DEATH TRANCE

AKA Stinky Turd

That pretty much sums it up. Gun wielding quasi samurai and ninjas, swords with phallic hilts, motorcycles, zombies, spider men, berzerkers, a goddess here, a vampire there...yep, Death Trance has it all. But why so bad and why did I see this sorry excuse of a movie? Cause Tak Sakaguchi was in it, and I like giving the guy a chance. Another name caught my attention, Kentaro Seagal. Son of the ass kicking Steven Seagal. Yeah, at the least, it should be an alright action flick. What the hell went wrong? It was a complete overkill of bad cinema. It pokes fun at itself at times, which is fine, but it's overshadowed by static and forgettable characters and a sloppy story that goes absolutely no where. I make it a practice to watch a movie without any background information. I realized afterward the tag line was perfect for this movie. 'An unknown time. An unknown place. Without reasons. With no future. His only desire is... Destruction!'. No doubt.

A swordsman by the name of Grave (Sakaguchi) sets out to seek a duel with an opponent that is as formidable, if not stronger, than himself. To achieve this, he seeks a coffin that will supposedly grant him his wish to fight the ultimate battle. But legend has it that inside the coffin is the Goddess of Destruction who will bring about the end of the world. Many other factions and enemies emerge as they try to steal Grave's prize and unlock the power that the coffin holds. It's every man for himself in a quest to discover its secrets.

Versus was just fun and had a simple directive, DT tries to present itself in the same manner. But simply put, this just feels like a bunch of crap stuck together. Although there are many elements to the story itself, it's a complete mystery to the very end. There's no empathy for the characters. The fight scenes were sub par, choreographed by Tak Sakaguchi himself. Sub par in the sense that it wasn't very inventive or clever, it's stuff you've seen before...from 20 years ago. It may be a treat for the die hard, hardcore Versus/Sakaguchi fans. For anyone else who happens to just pick it up, you'll have an urge to watch reruns of Friends on TBS during the course of the movie. No direction, no fun, no dice.

Director: Yuji Shimomura
Genre: Adventure
Year: 2005
Rating: 2.5/8
On DVD at HKFlix