Why Don't You Play in Hell?


2013 action comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: An amateur film crew calling themselves the Fuck Bombers get involved with a Yakuza turf war. 

This is my second Sion Sono movie of the year, and I might watch another one because he's that kind of director. There's weirdness throughout with allusions to a made-up toothpaste commercial and a real Bruce Lee jump suit, but things don't get ultra-weird, or ultra-violent, until a frenetic final thirty minutes or so where limbs are flying all over the place and blood's spilling from the television set. The imagery is energetic, electric, and alive, one of those bloody cartoons for adults, and the thrilling denouement set up by 3/4 of the movie is captivatingly goofy. 

Sono's a bit over my head with the message, but there's an obvious homage to grindhouse and independent film here. Things get meta early and often, and the whole thing's elevated above other splattersploitation flicks by having something to say about movies and violence and violence in movies. You also actually care about the characters and their relationships. So when everybody is decapitated or shot apart by the end of the movie, you feel a little something. And you also feel that nothing is real, so you're allowed to go to bed happy. 

Dark humor, wacky characters, blood spurts. What else could a guy ask for? I'm starting to wonder if Sion Sono is my new favorite director. 

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