It’s not uncommon for a film to show the first 5 minutes of the opening sequence before another film that is being done by the same studio. It’s not uncommon for extended trailers to be offered either online or during a particular TV show. It is however very uncommon for a film to do a 4 minute long trailer during a TV program and then turn around and do a 6 minute long trailer before a film the very next week.

I don’t think this has ever been done before and, to be honest, I don’t understand why Sony is doing this to Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man. I’m starting to get the feeling they are worried about the film or scared people won’t take to a reboot being done on a film so quickly. Granted, most of the scenes in trailers have been exactly the same however, it seems with each new trailer, we see a little too much of the film and the suspense could be gone when it actually hits theaters this July. I can only imagine that the 6 minute trailer will have the same footage from the 4 minute trailer but with a few news scenes.

A better idea would be to show the FIRST 5 MINUTES OF THE FILM as oppose to showing more scenes from the entire feature so that people will want to see the movie. After watching the 4 minute trailer that aired during America’s Got Talent, I felt like I saw the movie and know how it ends so why pay to see it. I’ll still end up seeing it because I want to, however, I wonder how many people are thinking the same way and are going to be turned off from the film due to the excessive trailers.

Now unlike the 4 minute trailer, the one showing before Men In Black 3 will only be shown during the IMAX 3D showing so fewer people will see it and it probably won’t make it onto the internet, but still. I’m just worried that the film has jumped the shark with still a month to go before the release.

Sony please prove me wrong and deliver something that is worthy of all the marketing and hype. I really want this film to succeed because it does have great potential I just hope the knuckleheads in Hollywood don’t screw it up.

Rant Over!

The Amazing Spider-Man stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen and Sally Field. The Film opens nationwide July 3rd

There is a misconception about mental illness that a diagnosis fits into a clearly defined set of symptoms. The reality is that every case is different and often goes mistreated or misdiagnosed entirely. In the case of Bud Clayman, his symptoms were gradual until such time where he was put into a residential care center for recovery. After 8 years, he’s emerged still coping with daily life, but with a renewed sense of faith in himself and those around him. His battle is not over, and never will be, but with the support of his family and in making this documentary, he’s able to share how he sees the world.

Although the film has a direction, I really wanted a bit more backstory. Bud’s location is taken for granted and not knowing the area, I didn’t know he lived in Philadelphia until an hour into the film. I knew it was on the east coast, but there was no other information to go on. This of course isn’t a major flaw, but something that was overlooked.

The strength of the film is in the voiceover. We all live inside our own head, so it’s interesting to get inside someone else’s, especially if that other person had a viewpoint that his different from our own. I really enjoyed the segment with the Jon Grayson, PhD as he attempted to describe how an OCD sufferer viewed the world. This was extremely fascinating to hear him explain and speak with Bud. I would have liked much more time devoted to the clinical and therapeutic side.

The best part of the film is the recreation of the “Lost in Space” episode. I found Bud to be a very good actor as he shined playing the two versions of himself. It’s clear he has a passion for film, so I hope to see him do more either in front of, or behind the camera.

Rating: High marks for the idea and concept, but the execution was a bit hazy. 7/10

New York, New York begins OC87’s theatrical run on May 25th at the Village East Cinemas in NYC (181-189 Second Avenue).

Los Angeles, California will be the second theatrical destination for OC87 starting on June 8, 2012 at the Laemmle Theaters (Laemmle Music Hall 3, Laemmle Playhouse 7, Laemmle Town Center 5) and Regal Edwards University Town Center 6 in Irvine, CA.

For additional screenings, check here.

VOD Overdose is Movie Buzzers’ coverage of video-on-demand developments and upcoming films premiering on video-on-demand.  With an increasing number of studios embracing VOD as a way to premiere and distribute films, this column covers movies that might be worth a look even though they aren’t playing at your local multiplex.

It’s a bit quiet on the VOD front right now, but I’ll expect that to ramp up in time with plenty of Cannes news for next column.

Latest VOD News

With Cannes deals going on right now, Variety has two articles which take a look at how the industry has embraced the multi-platform release, which utilizes VOD as a major component.  I’ve been saying in this space for months that while VOD isn’t the single answer to the industry’s woes, it certainly has proven to be an undeniable profitable revenue stream that the industry is finally coming around to exploring.  Check out the articles here and here (the second focuses on VOD developments in Spain).

