Alive - Director's Cut Edition

Starring:Hideo Sakaki, RyÃ´, Koyuki, Shun Sugata, Erika Oda, Tak Sakaguchi, Jun Kunimura, Ryushi Mizukami, Keita Kimura, Minoru Aoki, Boba, Takanori Hamachika, Makato Kitami, Seki Watanabe, Suenari Matsubara, Masataka Takahashi, Kifofumi Takahashi, Ayumi Yoshihara, Hibiki Izawa, Yukihito Tanikado
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Studio: Tokyo Shock
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Straight from the set-'em-up and knock-'em-down school of teen-horror filmmaking, Stay Alive gives literal meaning to the parental lament, "Those games will kill you someday." Not that you'll find any parents in this gimmicky thriller set in New Orleans; they're conspicuously absent when Hutch (Jon Foster) and his hardcore gamer pals discover "Stay Alive," a mysterious next-generation computer game that has a nasty way of precipitating mayhem, horror, and death. If your character dies in the game, you're doomed to die in identically grisly fashion in real life. So, just don't play the game, right? WRONG. This being a teen horror flick with a screenplay that makes no sense whatsoever, the gamer pals (including victim #2, Hutch's boss, played with game-addicted fervor by Adam Goldberg) obsessively investigate the game and its creepy Ring-like origins in the 17th century murder spree of a woman known as "The Blood Countess." Because movies like this are best viewed on a steady diet of Pop Tarts and Ritalin, Jimmi Simpson earns top honors as the gamer pal with the creepiest behavior, and Malcolm in the Middle fans will enjoy the presence of Frankie Muniz as a gamer geek whose primary fashion statement consists of grimy T-shirts and green plastic poker-visors. While not nearly as fun or clever as the Final Destination movies, Stay Alive delivers a few good deaths while blatantly stealing most of its horror highlights from Ju-On and other Japanese horror hits. It's junk from start to finish, but its target audience of mallrats and gamers (especially those with attention deficit disorder, which helps to ignore the plot holes) won't mind a bit.--Jeff Shannon

Description

The blood runs deep in this extended director's cut of STAY ALIVE, the mind-bending thriller about a killer video game. The real world and the game world gruesomely collide when a group of friends play STAY ALIVE, a mysterious underground videogame that kills the gamer whose character dies in play. In a death-defying race against time, the survivors must solve the mystery of the game while desperately trying to stay alive. More spine-chilling gore and action, plus all-new never-before-seen material -- including a new character and subplot -- push this version way over the edge of what could be seen in theaters.

Customer Reviews:

This was a good horror flick.......2007-06-30

I liked this horror flick because it was a different kind of story. It was a story of some people getting together and playing the same game of a "ghost that was called back from the dead" only to realize that the ghost was looking for revenge to anyone that encounters it within the game. If you would "die" in the game, you would die in real life of the same circumstances. It was a good horror flick and did keep me interested through out the movie. I do highly recommend this movie to anyone that is a horror fan and likes a "different" story.

Why Not Just Destroy the Game.......2007-06-24

Stay Alive has an interesting premise and a good looking cast. The problem is that the execution (no real pun intended) is horrible. This was the last film made in New Orleans pre Katrina so I had some interest in seeing it. I must say that the City is quite possibly the best character in the film.

Hutch (Jon Foster) is an avid videogamer who inherits a prototype game from a recently deceased friend. After playing the game with a group of friends they begin to die in the way they were killed in the game. On a mission to find out how to stop the deaths the legend of the Blood Countess is revealed by an author who sounds amazingly like Elmer Fudd. What follows is standard slasher fare with the obigatory jerky girls of Asian horror thrown in for good measure.

The film looks terribly dark through most of the film and the sound design is not the best that I've heard on a new film. Add to this a weak storyline and too perfect characters and you get a film that it is better to stay away from.

Not recommended.

An OK horror flick........2007-06-09

Major points to the creators of this film for creating a horror movie that is different from the rest of the movies in its' genre (in terms of the video game aspect). That being said, this movie could be much better as it pulls ideas from many other horror movies.

