Customer Reviews

Meatball Machine

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Meatball Machine"
A great silly title, for a great silly movie,
It's essentially a cross between "Tesuo: the Iron" and a Gwar video with an Evil Dead vibe going on.
Fetus-Aliens in their bizarre tentacle-ships attach themselves to people's chests and orifices,
and transform them into mechanical killing machines (called necroborgs)
hell-bent on eating each other,
which they need to do in order to live.
Sound wacky enough?
Well it is, but it's still very enjoyable.
Suprisingly, there's a love story here too.
But don't worry that doesn't detract from all the off-the-wall silliness.

Here's a few reasons you might want to catch this flick:
- Lots of great blood & gore, (eye-drilling, head-splitting, etc.)
- A whole bunch of wild battles,
- Bizarre transformations involving whipping red hoses and internal mayhem,
- Psychotic costumes
- Disgusting/gorgeous aliens
- All the campy laughs and blood you could possibly want.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
The only thing better than a man-made machine,
is a machine made out of man.

There were some good scenes of gore, but it is in no way gorier than Dead Alive (Brain Dead). Meatball Machine is like a really demented Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie. All of the monsters look like bad guys from that kids show. The fighting between the monsters wasn't that great.
I wasn't looking for a masterpiece, but I wasn't looking for a kids movie with gore added to it. Some of the bloody goodness was awesome. Heads split in half, eyes getting drilled out, and much more. The parasites that take over the humans are pretty cool looking too. It was worth the watch but not sure if I'll watch it again.

The Good Things
*Grossest movie ever! Loads of blood and perversity! (Reminds me a lot of the anime show "Gantz").
*A few good gory fight scenes.
*Good filming style. Lots of good camera angles. Has a distinctive look and style.
*Production design is good. Imagine the monsters from the "Quake" or "Unreal" computer games in a movie.
*Simple but interesting story.
*Surprisingly good characters. Although many of them are perverts, the main character spends much of the film trying to act noble.
*Romance is not overwhelmingly sappy, and is touching at some parts.

The Bad Things
*The squeamish should avoid this like the plague.
*Pretty low production value (but the quality of the cinematography makes up for it).

Ah, so this is what "Gantz" looks like if it was a live-action movie! Not only are the two gory as hell, but they also share similar themes and attitudes of sexuality. Plus, both deal with freaky aliens and stuff. Unlike "Gantz," however, this film works better at being scary and immersive. This is definately one of the better B-rated movies I know of, but it's not for anybody with a weak stomach.

DVD has good video and sound quality, and contains a couple of featurettes, two additonal films ("Maximum Meatball Machine" and "The Original Meatball Machine"), and trailers.

This movie has a great looking box. This movie has a great title. There are assuredly 20 bar bands at this moment, performing Monday and Thursday nights throughout this great land, now proudly brandishing "Meatball machine" on their fliers passed out in the local community college cafeteria. Terrific bizarre plot that is most assuredly ambitious and I was pulling for this one. Admittedly I'm kinda on the fence with the camp elements in Japanese "cyberpunk" genre. However CITIZEN CANE was not expected. I'm writing this review because it might be helpful for some of us/you B movie fans that are drooling at the dvd box picture and really want to hit that "one click buy" so they can sleep tonight. I know this movie is appealing just being displayed on the shelf or put on your collection list. But some of you should know The MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION before you left click that mouse... hold on... If your a; "I just can't stand rubber suits kinda guy or gal". And you know who you are, then this movie will become tedious fast. I couldn't finish M.M. glad I saw it, but wish I hadn't bought it. Gave it away to a friend who probably didn't even notice the afore mentioned offense. It deserves a decent home where someone can love and nourish it.

Before there was "Tokyo Gore Police" and "Machine Girl", there was "MEATBALL MACHINE" (2005). Co-written and co-directed by Yudai Yamaguchi (along with Junichi Yamamoto), is an experimental film that blends horror, Japanese Blood-Splattering elements, science fiction, romance, post-apocalypticism and a whole lot of blood and GORE. The film is insane and is a remake of the short film that carries the same title in 1999. Quite complex and yet so simple in its storyline, it's the type of film that relies heavily on body disfigurement and a `cyberpunk' backdrop.