Cinemit (which features our very own Melissa!) is having some impressive success partnering with Tugg to screen indie films and has recently sold out its screening of The Loved Ones.  I love the fact that Tugg is more-or-less VOD on a multiplex scale, so if Cinemit is doing Tugg screenings in your area be sure to check them out!

Vyer Films — the online distributor who is showing you the best international films you can’t see anywhere else — has selected My Queen Karo as its current release.  My Queen Karo is about a commune in 1970s Amsterdam and it is viewed through the eyes of a young girl who has to weigh this communal living while she is starting to develop her individual personality.

Although it was initially announced as a day-and-date release, 30 Beats, starring Boardwalk Empire’s Paz de la Huerta about “a group of New Yorkers whose lives interconnect via a series of sexual encounters during the summer” appears that it will retain its June 1 VOD release but will be released theatrically on July 20.  That’s quite a big gap!

Another release announcement: military drama The American Dream, about an aspiring filmmaker who joins the Marines after being rejected from film school, is set for a July 3 VOD and DVD release.  Just in time for Independence Day!

Now on VOD… And We Reviewed It!

Here’s a sampling of recent VOD movies that Movie Buzzers has viewed and reviewed.  Check your cable provider or the below online retailers:

Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope (Review 6.5/10), available on Amazon and iTunes.

God Bless America (Review 7.5/10), available on Amazon.

Upcoming VOD Releases
(For films premiering on VOD platforms, or hitting VOD after limited theatrical runs.) 

[D2V] denotes movie that is also being released direct to DVD and/or Blu-ray on the same day.

May 25:
Take This Waltz
Check out Melissa’s review of this Seth Rogen-Michelle Williams drama here!  It will also have a limited theatrical release in June.

The Pact
Also set for a June theatrical release, The Pact is another horror film that has a trailer which creeps the heck out of me although reviews out of Sundance were less than stellar.

June 1:
The Magic of Belle Isle
Debuting a month before its July 6 theatrical release, this Morgan Freeman film directed by Rob Reiner features Freeman as an alcoholic cowboy novelist.  I’m sold, especially since it features two big names wadding into the VOD early release format.

Loose Cannons
This Italian comedy made the festival rounds in 2010-2011 and garnered lots of praise, but never got a proper release in the United States.

June 5:
The Collapsed [D2V]
Alex was “slightly intrigued” by this award-winning movie when he posted the trailer back in March, and though I’ve had my fill of apocalyptic movies lately I’m also intrigued.

The Power of Two
I’m of the belief that twins have some sort of secret powers, and The Power of Two is a documentary that might go a long way to proving this: it tells the real-life story of twins Anabel Stenzel and Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and their miraculous battles against Cystic Fibrosis.

June 7:
A Secret Promise [D2V]
Debuting on VOD, DVD and in theaters on the same day, A Secret Promise is the debut feature from writer/director Fred Manocherian and has gone unreleased since being filmed in 2009 under the title My Father’s Will.

Have news about an upcoming VOD movie?  Want to have Movie Buzzers check out your upcoming VOD release?  Contact me here!

Why?  According to an article by the Christian Science Monitor, Kim was watching Titanic 3Dwith his girlfriend when he “had asked the people sitting behind to quiet down and stop throwing popcorn, but they laughed at him,” which undoubtedly set him off.  Kim is now being charged with second-degree assault and could be sentenced with up to nine months in jail if convicted on May 31st.

The child, known in the police reports as KJJ, was watching the film with three friends when Kim asked them to quiet down, which he said they did, but when he whispered something to his buddy, Kim apparently “jumped over the seat, threw an iced drink at them and punched KJJ in the face” and said something like “you know what, I paid a lot of money to see this movie.” And damn right he did.  3D movies are expensive and anoying little kids shouldn’t be allowed to ruin serious dramas like Titanic (regardless of its quality).  Kim followed-up by reporting that they did more than just talk, ”they were hitting him and his girlfriend with popcorn, running back and forth in the aisle and bumping him with their arms.”

For shame! I want to know where this kid’s supervisors/parents were.  If 10 is old enough to be at the movies alone then it sure is old enough to understand simple movie-going etiquette.  I’m not saying punching the kid in the face is the right move, but when its dark and you lose your temperature what else are you going to do, point your finger at him and say stop?  That would never work.  Even if this was brought to an AMC employee, chances are they wouldn’t do much. It’s a similar situation to texting in a theater, what are the odds that the manager kicks them out?  Also, you have to leave the movie to get the manager and nobody likes to leave in the middle of a movie.

