Robots VS Kung Fu: The Matrix Grindhouse Edition

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Let me preface this by saying that every time I would see someone write "you should do a grindhouse edit of _____" on the forum, I wanted to ban them immediately. There were a lot of hack attempts, but shitty-ing up the picture quality and making a bunch of hard cuts does not a grindhouse film make. Fortunately the trend seemed to fade from the spotlight for a bit. TMBTM's War of the Stars edit was a bit closer to the real deal, and that edit was a lot of fun.

Now, with Robots vs. Kung Fu, we have as close as a true grindhouse film as you are going to get. The editor did a fantastic job with this. The editing was quite good at times, the music choices were great, and it really did feel like a cheap grindhouse film. That said, not everything worked for me (a bit too much Johnny Mnemonic footage was used, and the filters/compression were a bit much for me) but I did really enjoy this. I look forward to watching the bonus features and listening to the commentary. Great job!!!!

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(Updated: December 25, 2021)
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9.7
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10.0
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10.0
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10.0
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9.0
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9.0
2021 Updated Review:

Has it really been 8 years since I left this review? Damn. Time flies. Well, with the release of the "Analogue Demaster" version, I felt this was worth a re-watch/re-review. I'll say that this is still one of the all time great fanedits out there and should be required viewing for everyone reading this. This really shows you what is possible with fanediting and your only limitation is your own creativity. Everything I said below still stands. The absolute highlight is the faneditor commentary track. It' so great to get a peek behind the curtain of a master at work. Brilliant, all around.

Original 2013 Review:

This edit is a blast. The editor has taken The Matrix as we know it, turned it inside out, crushed it with a sledgehammer, set it on fire and up from the ashes rose Robots vs. Kung Fu. What TMBTM was to Jaws and Star Wars, matrixgrindhouse is to The Matrix. Very highly recommended.

Audio/Video Quality: Horrid. Perfect.

Visual Editing: The number of sources blended together in this edit is jaw dropping. Great work.

Audio Editing: Hard cuts, volume fluctuations, stray noises. Everything that makes a grindhouse a grindhouse.

Narrative: The new story that's created is an incredible feat the editor should be commended on his creativity and the technical prowess to be able to pull it off.

Enjoyment: Take the red pill.

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Overall rating
 
9.5
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9.0
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10.0
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10.0
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9.0
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10.0
I absolutely love this edit (Must have watched various versions 5 or 6 times so far) and it's taken me a while to put it into words. I'd go so far as to say I enjoy this more than the original film and I enjoy the heck out of that! So far I've not scene another edit that so fundamentaly changes the experience of the film. Here is a few of the reasons it rocks...

Audio/Video Quality: 9/10

matrixgrindhouse has cut in unfinished, unused and incomplete footage into the film wherever possible. The image has been recoloured and made all grainy and nasty looking... in a good way. All of this is of course deliberate and enormously fun but if you are expecting HD quality footage you may be upset. But if you're watching this in the proper 'f*cked up 70s/80s Grindhoused to sh*t print' spirit you'll freakin' love it!!

Visual Editing: 10/10

The editing is so seemless that even after several viewings I hadn't notied cuts to footage of completely different movies (The commentary talks you through all that). Yet other edits are deliberately done to introduce enormous jump cuts and continuity errors which adds another layer of enjoyment. If the shot could be changed or replaced... it has been.

Audio Editing: 10/10

This is the best part for me. The entire soundtrack has been replaced with awesome synth Funk cuts that will have you almost dancing in your seat as you watch the edit. Brilliantly the edit comes with a music-only track so you can listen to it in all it's isolated glory. If that's not enough there is an informative commentary too. So much work has gone into getting the sound FX right too and all the scratches and noise you'd expect from a Grindhouse edit have been carefully added. Lastly much of the dialogue has been replaced, cut up and messed with to create an alternate story and some hilarious gags... zzzzzziiiiiip ;-)

Narrative: 9/10

All the characters personalities and motivations have been changed along with the story. So you get a totally different experience. I've knocked one point off because I suspect you have to be familiar with The Matrix to follow some of the changes but that doesn't mean I'd change a damn thing. I love how the story has been made more crazy but cutting in a good chunk of footage from another movie.

Enjoyment: 10/10

10 hardly covers how much fun this edit is. I swear it gets better with every watch and you'll be spotting more and more little visual tricks and gags on every watch. I'm looking forward to my next watch of 'ROBOTS vs KUNG FU' already!

Extras: 10/10
Not only is there 3 audio tracks to enjoy there is a whole extra DVD of bonus materia created for the release. Trailers, deleted footage and alternate cuts abound. Plus the edit itself begins with 3 spoof vintage Grindhouse trailers so good they alone make this worth watching repeatedly!

Thanks matrixgrindhouse for going the extra mile on this one.

"Jesus, I just thought you were a guy?... that was a long time ago"

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Overall rating
 
9.0
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10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
This was such an amazing edit! Serious skills on hand with you man. I'm so glad I bumped your thread and tagged you that one night.

Excellent A/V quality, damaged effects worked really well. Multiple sources are smoothly mushed together without leaving too many traces. Of course there are intentional errors, which adds to the pleasure. It's obvious a ton of work went into this. There were many moments I marveled at the sound editing; the music, rebuilt sound effects, dialogue mashing, etc. Some of the intentional abrupt or awkward cuts didn't work for me though but nothing major. Nicely done with all the added footage. Really made this a unique version without going too nuts on it.

I had a blast with this. Not everything worked for me but all the genius moments outweighed those easily. I sampled the commentary and will definitely give that a listen, and damn look at that a second disc with goodies! Highly highly recommended.

A/V Quality - 10
Editing - 9 visual, 8 audio
Narrative - 9
Enjoyment - 10 (original 9)

Recommended drink: Absinthe

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8.2
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8.0
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9.0
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9.0
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7.0
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7.0
I really struggled writing this review.

The good news is that the editor succeeds in pulling off a grindhouse version of The Matrix. It's obvious that he worked very hard on this and the end result is commendable. Unfortunately, I didn't quite enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Perhaps it's because I'm not a fan of the grindhouse genre, and it's a bit more straightforward (from a comedic standpoint) than The War of the Stars.

Stuff I liked: The intro cast credits made me smile. I generally liked most of the music choices. There were some actual literal laughs out loud on my part. The Animatrix stuff. The ending(s) were fantastic and easily bumped my narrative rating up a few points. The DVD is really well done, and I'm definitely going to listen to the commentary (the parts I sampled were quite interesting).

Stuff I didn't care for: The intro trailers (again, this is more my disinterest in the whole genre more than anything). The melting film parts (seen it before). The Johnny Mnemonic stuff (I'm not sure why but it didn't engage me). The changes to the narrative (maybe my fault, but there was stuff I didn't get until I read the description on IFDb).

Overall, I'm glad I watched this, and I did enjoy it, but not as much as I expected. I do wonder if I had seen this before WOTS if I might have liked it better, because I couldn't help but compare the two. And it's no fault of the editor that my tastes skew more towards WOTS.

Cautiously recommended.

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