Muraishi Yoji (Issei Takahashi), loner who is also a machine worker at a local warehouse harbors feelings for the next door factory worker named Sachiko Misawa (Aoba Kawai). After being beaten up by a transvestite after he rejects his advances at a theater, Yoji finds a golden object that resembles a turtle shell that secretes an alien-like semen. Curiosity takes the best of the young man and he takes it home to examine. Shortly after, Yoji stumbles upon Sachiko who is in danger of being raped by Tanaka (Kenichi Kawasaki), one of his co-workers. Yoji intervenes and gets beaten up by Tanaka, and the kindly Sachiko takes Yoji to his home. His wounds cleaned by Sachiko, Yoji finds some connection with the lovely young woman. But to his horror, Sachiko is attacked by the turtle-like alien shell that turns her into a Necro-Borg; a living host controlled by an alien force to do battle with other groups. These alien race has been using humans as their hosts, enhancing them with organic weaponry whose power is based off anger and depression. Now Yoji must attempt to save the woman he loves, even if it means becoming a necro-borg himself...

"Meatball Machine" actually has a very simple premise; a group of parasitic alien races battling each other for supremacy with humans as pawns may have been done many times before, but when you combine the first half of the film, directors Yamaguchi and Yamamoto is able to find a heart amid all the madness. The film brings the total alienation and loneliness of its two main leads. Sachiko and Yoji are both repressed individuals, they have had their share of bad luck in their lives. Most specifically Sachiko had been sexually abused by her own father while Yoji also has his own sad tale to tell. You see the characters' sense of despair, pain and sadness, and therefore since this is a Japanese film, it does contain a strong commentary about negative emotions taking hold which may lead one to destruction. It also hits on some subtle hints of obsessive parental love as portrayed by an insane scientist and his daughter Michino (played by nude model Erika Sato).

The cyber-enhancements are similar to those seen in "Tetsuo the Iron Man" and they are massive, resembling the rubber suits of the aliens in "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "Ultraman". The transformation sequences are bizarre, as the alien sphere attaches itself to its human host; they come complete with alien secretions, old-fashioned gore effects and arterial sprays. Yes, "Meatball Machine" has blood and gore in the bucket loads, there's drills, entrails...you name it. Much of the splattering blood and gore happen in the film's fight scenes, with limbs being severed and bodies being disemboweled. It pleases me that the filmmakers have shunned the use of CGI in favor of the old-fashioned red ink and prosthetics. While its old school approach is part of its B-movie sensibilities, some folks not adulterated to the Japanese style filmmaking may become alienated.

Truth be told, the action scenes aren't as good as those seen in "Machine Girl" and "Tokyo Gore Police". They aren't as crazy and enthralling, but this film was before those other two films so I can excuse its somewhat lacking in raw craziness. Also, the film doesn't exactly use its best aces to its utmost potential--a Necro-borg fight with a lot of spectators present would've been awesome. I also thought that the filmmakers focused too much on the gore effects that the story was a little downplayed, and in the end, the love between Sachiko and Yoji wasn't fully brought into exposition. I wished that the script didn't telegraph itself a little too early, the story just didn't go full circle as much as I would've liked.

While "Meatball Machine" would be a little underwhelming when compared to the best of Japanese splatter fests, I still thought that it has enough gore, blood and bizarre alien ooze to get a `recommended' rating from one educated in Japanese cinema. Part "Tetsuo" and part "Ultraman", it is still a good cyberpunk feature that offer some old and new to the genre. It also carries some weird testament to the power of true love; wild, weird and definitely insane, the film doesn`t let up until the final climactic fight. "Meatball Machine" is complex, outrageously exaggerated, and it would be insane to say that this is a "standard" movie in the eyes of mainstream audiences. It is still refreshing to see something different once in a while...

Recommended! [3 ½ Stars]

This is a very smart and creative Japanese film. I was kind of turned off by the corny name, and the fact that people said it was hard to understand, but I assure you there is a great story to back up the gory effects.
I hear a lot of people comparing this movie to Tetsuo, and I completely understand where the comparisons come from, but they are infact two VERY different movies. I am a huge Tetsou fan but in my opinion this is a way more enjoyable film that should be taken very seriously by Horror and Sci-Fi fans.
Everything in this movie is excellent, the story is awesome and not hard to understand at all, the acting is top notch and works perfectly, it has so much creativity it is unbelievable, and this has some of the most impressive special effects I have ever seen in my life. The one flaw I could find is SOMETIMES the aliens look a little rubbery, but for every rubbery-looking alien there were ten more incredible effects to make me forget all about that.