Even if he was 100% wrong, if I could, I would shake Mr Kim’s hand.  He has done what so many of us adults, film buffs and casual and respectful movie goers have wanted to do for so long:  He has put an annoying son of a bitch in his place. I guarantee you that kid learned his lesson and won’t be bother anybody in a movie theater again.

What do you all think

Suzy and Sam (newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman) are two twelve year-olds growing up on a small New England island in the late 1960s who don’t fit in – Suzy with her three younger brothers and two attorney parents Laura and Walt Bishop (Frances McDormand and Bill Murray) and Sam with neither his foster family or Scout troop.  After meeting at a church play the two become pen pals and devise a plan to run away together.  They implement the plan when Sam is at Scout camp and their disappearance sends the island in disarray, including the search efforts by Suzy’s parents, Sam’s overzealous Scout Master Ward (Ed Norton), and the island’s lone police officer (Bruce Willis) as a deadly hurricane approaches.

The two unknown actors who played Sam and Suzy are so suited for their roles it’s surprising that they haven’t been part of Anderson’s common cast previously.  Hayward, in particular, is like a miniature version of Gwenyth Paltrow’s character in Anderson’s The Royal Tenebaums.   In fact, most of Anderson’s usual faces are noticeably absent: this is his first project that doesn’t feature any of the Wilson brothers, and while Bill Murray is here Jason Schwartzman appears in only a small part as Cousin Ben, a Scout leader who seems capable of doing just about anything for the right price.  Yet all of the actors new to Anderson’s movies – including Norton, McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Bob Balaban – fit Anderson’s acting style perfectly.  The biggest revelation of all is Bruce Willis – every five or so years he decides to take a role that departs from his action persona and he usually delivers.  Willis has fun playing on his macho cop image as Captain Sharp, a one-man police force who lives in a trailer and seems to spend most of his time fishing.  But this movie belongs to Suzy and Sam who seem to be reenacting their favorite movie and television roles based on what they think runaways should be doing.  In this sense the movie is very reminiscent of a young love version of Stand By Me overhauled by the Wes Anderson treatment, of course.

And yet as impressive as the acting is here, the visuals are what often separates Anderson apart.  Anderson and director of photography Robert Yeoman (who has worked with Anderson on all of his live action films) have created a beautifully shot film with colors reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting and stellar stedi-cam work.  In addition, how have all of Anderson’s films gone without Oscar nominations for Art Direction?  Perhaps Moonrise Kingdom will break that inexplicable cycle.

So while the acting and visuals are beautiful, the film’s weak point lies with its story.  Unlike his previous films, there are moments in Moonrise Kingdom that are completely illogical and seem to be excessive flourishes on Anderson and co-writer Roman Coppola‘s part (Coppola also co-wrote The Darjeeling Limited with Anderson).  These nonsensical moments primarily occur during transitional scenes, as if the duo didn’t know how to get from one scene to the next.  Since the movie is an adolescent fantasy I guess I could give them a free pass, but they did take me out of the movie and didn’t seem necessary.  Anderson has made better ensemble movies (both The Royal Tenebaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou deal with much deeper issues and are thus stronger and more emotional films), but Moonrise Kingdom is enough of a different spin on his typical style that it’s definitely worthy of his past films.  After all, just because it’s a lot more fun doesn’t mean it doesn’t hit as hard.

Rating: Yet another piece of evidence that Wes Anderson is one of the most unique and brilliant voices in film today (8.5/10)

NOTE: The movie is rated PG-13 for “sexual content and smoking” though there is none of the former unless you consider 12 year-olds in their underwear as “sexual content” (which nobody should).  In yet another case of the MPAA ratings board being idiots, this movie would be just as appropriate and enjoyable to younger audiences and would be a wonderful way to introduce them to movies that are better than the usual kiddie junk at the multiplex.

First is the actual movie poster which features the Bat and a sky of fire above him.

Not too much going on in the poster but still makes for an awesome desktop wallpaper.

Next up are the character posters which feature Bane (Tom Hardy) Batman (Christian Bale) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway). These posters are very cool and look amazing, my only complaint is that it seems weird that you can’t see Batman or Catwoman’s eyes in the posters. I know those are goggles on Catwoman’s face and Batman has the black around his eyes, but it just looks funny to me.

