Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

I watched the DVD version (still have to watch the 2nd disc with the extras). I haven't read any reviews of the edit yet, and I didn't read any of the detailed info about the edit before watching. Here is my stream of consciousness bulleted noted that I took as I watched the edit:

- Nice DVD Menus!

- Cool Previews

- opening with the cityscapes and narration/conversation kinda caught me off guard

- Nice choice with Jefferson Airplane

- sound replacement/foley effects etc. is kinda interesting, not sure if its intially not supposed to sound polished, either way it works

- the inclusion of some of the behind the scenes/outtakes footage worked, sometimes it didnt (just my opinion)

- been a looonnggg time since I've seen Johnny Mnemonic

- LMAO at "long story"

- in certain places (for example the kung fu training scene), the music could have been a tad lower and the dialogue could have been a bit louder. This is somewhat nitpicky, as this wasn't a constant problem throughout the edit, just in certain spots

- from the meeting with the oracle onward, the narrative and visual editing felt a bit erratic sort of all over the place (again, just my opinion)

- The ending was great though. very, very clever.

- I didn't really know what to expect going into this edit but overall this was a fun, outside-the-box fanedit.

Nice work matrixgrindhouse! Looking forward to Chapter 2!

Let me preface this by saying that every time I would see someone write "you should do a grindhouse edit of _____" on the forum, I wanted to ban them immediately. There were a lot of hack attempts, but shitty-ing up the picture quality and making a bunch of hard cuts does not a grindhouse film make. Fortunately the trend seemed to fade from the spotlight for a bit. TMBTM's War of the Stars edit was a bit closer to the real deal, and that edit was a lot of fun.

Now, with Robots vs. Kung Fu, we have as close as a true grindhouse film as you are going to get. The editor did a fantastic job with this. The editing was quite good at times, the music choices were great, and it really did feel like a cheap grindhouse film. That said, not everything worked for me (a bit too much Johnny Mnemonic footage was used, and the filters/compression were a bit much for me) but I did really enjoy this. I look forward to watching the bonus features and listening to the commentary. Great job!!!!

There be some funny shit in this here cake. Ain't gonna give surprises away, though.

Music adds and subtracts, entertainment-wise. At times, a goofy and well-timed tune will turbo-boost your smile, or undo your non-laugh. Fucking excellent.

However, some background music comes across as cheesier and cheaper-sounding than it needs to be—my personal preference favors grindhouse myujik that has a bit more funk, menace, or goofy testosterone. There's a fair degree of musical repetition as well as homogeneity, and some of the lesser tunes draw attention to themselves while making the dialogue sound dim. Such features could be credit toward grindhouseyness, but here they make the viewing challenging in parts—which is a shame, given the many hilarious moments in this soup, or dammit, was it cake we were metaphor-pimping?

Some scenes could do without any music at all. The sound effects and visual gags would have been humor enough.

Dude, with a little more attention to mixing sound and delving for some apropos songs, this edit could have been simply dangerous.

njoijoi: 7 pelvic aerothrusts.

I really struggled writing this review.

The good news is that the editor succeeds in pulling off a grindhouse version of The Matrix. It's obvious that he worked very hard on this and the end result is commendable. Unfortunately, I didn't quite enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Perhaps it's because I'm not a fan of the grindhouse genre, and it's a bit more straightforward (from a comedic standpoint) than The War of the Stars.

Stuff I liked: The intro cast credits made me smile. I generally liked most of the music choices. There were some actual literal laughs out loud on my part. The Animatrix stuff. The ending(s) were fantastic and easily bumped my narrative rating up a few points. The DVD is really well done, and I'm definitely going to listen to the commentary (the parts I sampled were quite interesting).

Stuff I didn't care for: The intro trailers (again, this is more my disinterest in the whole genre more than anything). The melting film parts (seen it before). The Johnny Mnemonic stuff (I'm not sure why but it didn't engage me). The changes to the narrative (maybe my fault, but there was stuff I didn't get until I read the description on IFDb).

Overall, I'm glad I watched this, and I did enjoy it, but not as much as I expected. I do wonder if I had seen this before WOTS if I might have liked it better, because I couldn't help but compare the two. And it's no fault of the editor that my tastes skew more towards WOTS.

Cautiously recommended.

never been the biggest fan of the matrix films i do however admire the concept and special effects, i just found the characters to be so serious in their delivery the film could have done with a little comical releif so the idea of a fanedit that would poke fun at the matrix universe was appealing.

matrixgrindhouse certainly manages to make the big budget matrix into a cheap tacky low budget affair. many of the aspects with what you'd associate with the film have been removed, and i must admit i found the idea of turning the matrix film into a grindhouse movie impossible but credit to the editor for accomplishing this. there is a lot of fun to be had with this edit, sure there are a few ideas that didn't work for me (i felt the johnny mnemonic scenes were over used) but overall the positives out way any negatives. the new soundtrack is the highlight of the edit, just as with nvjc empire edit it makes the edit fresh and very much like your watching the film for the first time

since TMBTM grindhouse edits i find it unfortunate that there ain't more similar edits in this vain so robts vs kung-fu is a welcome inclusion to the genre and could hopefully influence more edits in this style. a strong first edit and definitely one that you could get drunk to, disc 2 though not accentual has deleted scenes and trailers while the original work-print shows the progress this edit has gone through over the years.