Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

This was such an amazing edit! Serious skills on hand with you man. I'm so glad I bumped your thread and tagged you that one night.

Excellent A/V quality, damaged effects worked really well. Multiple sources are smoothly mushed together without leaving too many traces. Of course there are intentional errors, which adds to the pleasure. It's obvious a ton of work went into this. There were many moments I marveled at the sound editing; the music, rebuilt sound effects, dialogue mashing, etc. Some of the intentional abrupt or awkward cuts didn't work for me though but nothing major. Nicely done with all the added footage. Really made this a unique version without going too nuts on it.

I had a blast with this. Not everything worked for me but all the genius moments outweighed those easily. I sampled the commentary and will definitely give that a listen, and damn look at that a second disc with goodies! Highly highly recommended.

A/V Quality - 10
Editing - 9 visual, 8 audio
Narrative - 9
Enjoyment - 10 (original 9)

Recommended drink: Absinthe

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.

I'm glad to have watched this fanedit just as a novelty because it was such a massive undertaking and its such a different viewing experience than the source material, but I didn't really like it that much and probably won't watch it again. I love the Matrix, but don't like grindhouse movies. So, me not liking this edit is something I probably could have predicted, but I was just curious at what you'd change. I actually thought the small changes were more interesting than the large ones (ie "that was a long time ago"). But all in all, it was just too weird for me.

My favorite part was the preview of Rush Hour (Dynamite Twins?).

Scoring the editing and quality is weird since its intentionally bad. But the more important part -
Enjoyment: 7
Original: 10
This isn't a fanfix, so comparing it to the original may not be the best comparison. I did like this fanedit better than any other grindhouse style movie I've seen, so that's something positive.

[Review]
Remember 'The Matrix'? Reality is just an illusion... and only The One, aka Neo, can save us - via some envelope-pushing special effects and a pounding soundtrack courtesy of the likes of The Propellerheads, The Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine.

Well, chuck your memories in the bin. Because everything you think you know about The Matrix is a load of crap and Neo is going to ram it up your back-side, all-the-while accompanied by a mildly weird 80's electronic 'rhythm'. Unless you pay him not to. Then he's your best friend.

If this sounds like your kind of re-edit, then you are going to love this. 'Robots vs Kung Fu' is very left-of-centre which for those of the more cynical disposition (like yours truly) means it is highly enjoyable. Characters are completely mixed up and messed around, often with hilarious results. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Neo tell people to 'fuck off' at every opportunity, his shady morals making him a far more sympathetic anti-hero than the wide-eyed innocent original. And don't get me started on the enigmatic and downright-weird Morpheous.

Then there are The Agents, particularly Agent Smith. Where to start? Well, when he's not buggering his victims off-screen for information, he's having them held-down in an interview room for his own sexual gratification. If you thought the original was bad, wait until you've been treated to this editor's version. Brilliant.

How matrixgrindhouse pulls this off is by delving in to an enviable knowledge of pulp video fare. The list of sources is awe-inspiring and a large hint at just how much work and research went in to this project.

The best compliment I can pay this edit? I'll be back very soon to watch it again. Or was that deja-vu?

[Technical]
I want to end on the high this gargantuan effort deserves, so we'll start with criticisms. The main one is that this film seems confused about whether it is an homage to early-80's VHS straight-to-video exploitation (there was a time when there was very little content to rent on VHS, so shit films were rushed out to fill the vacuum - believe me, I remember by grandad renting a sci-film he thought from the cover must be like Star Wars only for us to watch open-mouthed as people had their skulls melted with lasers) or if it's a dodgy 16mm release of a low-budget sci-fi, which would make it late 1970's. The music and low grade video for me firmly places it in the former, which makes the film-degradation effects occasionally confusing. I'd have loved to see tape drop-out and wear to accompany the rest of the edit, rather than the usual film scratches.

'Grindhouse' stylistically can also be taken so far that the audience isn't sure at times whether a degrading effect is intentional or not. For example, in this edit one of the main characters (Trinity) speaks about 4 long lines of dialogue that are at quite a profound moment in the film (as profound as an excellent piss-take as this can get) and they are virtually inaudiable. Is this a clever device to cover up lines that wouldn't make sense? Or is the sound badly handled? At times it's hard to tell.

As I said in my review, there is an absolute well of footage that the editor has sifted through to make this film - but at times the music sounds a little limited. It fits most of the time, but there are tracks that sound self-indulgent and don't fit in with the others. Listening to the soundtrack to the original 'The Matrix' is a masterclass is putting disparate music together that fits seamlessly, and a project this large deserves as much attention.

All that being said, this is indeed a huge project. Almost every shot has been toyed with in some way or another, and when the trailer says 'three years in the making' you believe it. A massive undertaking that must have taken months of dedication - which is what it takes to make a great FanEdit. Excellent work.

(One last point - the film can be watched on an online video service, making it instantly accessible and user-friendly. FanEditors aspiring to the seriousness and calibre of this project that want their work to reach a large audience should take note.)

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.