Yesterday, Baz Luhrmann‘s 3D adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s all-time classic novel, The Great Gatsby, shook the web with the release of the full trailer and poster for the film.

If you ever went to high school, you probably read The Great Gatsby at least once, if for some reason you never did, here is the official synopsis for the film:

The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy, and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Now I’ll be honest, I was never a fan of the book, but after watching the trailer below, I’m very excited to see the film.

And here is the very Inception-like poster for the film.

The Great Gatsby stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki and Amitabh Bachchan. 

You can also watch myself and Maria Garcia discuss the film here at 11min 43secs.

Believe it or not, nineteenth-century England is the perfect setting for Hysteria, a story surrounding the invention of the vibrator. Rooted in factual history, this fictionalization of the inventor is light-hearted and immensely entertaining. Director Tanya Wexler treads the delicate topic with ease and with delightful comedic timing. Read entire review

Tanya Wexler

Sitting at a large table with at least ten other film writers, director Tanya Wexler immediately puts everyone at ease when she has us go around the room and introduce ourselves.  After the ball gets rolling, one of the first questions discusses her background in film, and as Tanya points out, there is an error on her IMDB page giving her an acting credit for the film Life Happens. “The internet is wrong, can you believe it?” This is a humbling point, as I’m sure many of us in the room had checked her IMDB page before today and taken it for fact.

Left to Right: Tanya Wexler (director) and Sean Bobbitt (director of photography) on set Photo by Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Tanya is full of life and refers to herself as a “Hermione Granger” in that she can’t help but raise her hand in class. As she talks about getting the film made, she says, “Good ideas have their own currency.” She gushes about the casting of Maggie Gyllenhaal saying that one of the producers, Judy Cairo, who produced Crazy Heart, suggested sending it to Maggie, who Tanya calls a young Katherine Hepburn.

When asked about if the film would be different if directed by a man rather than a woman, she pointed out comments from an audience who saw the film. The audience members said they were more relaxed watching the film knowing it was directed by a woman. This struck me, as I will admit that as I was watching the film, I was a little bit worried in parts, but would have probably been more comfortable if I had knowledge of a female director beforehand.

Director Tanya Wexler on a silly and sexy therapy treatment

Maggie Gyllenhaal

With a yet-to-be-born baby in her belly, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal calmly enters the room and is immediately hit with a question about her attraction to roles of sexual women. She explains that sex in film is not often displayed in reality, but “in fantasy.” “When I see sex scenes in movies that are real, and feel like my own experience with sex, they are so much sexier.”

Gyllenhaal goes on to talk about how she was very impressed with the script. Saying that she normally gives notes, she only had one comment, she felt “the movie would be best served if Charlotte was as wild as possible.”  Rather than portraying a “historically accurate depiction of a woman of that time…she should be as shocking as possible in the constraints of that time.” I know that when watching the film, I felt that Charlotte was somewhat daring, but it really works with the light-heartedness of the story.

When speaking about strong female roles, Gyllenhaal explains that there are “so few good movies being made these days, so when there’s a good one, everyone wants to do it.” She also feels that the roles are divvied up pretty evenly amongst those in her age group. It’s interesting hearing about roles as competition and as something that you truly have to audition or fight for.

Rupert Everett as Edmund St. John-Smythe, Hugh Dancy as Mortimer Granville and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Charlotte Dalrymple

Even though she has a few plays she’s working on (they are too early in development to divulge names) she comments that “it’s hard with one child, and I imagine even harder with two to do theater because you never get to put your kid to bed.” Also, she goes on to say that her favorite experiences have been with her husband (actor Peter Sarsgaard) and with that it makes it even harder “because neither of you can put your child to bed.” It’s these types of moments that most of us take for granted as they perform for us, we don’t think of what they are giving up.

In the differences between theater and film, she speaks of how in theater “if an element doesn’t work then you’re stuck doing the play for so many months, it’s much more difficult than a movie because if something doesn’t work, you just get through the scene” and move on. “With theater it has to be so exciting and excellent to get involved.”

The topic of children and family comes up again as a question is asked about how the intensity of the characters she plays has changed over the years. Gyllenhaal talks about Sherry Baby and how she was 25 and “slept in her clothes” and it was a fantastic experience, but that as she’s now in her 30s with a child, the choice to take a role is different. It’s not the substance of the roles, but more of the situation. “It’s not worth it to take my family to Romania to do something that’s O-K.” With her husband, “we both want to support each other to do things that are really great.”

