Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

Hmm how to rate this, I mean it's intentionally bad, but it does that good! This movie was a real blast and a good fresh way to see this movie again, lots visual and narrative creativity. I also have to mention that the music score is epic and the bonus ending is hilarious, I almost wish the sequels were about something more like that. There were a few parts were the narrative was hard to follow, but maybe I just haven't seen enough of the movies this is parodieng to be in on the joke. It's absolutely worth a watch and it was a lot more funny then I thought it would be. I can't remember specifics right now, but there was several edits I found to be very clever.

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"

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.

Im not familliar with grindhouse movies but basically this was The Matrix as a 70s kung fu movie. This made for a very entertaining edit. The only thing I am on the fence about is the liberal uses of Johnny Nemonic, because it became a bit confusing. But maybe thats just me.

Not completely what I was expecting -- beyond being a grindhouse version of Matrix, this is basically an alternate narrative mashing up Johnny Nemonic and Matrix into something new and much more experimental, including a good chunk of the film that is completely dialogue-free. The drive-in style trailers for 90s/00s movies at the beginning were my favourite part, I'd have happily watched a dozen more of those. Still, I wanted to watch this as an alternative to viewing The Matrix for the dozenth time before Part 4 drops and enough of the original narrative is fresh in my mind, so mission accomplished.