Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna be covering a superhero comedy from 1990. That movie is "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.".
Now, I was originally going to cover a different movie for tonight's review, but because of various circumstances, I had to cancel that review and bump the, originally planned, movie off the schedule for now. But thankfully, I have found a different movie to fill in that gap. Not only that, but tonight's movie also comes from the indie film studio known as Troma.
As some of you may happen to recall, a ways back, I reviewed my very first movie from Troma, which was "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies". A movie that, at least to me, ended up being really good. So much so, that I said after watching it, I wanted to see what else Troma had in their film catalog. And this movie ended up being one of them.
Now, the only things I can tell you about the movie is, not so much about the movie itself, but that there was suppose to be an animated series for the character of Kabukiman that never ended up happening, outside of a trailer that is up on YouTube. And I think you can still find the trailer for that cartoon series up on YouTube. Why the show never came to be, I don't know. But that's just me talking about a cartoon series. As for the movie itself, the only things I can tell you about it is that it has something to do with fatal chopsticks, according the tagline of the movie poster...and that's about it. As I said, I don't really know much else about this movie.
And that may be a good thing. Because I have went into movies before with so little information, and I ended up really enjoying them. Well, some of them, anyway. I don't know if "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." will end up being one of those movies I enjoyed watching, but I am going to find out right now. So the only thing for me to do at this point, is for me to shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out, "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.".
9 minutes later
You know, guys, I was gonna make a snarky remark about this play being kinda dull, but after seeing just about all of the performers being shot at for real actually made the play more watchable. I wasn't expecting that.
2 minutes later
So...the powers of Kabukiman is transferred to Detective Griswold by way of kissing? OK...it's certainly one of the last things I ever would think of when transferring someone's power to another. But, maybe that's just me.
15 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a stupid question. Is it a normal business practice for someone to give Mr. Stuart a blowjob while he's talking with someone face to face during regular business hours? It just seems a little bit weird to me, you know?
11 minutes later
O...K. Well...I was wondering about those fatal chopsticks that the tagline was referring to and...well, I now know the answer. My god, was that ever disgusting. Funny, but really nasty, man.
1 minute later
...And now he just literally squished that guy's head like a watermelon. You know, guys, I think it's safe to say that Kabukiman is slowly starting to become one of the coolest superheros I've seen in a movie in a long time. I'm really liking this movie, guys.
16 minutes later
You know, guys, these must be the happiest kids in the world, if they are witnessing Detective Griswold being chased down, as a clown, and being shot at by Mr. Stuart's gang at their birthday party. But I guess that's happens when you throw a shitty birthday party, so I can't really say I blame them.
17 minutes later
You know, guys, I find it kinda funny how Kabukiman is now considered a hero by the citizens of New York. Yet, during this montage, we saw him just a couple of minutes ago, slice up a hooker and another guy's body parts into sushi. It's kinda fucked up, and sorta gives the wrong message out to kids, but I'm not going to complain about it. It was still funny, overall. Just thought I'd share that tidbit of information with you, guys.
3 minutes later
Guys, every time I think I have seen Kabukiman outdo himself with these crazy kills, he just comes with something even more hilarious and awesome. And I'm loving every moment of it.
The Review
Well guys, that was "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Earlier, I mentioned that the character of Kabukiman was suppose to have an animated series of it's own. But for one reason or another, that never ended up happening. And that's kind of a shame, because this movie was, actually, pretty good. I would've like to have seen what Troma would've done with a Kabukiman animated series. But anyway, let's start by talking about the writing, shall we?
The writing here is actually pretty good. One thing I wasn't expecting in this movie was how good the humor is. One of the biggest problems I have with the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies is how humor is handled. Now, mind you, I've only seen a handful of Marvel's movies in the Cinematic Universe, mainly because, I'm not really a big Marvel fan, and I'll touch more on that when I cover a certain movie next year for Tales of the Longbox. But anyway, one good example I can think of is "Guardians of the Galaxy". Where the humor in that movie is so forced and contrived, that it actually brings the movie down. Because the movie tries, in vain, to make you laugh at almost every single thing, such as Drax not understanding sarcasm, or that incredibly retarded dance towards the end of the movie. None of it was funny. None of it was witty. It was a poor attempt by the writers to show that they didn't have likeable characters or an interesting story to back any of the "humor" up. "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." shows you how to do humor right. Because none of it is forced or played out for cheap laughs. A lot of it can be described as odd, and I will admit that not all of it is going to be funny to some viewers. But at least it's not trying too hard to make you want to a laugh at every single joke in the movie.
In terms of characters, our characters are developed rather well. Such as our main character Harry Griswold, who turns into Kabukiman. He is a police detective for the N.Y.P.D., and he's not a very good one at that. One night, he attends a Kabuki play, and it ends up with a bunch of these thugs shooting and killing most of the Kabuki actors, including one of the elder ones who is responsible for giving Griswold the powers of Kabukiman. Now, one thing I was curious about when watching this movie was how the powers work. So, as I mentioned in the reaction portion, the old man, before dying, kisses Griswold, thus transferring his powers of Kabukiman over to Griswold. It's still kinda odd, but I'm willing to roll with that. And during the last, like, 20 minutes of the movie, it is stated by one of the villains of the movie that without a woman's love, his powers are useless. Again, it is a bit odd, but it does make some level of sense. In that case, why did we see Griswold turn into a clown earlier on? Does that mean that without a woman's love, he's bound to turn into a clown? Because during the final act of the movie, we see Lotus, Griswold's love interest, is captured by Mr. Stuart's gang. And at no time during then, did we see Griswold turn into a clown. His powers are much weaker, sure, but he could've turned into a clown and pull off some kind of shenanigans until he saves Lotus and turns into Kabukiman. It just seemed really weird to me, guys. And at no point after Griswold reverts back to himself from a clown, that the clown is ever brought up again. So, there is that little bit of logic issue there.
