I don't mind films that try to be artistic or stylish in one way or another, it can be interesting.
Having sets look like they're made out of paper and taken straight from a 4 year olds drawing is not artistic. Lighting everything in various hues from blue to green to red to yellow and blah blah blah is not artistic, it's lazy.
Here's the basic plot....world blew itself up, humans decided they should ban guns....why guns only, I don't know, since the movie establishes that we basically nuked ourselves near to extinction, but HEY. So this is post apocalyptic.
1 man, Drifter, and another Japanese man, Yoshi (yes, seriously) both are after a man named Nicola, who, as we are CONSTANTLY reminded, is the strongest man east of the Atlantic. And by constant, I mean at least every 15-20 minutes.
Drifter wants to kill him for reasons that are never really explained...at all. Yoshi wants back a medallion that Nicola stole from his clan. Yup.
In a SERIOUSLY dragged out first half, Drifter and Yoshi come to cross paths with The Bartender (yes, seriously again) and then each other. Drifter eventually "borrows" 48,000 dollars from Yoshi to enter a poker game, in order to challenge Nicola to....another poker game. To draw him out into public, as he never goes out (the movie claims nobody knows what he looks like, but of course, WE are shown his face many times over) In doing this, Yoshi gets caught up and gets his Uncle killed and his cousin kidnapped, they both go after Nicola for even more reasons, blah blah blah. All of this takes an hour and a half to establish and get out there. 90 minutes!!! During this, there are poorly choreographed fight scenes, which establish a few things.....in this post apocalyptic world, anyone can challenge who rules if they have at least 20 men and can win in the challenge. Nicola usually only sends 1 of 9 "killers" he keeps as his personal guard basically, although we don't really see any of the others except for very brief shots. Killer #2 (....noticing the lack of actual names with anyone but Nicola?) is the only one really fleshed out to any degree as a character.
People use old time technology....VERY old time. As in, 40's style phones, morse code machines, and people drive around in what are essentially clown cars. And since there's no guns, everyone fights with knives/swords, and just sheaths or pieces of wood they find lying around.
Yet everyone has overly fancy clothing.
IF you're willing to sit through a lot, a LOT of unnecessary narration (such as pointing out that men in red enter a room...when they're entering the room....not kidding) and conversation that is meant to be deep and philosophical yet is just boring and ultimately pointless, the movie does have a few interesting points (the poker game is intriguing) and some slightly decent fight scenes....emphasis on slightly.
But the story is basically non existent. The reason for everything happening is very simple, very boring, and takes just over two hours to tell. It's basically taking the plot of a Final Destination movie and trying to stretch it out for another 45 minutes.
Having sets look like they're made out of paper and taken straight from a 4 year olds drawing is not artistic. Lighting everything in various hues from blue to green to red to yellow and blah blah blah is not artistic, it's lazy.
Here's the basic plot....world blew itself up, humans decided they should ban guns....why guns only, I don't know, since the movie establishes that we basically nuked ourselves near to extinction, but HEY. So this is post apocalyptic.
1 man, Drifter, and another Japanese man, Yoshi (yes, seriously) both are after a man named Nicola, who, as we are CONSTANTLY reminded, is the strongest man east of the Atlantic. And by constant, I mean at least every 15-20 minutes.
Drifter wants to kill him for reasons that are never really explained...at all. Yoshi wants back a medallion that Nicola stole from his clan. Yup.
In a SERIOUSLY dragged out first half, Drifter and Yoshi come to cross paths with The Bartender (yes, seriously again) and then each other. Drifter eventually "borrows" 48,000 dollars from Yoshi to enter a poker game, in order to challenge Nicola to....another poker game. To draw him out into public, as he never goes out (the movie claims nobody knows what he looks like, but of course, WE are shown his face many times over) In doing this, Yoshi gets caught up and gets his Uncle killed and his cousin kidnapped, they both go after Nicola for even more reasons, blah blah blah. All of this takes an hour and a half to establish and get out there. 90 minutes!!! During this, there are poorly choreographed fight scenes, which establish a few things.....in this post apocalyptic world, anyone can challenge who rules if they have at least 20 men and can win in the challenge. Nicola usually only sends 1 of 9 "killers" he keeps as his personal guard basically, although we don't really see any of the others except for very brief shots. Killer #2 (....noticing the lack of actual names with anyone but Nicola?) is the only one really fleshed out to any degree as a character.
People use old time technology....VERY old time. As in, 40's style phones, morse code machines, and people drive around in what are essentially clown cars. And since there's no guns, everyone fights with knives/swords, and just sheaths or pieces of wood they find lying around.
Yet everyone has overly fancy clothing.
IF you're willing to sit through a lot, a LOT of unnecessary narration (such as pointing out that men in red enter a room...when they're entering the room....not kidding) and conversation that is meant to be deep and philosophical yet is just boring and ultimately pointless, the movie does have a few interesting points (the poker game is intriguing) and some slightly decent fight scenes....emphasis on slightly.
But the story is basically non existent. The reason for everything happening is very simple, very boring, and takes just over two hours to tell. It's basically taking the plot of a Final Destination movie and trying to stretch it out for another 45 minutes.