Here is a bizarre film, no hidden meaning or anything here, at least not that I can tell. I heard about this awhile back from a group of reviews which consisted of this, Stacy, Junk, and Versus. It was over at The Digital Bits, I believe. I had already had Versus, which I really liked, then a few months back I obtained Stacy, still haven't gotten Junk yet. Well, my experience with Wild Zero began again when I found a couple of copies at Best Buy a few weeks back, both were rattlers (you know, you pick up the case and here the disk loose inside), I decided to take a chance on one of them and lost. I returned it, as the other copy was loose as well. A week later I was back in there and they had another copy, guess what? It too was a rattler. I was just not having any luck with this title. Again, I was in there the other day and found yet another copy. I was sure it too would shake, but it didn't, finally I could buy it. Brought it home, ripped it open, found nice unblemished disk, slipped it into the player and started. Now all I had to worry about, would it live up to the hype that was growing in my head. The answer, yes and no.
For those who don't know anything about this movie, it is a low budget zombie movie starring a punk rock band. The stars are the band Guitar Wolf, made up of Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf, and Drum Wolf, who are open in stating that attitude and looks come before ability. It shows here. The film is full of posing and mugging for the camera. The disk even has it's own drinking game, with an indicator subtitle track to tell you when to drink!
Picture, if you will, a rock band fighting a growing number of zombies along side a black market weapons dealer, and a Guitar Wolf fan, while being pursued by a club owner. There are exploding zombie heads, flames emitting from everything from a motorcycle tail pipe to a microphone. A love story between a rock and roll fan and a transvestite, and alien spaceships. This is just a bizarre movie, not really good by any stretch, but still fun to watch.
It is a tale similar to Plan 9 From Outer Space, aliens arrive and the dead come back to life. We never see the aliens, just their ship, but one would guess that they want to use the dead to take over. This draws the attention of Guitar Wolf, as one of their biggest fans is trapped in the middle of the invasion with a girl from China, who is not what she appears to be. Also along for the ride is an arms dealer whose clients never arrive, and a couple of joy riding teens. As the zombies grow in numbers, Guitar Wolf must take action to save their fan. Meanwhile, a club owner is on their tail to exact revenge for an altercation early on in the movie. In the end Guitar Wolf steps up to beat back the advances of the zombie menace, always while carrying his guitar.
There is nothing really underlying in the message of this movie, I don't think it has anything to it other than posing and zombie action. I would have to say I liked it, but it is not for everyone. If you like bad punk music and zombies, you may want to give it a spin, just check rational thought at the door.
The zombie makeup is good, they all have a bluish tint to them, and the makeup varies among the zombies. The music is pretty bad, but I'm not much of a punk fan. The dialog is corny, the direction is decent, they knew what they were aiming for and went for it.
Video. The picture quality is good, a little oversaturated at times, but it doesn't betray the low budget roots. It is presented in it's OAR of 1.85:1, I am not sure if it is anamorphic or not, i believe it is.
Audio. A little tricky to gauge here, as a lot of the music is distorted, on purpose I believe. It is my understanding that a lot of their music was recorded on the cheap and not very well. The dialogue side of things is fine, always understandable and clear. It is in it's original language, Japanese, in Dolby Digital 2.0
Extras. We have a few tidbits in here:
-Theatrical Trailer.
-Guitar Wolf discography and biography. Text only.
-Behind the scenes music video. AS it says this is behind the scenes footage set to a Guitar Wolf song.
-Photo gallery.
-Drinking Game. They claim it is the first ever. Contains instructions as when to drink, including whenever someone combs their hair, or says rock and roll, or when someone drinks onscreen. I think there are a few more, but you are helped as there is a subtitle track which has beer mug indicators for when you should drink.
Bottomline. I liked this movie, I expected a bit more but hey, it's described as a rock n roll jet movie. Punk music married with a zombie movie equals bizarre, brainless fun.
Recommended.
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