Going back to characters for a moment, if there is one thing I did find kind as a weak point in terms of characters, it would have to be our villains, lead by Mr. Stuart and his gang. Basically, none of them are threatening in any way, including Rembrandt, who I thought was going to play a major role, because he is the one who is responsible for killing most of the Kabuki performers. But unfortunately, he gets taken out pretty easily by Griswold in the latter half of the movie. So that is kind of a disappointment there. Plus also, our villain, Mr. Stuart is played up as more of a cartoonish villain you would see in a lot of plotless, cheesy, action movies. And unfortunately, just like Rembrandt, he doesn't really put up much of a fight once his plan succeeds. I'm not going to tell you how exactly, because that would result into me talking about spoilers. But I will say that the villains do kinda suck, overall. On the flip side, as I mentioned, Griswold gets the most development out of every character in this movie. Because after he gets his first taste of being Kabukiman, you start to see him slowly be interested in Japanese cuisines such as sushi and raw mackerel, and learning about all the powers he has inherited as Kabukiman. And while I'm on the subject of Kabukiman, he makes this movie worth watching. One of the things that makes him stand out is his kills. And this isn't even a horror movie. Yet, he has the most unique kills I have seen involving a superhero in a long time.
And I may as well jump into special effects. Most of the effects in this movie are practical effects, and for the most part, they are really good. And I want to start with the kills. One of them I mentioned earlier was the fatal chopsticks. And I'm gonna tell you, in terms of effectiveness, it looks fucking brutal. Because the chopsticks are sticking out all over his front body, and it looks really cool. Another effect is when one of these thugs is holding a bat, and Kabukiman is repeatedly cutting up the bat into pieces, and the effect for that looked really cool, too. Granted, it wasn't a kill, but I thought it was still worth bringing up. One other kill I wanted to mention is when Kabukiman is holding this giant camera, and when he takes a picture of one of Stuart's gang members, the thug turns into two weenies hanging in his shoes. The effect for it was simple, because it's just smoke that comes out after Kabukiman takes the photo, but sometimes, the simplest effects have the better results. There was one effect, however, that looked rather weak. And it's during a scene where Kabukiman and Lotus make a jump off of a building after one of the gang members fires a rocket at them. After they jump, we, then, see them flying, because Kabukiman has the power of flight. And all of that sounds great, except, you can clearly see the wires that are carrying both of our main heroes, and it looks really noticeable and comes off really poorly. So there is that. Beyond that one poor effect, though, costuming is really good. I really like the detail on the Kabukiman costume, because the top half of his face is covered with a mask. And other half of it is covered with make-up that matches the colored mask, which I thought was a nice attention to detail. The only thing I thought was kinda weak about the Kabukiman costume is the hair. Now, that may have been intentional, but the hair does look like it was a glued-on wig. But honestly, that's just me trying to stretch it to even call it bad.
So yeah, guys, special effects, which include make-up effects, are mostly really good. The acting, though, is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of it can be seen as some of the actors who are either hamming their lines to a point where the acting is laughably bad, and some of it is pretty good, such as Rick Gianasi as Griswold, when he's a detective, and when he's Kabukiman. And even though the villain of Mr. Stuart was somewhat cartoonish, Bill Weeden was able to make it kinda work. The only actor who I kinda have an issue with was the actress who played Lotus. Because Lotus, at times, doesn't know if she's overacting or if she's trying to sound like she's serious. Now mind you, none of it is overly bad, but I could totally imagine someone watching this movie, and see that the acting, not just from Lotus, but the acting as a whole, is just laughably bad. So I do have to warn you there. Also, there is this one news reporter who I can't tell was trying to give off either a British accent or an Australian accent, but he's only in the movie for about a few minutes, so it's not worth arguing about. Overall, the acting is pretty good, but that isn't saying a whole lot.
Camerawork is pretty good, although the editing could use some work. One big example I can think of is the scene I mentioned earlier when Kabukiman and Lotus fall off a building before flying. I also mentioned the rocket launcher, but the rocket that fired from it seems to have disappeared. Because we see it go off, and as both our heroes fall backwards, we never see the rocket fly over them. We hear the rocket explode, but we never see the rocket itself. Where the hell did the rocket even go? Unless it was a dud, and duds apparently explode, then I don't know what the hell happened to it. Also, there are some bits of choppy editing, where some scenes are spliced together and come across as really quick, and it seems kinda odd. Beyond that, though, the camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting is lit well. The sound-mix, at times, is a bit quiet. I had the volume up at the highest, and there were some scenes that were also quiet. Now that may be a technical issue on my end, or it might've been the version of it I watched on YouTube, but the sound-mix was a bit of an issue for me. Hopefully, the DVD version of it will have better sound-mix. The music is also pretty good. I can recall listening to Kabukiman's theme song play during a montage, and the song was pretty good. It isn't something that is going to set the world on fire, but it was still good enough for me to enjoy it.
So, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D."? If you are into super hero movies, especially comedies, then yes. Because, as I said earlier, this is, at least to me, one of the funniest superhero movies I have seen in a long time. And I do think that you should see this movie, at least, once. However, if you are someone who's either not into super hero movies, or is not into movies that have a low budget, then I would best say pass on it. But still, I would say check it out. If you have a Netflix account, and it's on Nettflix, check it out, assuming it's still on there. As for me, I was genuinely surprised by how this turned out. After I had to postpone my original review, I wasn't sure if this movie was going to be a good substitute or not. And you know what? I am happy to say that this movie turned out positive results for me, in the end. And that feels fucking amazing.
Anyway, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment