May 06 2009
Wednesday Movie Review - Dead Leaves
I heard about Dead Leaves many, many years ago from an anime magazine I used to read. But, I never got around to watching it until today. So, let’s hit the review.
Dead Leaves, although devoid of pretty much any storyline, has plenty of gratuitous sexual innuendos, giant robots, and even larger explosions. Two…erm…people, a woman and a man with a TV for his head wake up completely naked in a desert with no memory of who they are. So, naturally, they do what all amnesiacs do…rob a store, steal a car, and start shooting bystanders for no good reason. Then, when the cops come, they resist arrest and eventually end up in prison where they meet a crazy old deformed doctor, a man with a drill for a penis, and have crazy inmate sex with each other before trying to escape. Oh by the way, that’s all in the first 15 minutes. After that, you lose any semblance of story (it’s there in the background somewhere) and drift off into the land of giant robots and explosions. Finally, the show ends with a showdown between our main heroine (who, by the way, we never learn the name of but is referred to as Pandy) and the warden of the prison. Fortunately for Pandy, she gives birth during this fight to a gun-wielding, pig-nosed baby (apparently she got pregnant when she and Retro (our TV-headed friend from earlier) had crazy inmate sex) who quickly grows into adulthood, old age, and then sacrifices himself to save Pandy and Retro from a gaint worm.
What about this movie makes any sort of sense? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s complete nonsense from the first robbery to the final explosion. But, in my opinion, that’s what makes this worth watching. There’s no convoluted story to get you confused or lost in. There’s no messy character development for them to mix-up. All it is, is excuse after excuse to make something blow up, spurt blood, or become bullet-ridden. I mean…the woman gives birth to a baby born with guns in his hands! And the whole moon explodes! It doesn’t get much simpler than that!
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with nothing but action scenes and explosions, you naturally run into some problems. And, we’re not going to touch on the lack of storyline here. As I said…it’s there…somewhere. The biggest problem I noted was the fact that, in the midst of all the movement, explosions, and camera shaking (why?) it’s relatively easy to lose track of the action, especially when there are two dozen inmates all fighting giant robots at once and the artist is trying to include everyone. Although I enjoyed the gratuitousness of every bit of violence, I definitely think it could have been toned down just a bit. On a semi-related note; for all of the sexual-innuendos, there’s no nudity until 37 minutes into the movie at which point there is one (that’s right…only one) boob. This is quickly lost as the movie returns to exploding fight scenes.
Ultimately, rent this movie, or watch it on Netflix, and return it when you’re done. This movie has enough qualities to make it semi-enjoyable, but not worth buying for your collection. Unless, of course, you enjoy gratuitous amounts of violence, blood, explosions, and sexual innuendos without nudity entirely too much.
Addendum:
Yes…I know I used the word “gratuitous” entirely too much this post. That’s what makes it gratuitous.
