Reborn from Hell: Samurai Armageddon (1996)

Absolutely Fantastic

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I bought this movie because of two reasons. 1. It was the second release from japan shock to reach my local dvd-store. 2. I love samurai movies.For those who don't know, this movie is about the same Jubei as in the anime series (Ninja Resurrection) so I thought I was in for a treat. It IS a great samurai-movie, no doubt, but it drops at times to being an absurd ghost story with low budget fx shots and long meaningless dialogue.The fight coreography is brilliant,SPOILER! except for one scene with a resurrected samurai who, despite being the easiest target in history, doesn't get hit one single time when attacked by professionally trained ninjas. END SPOILER!The movie also feels half finished because of the seemingly cut off ending.If you like bloody samurai fights and severed limbs then this is surely your cup of tea, unless you hate long monotonous dialogue, naked women and unfinished stories.

Well, admittedly, the full title of this film (as I saw it anyway), "Reborn From Hell: Samurai Armageddon" is truly one of the great ones of the late 20th Century. However, this movie is wack, and wack is truly the most accurate word for it. The opening is promising enough, with an evil overlord that looks like that crazy host guy with the beaded jackets from "Iron Chef" raising the first of his army of demon warriors--who bursts alien-style through the body of a nude Japanese virgin (the first of a legion of nude virgins). But, from there on in, aside from occasional bursts of gore (tons of very fake blood, until they get into battling demons, at which point they apparently ran out and went with green tempura paint), more toplessness, mediocre swordfights, green light bulbs, primitive blue-screen effects and pointless plot twists, there's not much to see here.Even worse is that the ostensible hero is plodding along, working his way through the seven (well, sometimes there's nine, depending on who's was standing around in the dubbing booth right then, I guess) demon warriors and then all of a sudden we cut to evil Iron Chef guy going "Ah ha ha ha ha! There's still three more demon warriors to go! And Armageddon comes on June 6 at 6am! Ah ha ha ha!" And then the credits. What about the kidnapped chick!? What about the ostensible hero's impending showdown with his father!? What about Armageddon!? What about the other three to five demon warriors?! Sheesh.

This movie just stops, has no armageddon (or armegeddon!), and the back cover of the video goes on further in the plot than the movie does. This movie will make you want to go bang heavy objects against your skull. And what was with the long-nosed mask????

You would think with Samurai Zombies you would get some excitement but this is a bit of a snoozer. Long and complicated plot about dead warriors trying to take over the world. It ends somewhere in the middle of the story and has the feeling of a tv mini-series.