Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

I absolutely love this edit (Must have watched various versions 5 or 6 times so far) and it's taken me a while to put it into words. I'd go so far as to say I enjoy this more than the original film and I enjoy the heck out of that! So far I've not scene another edit that so fundamentaly changes the experience of the film. Here is a few of the reasons it rocks...

Audio/Video Quality: 9/10

matrixgrindhouse has cut in unfinished, unused and incomplete footage into the film wherever possible. The image has been recoloured and made all grainy and nasty looking... in a good way. All of this is of course deliberate and enormously fun but if you are expecting HD quality footage you may be upset. But if you're watching this in the proper 'f*cked up 70s/80s Grindhoused to sh*t print' spirit you'll freakin' love it!!

Visual Editing: 10/10

The editing is so seemless that even after several viewings I hadn't notied cuts to footage of completely different movies (The commentary talks you through all that). Yet other edits are deliberately done to introduce enormous jump cuts and continuity errors which adds another layer of enjoyment. If the shot could be changed or replaced... it has been.

Audio Editing: 10/10

This is the best part for me. The entire soundtrack has been replaced with awesome synth Funk cuts that will have you almost dancing in your seat as you watch the edit. Brilliantly the edit comes with a music-only track so you can listen to it in all it's isolated glory. If that's not enough there is an informative commentary too. So much work has gone into getting the sound FX right too and all the scratches and noise you'd expect from a Grindhouse edit have been carefully added. Lastly much of the dialogue has been replaced, cut up and messed with to create an alternate story and some hilarious gags... zzzzzziiiiiip ;-)

Narrative: 9/10

All the characters personalities and motivations have been changed along with the story. So you get a totally different experience. I've knocked one point off because I suspect you have to be familiar with The Matrix to follow some of the changes but that doesn't mean I'd change a damn thing. I love how the story has been made more crazy but cutting in a good chunk of footage from another movie.

Enjoyment: 10/10

10 hardly covers how much fun this edit is. I swear it gets better with every watch and you'll be spotting more and more little visual tricks and gags on every watch. I'm looking forward to my next watch of 'ROBOTS vs KUNG FU' already!

Extras: 10/10
Not only is there 3 audio tracks to enjoy there is a whole extra DVD of bonus materia created for the release. Trailers, deleted footage and alternate cuts abound. Plus the edit itself begins with 3 spoof vintage Grindhouse trailers so good they alone make this worth watching repeatedly!

Thanks matrixgrindhouse for going the extra mile on this one.

"Jesus, I just thought you were a guy?... that was a long time ago"

I do appreciate that Grindhouse is meant to be downgraded, and thusly allows for inclusion of poor quality video clips. Yet to me (as a newbie and firm sitter on sofa) it seems like this may have been shoddied beyond what was necessary. That said it is but a quibble as the really low definition is used sparingly on film that got alot of colour balanceing and it ends up looking artistic. At least 'The Matrix' footage is high quality, with the snazzy frazzles that mimick well used projectors being artfully done to boot. RVKFU pushes the limits....

Got alot of laughs all the way through. If Grindhouse is about subversion then this is a masterpiece of the vocation. Cutting in those clips from that unoffical Matrix prequel (as other reviewers mention) sets the tone and serves to inglorify the characterization of Neo in the best of ways. Behind the scenes footage at every highly staged juncture keeping one in a relflective mood. With assortments of audio clips filling gaps and adding some extra story (one in particular '... tweny grand' is too good - too bad its partially muffled and its got a tight window to be squeezed into but I wish it was a clearer 'tell him I'll pay....' hehahea) U'll not get bored. Watch it!!!

Robots vs Kung Fu is really good.

It isn't perfect. It has some awkward edits due to the story, and is really obtuse in places. I don't mind. All of these come from the boldness of the idea, and the glee of seeing something so different with something we know. It has great style and genuinely builds an identity separate from the matrix.

I come back to RvKF a lot. The reason for that has to be the soundtrack. Matrixgrindhouse found music which fits the movie better than its own. I'm so glad for the isolated score audio track The scene where neo fights Morpheus in the dojo I could watch on repeat.

Feels weird to say, but I can't wait for the sequel!

i just watched this last night with some mates and a few beers and i must say we loved it.
as iv said many times before i am a huge matrix fan so when i saw this i had to see it.

this had to be the funnest version of the matrix i have ever seen i love how smith questions people (zip) funny as hell, just how this movie was done was amazing i cant wait for kung fu vs robots 2000

if you need a good laugh this is the movie for you.

PQ: horribly bad just the way it should be
AQ: bad and just the way it should be
Movie: funny as hell loved every minute of it i will watch this every time i need a laugh

Just finished watching Robots VS Kung Fu, wow!

I gave a high audio/video quality rating because the filming era of the footage was changed from the late 90s to the 70s-ish. And all of the quality work done on the video and audio to make it feel like 70s film was dead on. 9 stars for that. I feel like the narrative-voice was a bit off and could have had the voices match up a bit better. so 9 stars for the audio editing. 10 stars on the visual because it was dead on for the time period. 9 stars for narrative and enjoyment because there were moments when I felt a bit lost and had to re-watch parts and understand what's going on.

I tried to keep in mind all of the details as I watched it; like Neo as a drug dealer and possible traitor working for the machines... It's tough to learn the new story when I've watched the old one so many times. It was very good though. The extensive audio work was really good, and making Morpheus out to be a cold hard-ass was a great touch. I also liked the history lesson that Neo received. I suppose that was to catch him up on the years that he missed while he was being removed from the matrix? From an outsiders view of course. I liked the removal of animation, it was nice and made the show feel dated. There was also a lot of the close up action removed. This is so ever-true of old style movies. They didn't get too close to the action because they knew it would make it look fake (because it was fake) so they kept their distance from the action scenes or used obscure shots or made the action start and end quickly. This re-edit nailed that aspect of old film making dead to rights. The blurring from distant shots was a good touch too. Neo killing the people he used to work for was good too, but I'm wondering where he found the time to do that. The previews were good also, along with the DVD Menu work. It really made it an immersed experience from start to finish. The scene of the machine (smith) fighting Neo down on the subway rails was confusing for a few moments. I thought it showed Smith jumping out?? and then it showed Neo and Smith still down there, and then Neo had gotten out of the trains way... that part was trippy. I'm not sure if it was intentional or just an honest error in this massive re-edit.

Over all, this was absolutely great and I think that any big Matrix fan would enjoy viewing it.