Meatball Machine

Meatball Machine (2005)

This movie is the classic tale of boy meets girl and is too shy to say anything to her. He sees that she has become infected by an alien parasite. The parasite turns the girl into a homicidal cyborg that kills everyone that it can find. Trying to save her the boy gets infected by another parasite to save her, but is shocked to discover they must now fight it out. The two of them meet in a huge showdown, where find that this has all been some sort of Alien test and that boy vs. girl will continue in space!

If you are looking for a movie with a deep and meaningful plot then you might want to pass on Meatball machine. While there is a plot here I think you can tell by my insightful synopsis that it really isn’t that important. Forget character and story because this movie is all about the cartoon like violence and gore. Both of which it delivers in quantities not often seen on the screen. Think of it as the Power Rangers for those of us who enjoy flying limbs and arterial sprays and you will have hit it on the head. The one downside for me is that even I found the movie to be repetitive and slow at times. Considering how much of a sucker I am for this kind of film that might not bode well for some who are newer to the genre. The performances really don’t matter, so I’m not about to be overly critical of them.

Now I need to talk about the special effects. First of all if you are looking for hyper realistic gore and kills then again this movie isn’t for you. But if you are down with the stylized gore that you get in many of the over the top Asian films then I think you’ll love this one, I certainly did. This movie is on continuous string of grisly deaths and it is a blast. I don’t want to ruin any of the kills for you but trust me I’ve never even considered some of the items they use as weapons to be dangerous. Well now I do. Toss in some killer costumes as our main characters become more cyborg and less human for a wicked good time. There is some CGI, but it fits in nicely with a movie that feels like a live action Anime.

Meatball Machine is basically billed as ninety minutes of mayhem with some cool cyborgs. That is exactly what it gives the audience and while it did drag and get old I still have to say I was entertained. I don’t know about you guys out there, but that is all I really expect out of a movie. With that in mind I recommend Meatball Machine.

For more information about this and the other killer titles from Danger after Dark go to http://www.tlareleasing.com/results/product_list.cfm?oid=1119&g=1263&from=1

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer