Knights (1993) Movie Review

Knights is a 1993 post-apocalyptic action sci-fi martial arts movie written and directed by Albert Pyun, starring kickboxer Kathy Long, Kris Kristofferson, Scott Paulin, Gary Daniels and Lance Henriksen. Shot in Utah and distributed by Paramount straight to the home video market, the film is now considered to be one of the most likable Pyun movies and one of the movies that best exemplify his work, especially when it comes to his muscular female leads in action roles.

In a futuristic and technologically advanced dystopian world, Job and his army of cyborgs enslave and capture humans to feed off of them. Nea (Long) is rescued by a cyborg named Gabriel (Kristofferson), a good cyborg who was created to get rid of the evil cyborgs, and trains her to become a killer of half-human machines. 

This is an insane and wild post-apocalyptic wasteland movie about the human capabilities for survival in the face of devastation and destruction of order and civilization, an idea incarnated in the human of flesh and blood who fights for the survival and well being of captive humans against humanoid but technically perfect and enhanced cyborgs, a cyborg killer. All with a wonderful female lead who grows and becomes a badass with a fantastic final battle that's extended to unbelievable lengths. 

Long is quite great in the title role but she kind of gets her action role activated somewhat late into the movie after her training. However, when the violence starts, it stretches itself all throughout a long climactic battle with an unstable array of punches, kicks, martial arts throws and stabbings to the max. It's a show that delights and amazes by its perfect handling of the timing and millimetrical editing to achieve the maximum effect. Pyun was a master at action and the choreography in this movie lives up to his reputation. He shoots the film like sci-fi wasteland fever dream with his wide angle lens close to the actor's faces and extravagant but precise shot compositions.

The plot itself is simple and straightforward, which is very helpful when it's concentrated on driving the action to the next place and when Pyun gets a good excuse to throw in some nice physical artistry he is known for but when it's introducing the setting and the characters it might get a little messy, that's mostly because the physicality, the movements and bodies Pyun focuses on, exists in the filmmakers work before the story concerns or plot. 

It achieves a rough look quite well in this dirty and ravaged setting, but everything is technically polished and has some more than functional practical special effects that aesthetically add a lot to the grungy and unclean post-apocalyptic world the film takes place in. So it all has a very proper appearance, something that's quite impressive given its low budget.

A totally recommended movie for anyone looking for a relentless action flick if they can stomach some low budget oddities and a wild tone.

Slayers The Motion Picture (1995) Anime Movie Review

Slayers The Motion Picture, also known as Slayers Perfect, is a 1995 adventure fantasy comedy anime film directed by Hiroshi Watanabe, who would be in charge of directing all of the Slayers OVA specials and movies from this point on. It was written by Kazuo Yamazaki (who is known for directing several episodes of Urusei Yatsura), this would be his first and only writing credit in the Slayers franchise. The cast features the great Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Osamu Saka, Tessho Genda, Yuri Shiratori and Mahito Tsujimura. Perfect was one of the very first animated entries in the Slayers franchise created by Hajime Kanzaka, as it was released on July 29, 1995, three months after the TV series started airing.

Strange nightmares haunt sorceress Lina Inverse who, along with her companion and adversary, Naga the Serpent, travels to the hot springs of Mipross. When the magical waters turn out to be fake, the girls realize a bunch of bandits own them, under the command of the Great Master, who is involved with the elves seen in Lina's visions.

These early Slayer stories in the timeline are among my favorites, that's mostly because of the inclusion of fan-favorite sexy sorceress Naga the serpent, whose chemistry and constant clashes with Lina create some of the funniest moments in the franchise because of the very evident contrast (physical, moral, personality-wise) between the two girls. This first movie really takes advantage of that by pretty much establishing how much Lina can't stand her but has to team up with her in cleverly conceptualized situations to face a bigger enemy.

The storyline I felt was well handled, what's initially just a mystery eventually is explained to the audience in small doses with very good pace and rhythm. Having Lina and Naga encounter several quirky secondary characters as their journey is either interrupted or disrupted by imaginative enemies and fun obstacles was a good way to structure the film. It's not really as streamlined as one might think, and there's a tendency towards a more fragmentary type of narrative, making some of the events feel slightly disjointed but the script is decent enough to tie everything together even if it's to a small degree in order for the plot to make sense feel cohesive, it never feels like it's just random scenarios strung together.

There are also some differences with the anime series that are established in this first movie, things that will become recurrent in the franchise. First up is Lina being more hardcore with her magic, she's slightly less joyful than in her introductory scene in the show and she also doesn't mind killing or hurting bandits and doesn't think twice about things like that. Another thing is that the sexual jokes and raunchy jokes based on Lina's body are also more prominent and emphasized in these movies and OVA series overall. Some more graphic bits of imagery are also present here. 

By now you can tell that since the market is for direct-to-video consumers the sensibility is a bit more edgy and daring. Not to a weird degree but enough to realize the tone isn't exactly the same as the series, a divergence that helps to make these films stand out.  

If you wanna start with the OVAs and movies instead of the shows this is a good place to begin, you don't need any real knowledge of the lore and most of the important things you need to know are introduced here anyway. If you are a Slayers fan but somehow you haven't seen it, then I would recommend you to give it a go!