we are!" I compare the action to Michael Bay because it's way too in love with the boomerang cam, and because ninety percent of the movement and editing ultimately comes to the same end result: posturing.Let me put it this way: this movie should have been only forty minutes long, but it could have easily been just fifteen, if any character would actually pull the damn trigger or stab the other person when they actually had a chance. Instead, as soon as any character comes into the position to be eliminated, the person he's fighting against just grins and sneers in pleased victory. It was okay the first, erm, three or four times it happened. By a quarter of the way through the movie, however, there was no longer any excuse. If any of these people actually wanted to win the fight, they would have long beforehand. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me"--the motivations of all of the characters are shot when they're no longer fighting for any real reason but just 'cause, you know, they're in this forest thing, of Resurrection y'see, and, have to, do ... stuff. Meh. Roll out next action sequence! Oh, and the Resurrection and re-incarnation plot points pretty much guarantee that this whole thing will never, technically, end. Which becomes the point! Oh God, why?! Why watch a two hour long movie about mindless action scenes with no consequence only to have the point of it be that the action scenes are never supposed to end, it's just posturing for ever and ever and ever? Oh. 'Cause the action's neat. And, like, action-y and stuff. Alright.Not an entire waste of time, but you can honestly fast forward through the majority of this movie and miss nothing.--PolarisDiB

ebossert The idiocy of popular opinion never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think the general public's taste in film couldn't get any worse, I see Ryuhei Kitamura repeatedly thrown under the bus. It's no understatement to say that the sheer abuse this guy takes is both unreasonable and unwarranted. It's become perfectly obvious that most viewers are simply too pompous, stuck up, or clueless to enjoy Kitamura's better films."Versus" is a prototypical example of getting the most out of a shoestring budget, a success that is perhaps eclipsed only by Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989). Take any popular commercial director, chuck them in a forest with a camera and a bunch of no-name actors and see what happens. In almost every instance you'd get an absolute disaster. Most directors lack the ability to make something out of nothing. The mere fact that "Versus" kicks a$$ is enough, in and of itself, to solidify Kitamura's place as one of the most resourceful filmmakers of modern times.Regardless of budget limitations, this is a highly entertaining movie. Yes, the acting is mediocre and the storyline is simplistic, but Kitamura's camera-work is better than almost any director alive today. The action scenes in "Versus" are driven by exceptional camera placement. The riverbed fight and the final sword duel are two cases in point, as the character movements are given a high energy feel through a shifting of camera angles. The physical limitations of the actors are indiscernible because they are effectively portrayed as proficient in combat. Most filmmakers lack the talent to pull this off, but given the fact that Kitamura is a genius behind the camera, it's no surprise that such techniques work very well here. This is not your typical Hollywood style of amateurish hyper-editing, because in "Versus" you can actually identify the characters' specific movements.As I've pointed out in my previous review of "Sky High" (2003), Kitamura has an uncanny ability of applying ultra stylish camera-work and scoring to trivial events to make them twice as enjoyable. Take the opening confrontation between the yakuza and escaped prisoners. The movement of the camera is exceptional and the soundtrack is catchy, spicing up an otherwise filler scene. I've been lectured on multiple occasions that "directors shouldn't spin the camera around actors", but this pretentious rule (probably concocted by some old fart at AFI) is a worthless criticism that artificially limits creativity. Most interestingly, Christopher Nolan used this "forbidden" shot during the fundraiser scene in "The Dark Knight" (2008), but I have yet to see anyone slam him for it. Seems like a case of selective criticism to me. There's simply nothing wrong with using it.As if arbitrary movie-making "rules" weren't bad enough, some of the negative comments for "Versus" on this site are beyond ridiculous. If "Versus" is the worst film you've ever seen, rest assured that you're a victim of your own ignorance. Go watch "Pistol Opera" (2001) or "Kill Devil" (2004), then come back and apologize.If Kitamura's films are "too long" and "boring" for you, it's time to take a hard look at your personal rack of dvds, which will most likely expose your own hypocrisy. My blood boils when hearing people blather about Kitamura's dullness, especially considering how many of these same reviewers will kindly sit through Peter Jackson's 3-hour torture sessions with half a dozen superfluous endings tacked on one after the other. Kitamura never comes close to that level of bloated pretentiousness. Sure, the latter half of "Versus" acts as a calm before the final storm, and much of the visual/audio techniques are applied to lull the viewer into a state of tranquility (almost like those "Pure Moods" cds). This may provoke a bit of drowsiness, but that's a fairly minor qualm to be made. If anything, Kitamura's patience to capture the natural settings is a positive.In terms of mood, "Versus" is a very light-hearted and playful film despite the bloody violence that's presented. With quotes like "I was trained at FBI headquarters in Langley" and "I grew up in Yellowstone National Park in Canada", one should not take this film too seriously. (Though most American viewers are probably too dim-witted to understand why these statements are funny to begin with.) The love interest has some laughable moments too, like when she finally dodges her hubby's knockout shot. Most notably, the sword-wielding gun-toting zombies are beyond hilarious. Make no mistake. This is an over-the-top action/horror movie that never takes itself too seriously.That said, art-house snobs could never appreciate a film such as this regardless of how well it's executed. Hence my use of "pompous" and "stuck up" as adjectives in my opening paragraph. But what about the remaining detractors who I refer to as "clueless?" Well, that would refer to your typical mainstream cinophile who could never enjoy a film with a budget less than a few million dollars. It's depressing when one realizes that most moviegoers are clueless, while much of the remainder are pompous, arrogant, or simply have no taste. That leaves a relatively small piece of the pie to be respected. No wonder then, that Kitamura will never get the acclaim he so rightfully deserves.To not like "Versus" may be due to poor taste in film, but at least you can redeem your worth by watching and enjoying "Sky High" and "Azumi" (2003), which are two of the most enjoyable Japanese films ever made. To dislike those is a sign of lunacy.

lastliberal Martial arts and Yakuza and zombies. What a combination. The fact that I watched it after Miyamoto Musashi kanketsuhen: kettô Ganryûjima made it even weirder.Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) escapes from a maximum security prison and is met by the Yakuza, who have a girl (Chieko Misaka) as a hostage. They are waiting for someone else to arrive when everything starts happening. The prisoner and the girl escape to the forest.Now, this is not your ordinary forest, and this is not your ordinary prisoner, and this certainly isn't your ordinary girl.This forest is full of zombies. In fact anyone dying in this forest turns into a zombie. These zombies fight with swords and guns and whatever. You cannot kill them as they will rise again, so it makes for some very long fight scenes. There is an abundance of severed limbs, decapitations, and buckets of blood.The prisoner is ultra-cool and the way he keeps telling the girl to "shut-up" and punching her is funny, and a strange way to act for someone who eventually says, "Don't touch my girl, f*cking asshole." The f*cking asshole is, of course, the uber villain (Kenji Matsuda).Look for some very funny and bizarre characters in Ryuhei Kitamura's film, and lots of action.