I highly recommend this movie although it does have it's flaws, and it does borrorw heavily from Tetsuo, if you like to watch B-movie's with a brain opposed to A-movie's with pretty actresse's, big muscles, and no artistic merit whatsoever, then you should definitely pick this one up.
This movie is rapidly growing as one of my favorite movies of this decade so far (2000-2007).......or ever for that matter.

You know the makers of the film are not taking themselves very seriously when the movie starts with two silhouetted monsters talking to each other. Meatballs! Tacos! This introduction is in English with Japanese subtitles, but the movie itself is in the Japanese language with English subtitles. The movie then starts with a fight scene between two cyborg creatures, the winner eating the other's strange heart-bulb. The film starts bloody, runs bloody, and ends bloody.

Shy factory worker Yoji (a real weenie) has been watching a girl across the fence, but doesn't have the courage to introduce himself. One night he catches a co-worker trying to rape the girl, Sachiko, in the park. He tries to beat up the co-worker but fails, even though the man leaves Sachiko alone. The two go back to Yoji's apartment where Yoji has one of the strange creatures in a travel bag. He captured it in a pile of garbage after being beat up by a transvestite. As Sachiko confesses her dark secret, the monster comes alive, jumps out of the closet, and rapes Sachiko before turning her into a cyborg creature. Yoji of course does nothing, he's too scared. He runs from Sachiko only to be knocked out and found on the streets by a strange man who lives in a crappy apartment and seems to be the only person in Japan who's aware of the monsters and knows what they're doing. Then he turns Yoji into one of the monsters, but Yoji escapes to look for Sachiko.

That's the plot. Very thin, but of course the movies isn't about the plot. It's about hungry little buggers who like to eat each other and raise havoc. It's about ropy tendrils, split heads, eye gouging, heart bulbs, slime, eyeball drills, gooey skeletons, and a little masturbation, a transvestite, and a prostitute for good measure. We're also treated to a little "monster vision", seeing humans from the creature's eyes. The aliens are funny, looking a little like a twisted beanie-baby with some goo thrown on it. And, of course, it's about blood, blood, blood.

The photography is sketchy, using a lot of scene skipping and "flashes", the film isn't shot in video but it has the feel of video. The dialogue is stilted, and the acting just mediocre, and the FX a little cheesy. But you came here for blood and you'll get plenty of that. I'm not a usual fan of Japanese or Asian horror films, but 'Meatball Machine' is one of the rare ones I liked. With the humor thrown around the film like the blood, and some wild imagination with the cyborg creatures, it manages to raise itself from a typical foreign horror flick to something every type of horror fan can enjoy. Rent first. Enjoy!

Meatball Machine is an awesome flick...at least for people who are into bizarre and gory movies such as myself. We need to have more movies like this. It would be great to see a sequel.

Nothing can prepare you for MEATBALL MACHINE. Its insane comic book action and gore are only outmatched by its crude humor and sickening gross-outs. In it, a love-lorn teen discovers a mysterious piece of armor that transforms him and the girl he has obsessed over into berserk killing machines that must eat the hearts of other "Necroborgs" in order to survive. With everything from children being liquidated by oncoming traffic, to projectile vomit, to cross-dressing hookers, masturbation, and rape (both human and inhuman), the film pulls no punches in trying to shock and disturb its audience. The low-budget costuming and FX are surprisingly effective, mangling found objects into unrecognizable body armor and exaggerated bio-weapons. Fans of outrageously over-the-top Asian Horror films like MACHINE GIRL or TOKYO GORE POLICE cannot go wrong with this blood-splattered shocker!

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

Really, I don't have much more to say than just that. There's a thrown together story that explains why these people in huge Gwar-getups are brutally, viscerally fighting each other and then BAM. They're fighting. It's outrageous, it's violent, it's bloody, gorey, and it's wonderful. It's the perfect streamlined splatter film. The plot really does little more than establish the basic premise and motives of the characters and the rest is all mayhem of the over-the-top variety. Then it rounds out with the most bizarre exposition I've ever seen that goes on for somewhere around three to five minutes, but it was so bizarre I just couldn't be bored by it.

So that's Meatball Machine for you. You're set up with enough information to feel you know what's going down and then you just shut off your brain and watch the effects roll. Simple. Wonderful.