Coming out this fall, she starring in Won’t Back Down opposite Vi0la Davis.

Two determined mothers­, one a teacher, look to transform their children’s failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.

She describes her character as “a total firecracker.” She “decides to take on the whole [public school] system by herself, but then decides she needs a teacher in order to make a difference.” She goes on to say that “it’s a commercial movie, so in some ways it says it in a simple way, but I believe that’s fine. If you believe that something is wrong and that something needs to change, then you can have a massive effect on changing it.”

Hugh Dancy

Questions start right away about his role in this unusual comedy.  He also is a bit of a clown, often making jokes or silly sarcastic comments that make everyone in the room giggle or laugh out loud. From topics ranging from his experience working with Maggie Gyllenhaal to what bars and drinks he likes around the world, he handles even the most delicate questions with the grace you would expect from an English gentleman.

Rubert Everett plays a wealthy friend of Hugh Dancy‘s character, and when Dancy speaks about him he reveals that he was exhausted by the time they started shooting with Everett, “but if you’re exhausted at the end of a movie, the exact person you would want to walk through the door, because his burst of outrageous energy, is Rupert. He’s very good company.”

He describes Maggie Gyllenhaal as being able to really look at a scene from the perspective of her character, “which gives her a real strength, a real integrity in what she’s doing. ” His other complement, “the degree at which she maintains her English accent is astonishing.”

When asked if there was anything funny that happened behind the scenes that he could share, his reaction of a prompt, “Uh, no” gets an immediate laugh from the room. He elaborates that there’s a lot of hard work and “Tanya ran a very happy set.” He does say that there’s “a very long gag reel in this movie because essentially every scene it was hard to keep a straight face, and you can imagine why.”

His input into the script consisted of comments about making the “relationship between him and Charlotte a bit more convincing, adding a little bit more friction to it.” He adds, “I tried to give him a bit more of a spark.”

Hugh Dancy as Mortimer Granville and Sheridan Smith as Molly

As Dancy talks about the movie industry, he admits that he goes to see the usual big movies that Hollywood “churns out” but that the mid-level films, the one’s in the “15 million dollar” range are the ones that have “the chance of being immortal.” When speaking about the “new wave really really talented, truly independent American filmmakers,” he mentions Sean Durkin who directed him in Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011. “There’s a whole generation of really interesting people coming up who in no doubt in 10 years time will be the main stream.”

Dancy stars in the upcoming NBC series, Hannibal, in which he plays

FBI profiler, Will Graham. He’s excited about the series because “it explores the psychology of evil on both sides of that coin, the hunters and the hunted.” When speaking about doing an episodic series rather than a movie, he says, “there’s a lot of great, great movies made every year that just don’t quite make it through cracks, or they do and nobody sees them.” He elaborates by saying, “the closest I’ve come to reading something of the same type of ambition that’s smart, that’s not trying to pander to the lowest common denominator is something like this series.”

Although the film does have serious elements to it, such as women’s suffrage, he goes on to say that the movie”tried to present some of the more preposterous elements of the outright Victorian doctors that were completely oblivious to what they’re doing, which is the best joke in the movie, and also the true of it.”

Hysteria is out in theaters now in limited release.

Congratulations to Brian Blottie for winning a copy of This Means War on DVD!

————-

May 15–It has been way too long since we gave something away and so we decided it was time to change that.  Thanks to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, we have one copy of McG’s action rom-com, This Means War, on DVD to give away to one lucky Movie Buzzers reader.

The film stars Academy Award^® winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line), Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), and will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download May 22.

For your chance to win a copy of This Means War on DVD, simply send an email to contests@moviebuzzers.com with the subject line “THIS MEANS WAR!”  In the body be sure to include your full name, phone number, mailing address and the answer to the following question:

What character is Tom Hardy playing in the upcoming film, The Dark Knight Rises?

• Riddler
• Penguin
• Bane
• Killer Croc

The contest will end on May 21st with a winner announced on the 22nd.  Good luck!

The world’s deadliest CIA operatives, FDR Foster (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy), are inseparable partners and best friends until they fall for the same woman (Witherspoon).  Having once helped bring down entire enemy nations, they are now employing their incomparable skills and an endless array of high-tech gadgetry against their greatest nemesis – each other.

