I just finished seeing this film. Really interesting camera shots makes film feel like it's in another dimension or on another planet. It also estahblished an eerie, spooky atmosphere and gives a very haunting setting. The good guys can fight, the bad guys (including several Yakuza) aren't afraid to battle, and there are zombies. As the film goes on, the zombies aren't really the main problem the hero faces.

The action scenes in this movie are wild, intense, and can sometimes put a guilty grin on your face. Whether it's sword slicing, bullets blazing, or good old fashioned martial arts, the pace is frenetic and really establishes the characters well. Although a few scenes are paced slower, the action here ties it all together. This is the first time I've seen Zombies in combat who actually put up a great fight. The main part of the story unfolds during the second half and the ending is creative and original. Versus is unlike any movie I've previously seen.

I must've repeated to my friend that the soundtrack for Versus is really cool and it complements the fight scenes fanatic pace. Cool fashion, good amount of gore, and an interesting storyline. Definitely an film not to be missed.

You can't beat that combination, unless you add in ninjas, or samurai... or Godzilla, but zombies and yakuza alone make a very compelling film, even if it has no sensible plot.

The storyline is simple enough - prisoners escape, get double crossed, then find out they're in a "forest of resurrection" full of zombies that don't like yakuza very much. That's all you really need to know.

Sit back and relax as you watch hilarious gory and impossibly bad acting. The movie is based on its visual appeal alone, forget the plot and the characters, watch the fight scenes, the strange standoffs, bad monologues, and hideously bad acting.

There are parts, however, where the movie drags on a bit. Killing zombies, even though enormously awesome, does become monotonous after an extended period. But these lulls are few and far between them. The action definitely keeps you hooked for most of the film.

Overall? Great action film.

7/10

Some guys out filming in the woods with a camera and added zombies…no, it's not the latest in a long line of BLAIR WITCH derivatives, but instead another low-budget Japanese slice of mayhem that follows in the same undead vein as WILD ZERO and JUNK. VERSUS takes the flesh-eating dead from the Romero movies and transplants them slap-bang into the middle of a tale involving yakuza vendettas, escaped convicts and an age-old sorcerer with plans for immortality. If it sounds overbaked and half-crazy, that's because it is.

I really like these low-budget Japanese movies as they have a tendency to overcome their budgetary constraints, making up for a lack of cash with an influx of creative energy. The last one I watched was a glorious Tarantino rip-off called SCORE. VERSUS follows the same formula, dishing up some familiar ingredients and giving them extra jolts of vitality which brings a storyline you might have seen before back to outrageous (un)life.

The characters are crazed, larger than life creations and the actors go way above and beyond the call of duty in their roles, but somehow the over-the-top nature of the performances work. Ryuhei Kitamura keeps his cameras moving all over the place, creating novel shot after novel shot, and the (many) action sequences are elaborately staged and completely exhilarating. It's a real shame when you watch a movie with a budget hundreds of times larger than the one here making crucial mistakes, like dodgy shaky-cam scenes or fights that are just plain dull. VERSUS may be silly, cheesy and rough around the edges…but it's never dull!