Another Country off of my Bucket List- Chile. Thanks to an anonymous donor (my brother), I got my hands on this odd Action-Comedy from the Country that is inspired in great part by 'Grand Theft Auto.' The other influence is obviously Robert Rodriguez, both in regards to El Mariachi and the Grindhouse work he's done. The film tells the tale of the titular Machine Gun Woman, who is gunning down the Argentinian Gangsters in town for their bounties (and for fun). Meanwhile, a DJ gets too close to the whole affair and is dragged into it. Can his experience playing Grand Theft Auto help him be the hero that he needs to be? Well, it didn't work out too well for Randall on the Clerks Cartoon (when he played hours and hours of Pharaoh), so probably not. Since this is not the most wide-spread film and only came out last year, I will be sparse with the SPOILERS here. This is more to give you a taste and let you decide for yourself. To find out if life has Game Over Screens, read on...
This is The Machine Gun Woman. She shoots people with machine guns (and other guns). Any questions?
Our hero is DJ, who is...well, guess. He lives vicariously through Video Games like GTA and...this made up PS3 game.
This can't be real...can it?
He overhears his bosses (all Gangsters) talking about how they need to kill The Machine Gun Woman. They decide to use him as a patsy and make him do it for them.
By the way, all of the villains get this introductory shot to show how bad they are. It is still better than in Nude Nuns With Big Guns.
Our hero does his best to find the woman, who once danced at the Club he works at now. As a Framing Device, we get 'Mission Start' Screens and 'Mission End' Screens in the GTA style.
He eventually gets his wish, but can't exactly bring her in. Will she kill him or let him live?
She spares him for the time being, but his family isn't exactly safe with this bosses after him and with the whole Gang War thing going on.
With things going very badly, our hero must man up and become a hero alongside The Machine Gun Woman.
The results are not exactly pretty.
Will the pair live to see the next day? Will the villains meet their proper end? Will I SPOIL this? No. The End.
It is a fun, but shallow film. It is probably one that you will either love or hate. The film- right or wrong- is very insistent upon its goofy tone. It works for you or doesn't. To the film's credit, they emulate Robert Rodriquez without copying him wholesale. The Machine Gun Woman doesn't have alot of motivation given here, but she is definitely memorable. Is she inspired by El Mariachi? Somewhat, but she isn't just El Mariachi as a chick. It somewhat reminds me of Juan of the Dead, which felt like Cuba saying 'Let us show you how WE would do this.' Machine Gun Woman feels like films you have seen before, but does maintain some of its own identity. Besides, you get lots of shooting and humor, so what's not to love? If you think that you have seen everything, why not watch an interesting Import like this? It may be silly fun, but it is still fun to me. What do you think, Chilean Spoony?
Next up, I return to a Genre that I love- Giallo. It is a bit more Arty than usual, but is it good? Stay tuned...
This can't be real...can it?
By the way, all of the villains get this introductory shot to show how bad they are. It is still better than in Nude Nuns With Big Guns.
So, it's watchable I guess. We should do some kinda "Project Okay" - though, thinking about all the movies y'all gave me lately, we're already doing it ;)))
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