Probably one of the wildest coming-of-age stories you’ll ever see, Mutant Girls Squad follows 16-year old Rin (Yumi Sugimoto), a girl who is constantly bullied, but on her birthday her parents let her know that she is HILKO, a mutant race that allows individuals to sprout weapons from their body.  When her parents are assassinated, Rin goes on a killing spree throughout town even though she doesn’t want to kill people.  Eventually she is eventually recruited by a group of HILKO “soldiers,” led by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), in order survive and restore the HILKO people back to their former greatness.

Rin’s weapon is a wolverine-like metal hand that also shoots out wires to hit people while her rival of sorts, Rei (Yuko Takayama), has her head and arms covered with stone to smash people up.  And while that’s all in good, if you know anything about co-director Noboru Iguchi then you can probably guess what kind of weapons some their teenage teammates have.  There’s one girl with a chainsaw that comes out of her ass which she then waves around to kill people.  There’s a cosplay nurse (Suzuka Morita) who grows tentacles and weird, life sucking face.  Another girl has dual boob-wielding swords that come out of her nipples and there’s even a girl whose face has a red circle on it, making her a patriotic fighter, I think.  The most ridiculous and over the top character has to be Kisaragi.  He is a very loud man playing a woman with white face makeup whose HILKO power is a belly sword that he has to arouse in order for it to get hard and be useful.

The movie is divided into three parts.  Part one-Awakening, part two-Revolution, and part three-Rebellion.  This breakdown makes it easy to figure out where the film is going and how Rin evolves as she tries to figure out her identity.  It is also a way to know who directed which part of the film: One-Sakaguchi, two-Iguchi, and three-Nishimura.

As mentioned earlier, this is a splatter film and oh does it splatter.  Whenever there is a fight, and it is always a long, drawn out fight, blood rains down on the screen.  It doesn’t matter how simple or excessive a kill is, when someone dies everything that comes out of their body is very gratuitous, but this is why we watch these films.  When you watch someone get slashed by a boob sword it becomes really difficult not to sit back, relax and enjoy the insanity that’s unfolding before your eyes.

While still pretty entertaining, watching this film alone just doesn’t have the same effect as it does when watching it with a group of individuals who share the same love of splatter as you do.  Though it isn’t my favorite Sushi Typhoon title, it’s still one to enjoy simply because of how ridiculous the fights are, how zany and hilarious the dialogue is, and how creative the mutants’ weapons are.  If you like Japanese cult cinema then you should probably grab a few beers, a few friends, and watch this film asap.

The Disc:

Like with most Sushi Typhoon titles, the movie looks great in blu-ray since it was shot digitally.  Watching fake Nishimura blood pour all over the screen in HD is just glorious and never disappoints.  More importantly though, and is always the case with a Sushi Typhoon/Well Go USA release, the disc comes with a bunch of fun special features including:

“Opening Day” Featurette-30 minutes worth of opening night footage from premieres all over Japan including film introduction Q&As and post film Q&As.  Features Tak Sakaguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi, Yumi Sugimoto, Yuko Takayama and Suzuka Morita.

Interviews with the Filmmakers-30 minutes worth of interviews that have more of the same from the opening night Q&As plus some other interesting tidbits.  The interviews are of the same people mentioned above.

“The Making of Mutant Girls Squad” Featurette-30 minute long documentary that shows just how crazy and fun working on a Sushi Typhoon set can be (even if the shoot was in the middle of winter).  This has a bunch of behind the scenes footage and even more interviews for us to fully understand how one makes a wacky film such as this.

Yoshie Zero Short Film (which is a prequel by Iguhci based on the character Yoshie)- As with Helldriver and other Sushi Typhoon titles, the directors love making shorts that expand the universe and explain different parts of the story.  This one focuses on the cosplay nurse, Yoshie (Morita), and how she met Kisaragi (Sakaguchi), learned to appreciate her powers and became the first HILKO fighter under the man who decided to become a woman.

Overall, Mutant Girls Squad might not be my favorite Sushi Typhoon title out there but it’s still a fun film to watch for any fan of Japanese splatter films.  If you’re going to watch this movie, skip the DVD and grab yourself the blu-ray version.

Movie Rating: Pure madness-When X-Men meets the perverse minds of exploitative Japanese filmmakers (6/10)

Disc Rating: 7.5/10

Mutant Girls Squad is available starting today on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and DVD from Well Go USA.