Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)

Perfect cast and a good story

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Unfortunately there is almost nothing good to say about this film.The camera is so shaky that it's hard to recognize things in the picture. If watched on a big cinema screen, it would have made me vomit.Dialogs are mostly pathetic and acting is very poor, many times over the top. At times it's even difficult to understand what they are saying, because of the strong (bad) accent.Many scenes are tediously long, dark and the "music" is too loud.I really tried to like this film, but I couldn't.I think it's good, when directors try to be daring, but some seem to forget that they are not making a film for themselves, but they want it to be viewed by others. If so, maybe it's not wrong to try to make a film watchable (visually pleasant) as well.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man - A film so manic, hyper, weird, and stylish, it represented the epitome of an experimental film. David Lynch would have gouged his eyes out.Tetsuo II: Body Hammer - A sequel so intense and crazy, it took the strange visions of the first film and spat them out at the viewer in a refreshing barrage of insanity.The third Tetsuo film, The Bullet Man, is pretty much more of the same. You can certainly expect the film to break out in hyperactive bombardments of flashing rapid-fire images. You can certainly expect the main character to mutate into a metal monster and wreak some havoc (and this time, he spits bullets!). You can certainly expect this to be weird and crazy.However, this Tetsuo film is notably different, and not in a way that's refreshing or necessarily good. In between the manic freak-out scenes, the film slows down drastically, trying its best to weave in some semblance of an actual story with actual characters and actual reasons behind the madness. With the terrible dialogue, short runtime, and overall freakiness of the film, I really don't think this story works as well as it wants to. The film really wants to give a compelling vengeance story (the exact same type that went into the last two films), it really wants to give us emotional characters, and it wants to give us some kind of background to the "Tetsuo Project" and its connection to the characters. In the end though, it comes off as being too short and underdeveloped for its own good.The experience of the film overall is pretty agitating. Granted, the other Tetsuo films are agitating as hell, but The Bullet Man seems to be a grade worse. Nearly every scene is shot with a camera that never sits still. Given the other issues listed above, I was rather apathetic about the film overall. I actually value the other two films for their remarkable styles and visions, even though they are pretty hyperactive in their own right, but this third film never felt like it brought anything new to the table.In addition to being really hyper and annoying, the film is rather drab-looking, with lots of dark lighting and gray settings. Photography is among the worst I have ever seen, and the editing is crazy. I was personally appalled by the acting and writing; most of the dialogue is terrible, with very stupid lines and absurd delivery. On the plus side, the sets, props, and costumes are pretty decent, and it's especially cool to see that the filmmakers preferred to use practical effects rather than cheap CGI. Music consists of lots of airy noises and metallic banging, further adding to the annoying experience.As much as I value the first two Tetsuo movies, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy The Bullet Man as much as I wanted to. I halfway wonder if Shin'ya Tsukamoto is purposefully trying to make the most annoying movie possible. Established Tetsuo fans will probably enjoy The Bullet Man, but casual viewers will probably want to keep their distance. I personally recommend the first film, if at all interested.2/5 (Experience: Annoying | Story: Very Poor | Film: Marginal)

OK it seems that Shinya Tsukamoto decided to update his series even more to modern times and also put himself in the movie again. I guess you could say this was a revamp of the first, but a different story. But here is the thing. When he made a classic, he was limited to what he could use making him use his brain. Using todays technology could sometimes screws up a great thing. I am not saying this is a bad film though. Some good things about it was the nice grim colors to give it a creepier feel and the story was not confusing. But becoming the bullet man in this film was way over the top and it got to the point where it was really crazy; then calm. Yes it ended calm which was strange. Eric Bossick was a pretty decent actor and the only one I really cared about. He would make an excellent superhero. In fact this was not so much horror as it was action. A couple bad things. The story was a bit over the top and the voices were really hard to understand at points. Other than that, it was a decent film.

I always wondered what happened to those who were at "The Blair Witch Project", they worked as the camera crew in this movie. The action/fight scenes in this movie is too shaky for something to register on screen as if the camera man is being chased by the Blair Witch.I never heard of the director before but may have a very promising career. The accent of the Japanese actors in this film is in a way difficult to understand at times.I totally agree with the two other reviewers that says "you probably have to be a fan to enjoy this" and "For Die-Hard fans only". The story is weird and confusing at times but still in a way entertaining.Overall, the movie is watchable.