So what's to like about this movie? As I said above, it's different. A group of kids must stay alive by playing a video game that controls how they die. As far as keeping my interest, it did a fair job of doing so.

What's not to like? I would have liked for the creators to have more of the actual video game in the movie. If these kids are literally trying to stay alive by playing a video game, you would think that they would show more of the actual video game to let the audience see what is going on. Also, the characters are nothing to be excited about. In general, "scary" movies" contain likeable characters so that you feel some sort of emotion when something bad happens to them. This creates a more intense movie. Unfortunately, Stay Alive's characters are incredibly unlikeable. Furthermore, if you've seen any scary movie, you'll know what's going to happen in this movie. It's very predictable.

My verdict? 3/5 stars. It's an ok movie. Nothing special. The flaws I mentioned above ruined what could have possibly been a great movie. If you really want to see this movie, I suggest renting it rather than buying it.

Some will watch it more than once.......2007-05-28

I don't know why all the negative reviews for this movie. I watched it a number of times and had fun with it. I enjoyed the characters and the way they were depicted. Rip Off of other films? Hey, in today's (especially horror)movies, what isn't? The idea is to make the next one better than the others or just as darn good. I thought Stay Alive did that.

I give it four stars for it's entertainment value, but that's just me.

Not your average horror flick........2007-05-01

I'm sure most people interested in this movie have seen the trailer at the least, which tells you most of the story right there. Dude gets a killer video game, literally, and wants to share with friends. It's interesting, the graphics decent, the acting not bad. Through most of it, I'm thinking to myself, 'It's Doogie Howser turned techno geek'. As my daughter and I watched it, I kept waiting for Sophia Bush to get 'bumped off'. While some pople think it's cliche, I thought it was a bit more innovative than that. The whole set up, of it being a killer video game, while reaching into fantasy, was actually done quite well. There isn't an overabundance of 'hack and slash' like the Jason or Freddy movies, it is somewhat unique. It's not a movie for everyone, but it is worth seeing at least once if you are into special effects and graphics. It isn't nearly as cheesy as most of the garbage that's been getting onto the sci-fi channel. I don't know if I can take another really horrible sci-fi thriller starring Casper Van Dien...Someone save us from that crappolla!!

Average customer rating:

a promising start but...
One of a kind.
Don't let the detractors fool you
Huh???? what happened!!!
"Alive" is brain dead!

Alive - Director's Cut Edition
Starring: Hideo Sakaki , Ryô , Koyuki , Shun Sugata , and Erika Oda
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Manufacturer: Tokyo Shock
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002UB2YQ
Release Date: 2004-10-26

Description

Based on a popular comic book by Tsutomu Takahashi (SKY HIGH), ALIVE combines the tension of Vincenzo Natali's CUBE and Kitamura's own VERSUS. For the brutal murder of his girlfriend's rapists, Tenshu is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Miraculously surviving the high voltage punishment he is given the choice to burn again, or take part in a vicious experiment pitting him against another prisoner/guinea pig and a destructive alien life force.

Customer Reviews:

a promising start but..........2006-09-05

it went nowhere after that. it had decent special fx but the story was so so..Could have been better..

One of a kind........2005-08-08

Some movies can be compared to other movies but this stands alone. This runs along the lines of a pure thriller, a poke into the human mind, "how much can you take?" If your looking for somthing along the lines of "The Cell" and "Se7en" rent this before you buy it!

Don't let the detractors fool you.......2005-05-31

Alive is a film based on a Manga and, as any anime fan will tell you, Manga doesnt always translate to other mediums smoothly. The film asks the viewer to accept an ever increasingly surreal set of circumstances so that, by the end, you are eseentially watching a cartoon. Many people will be automatically thrown out of their comfort zones when the more sci-fi/fantasy elements are introduced, but by the time they arrive you're pretty much willing to go with it just to see what happens.

I liked following the main charecter, a man who has essentially done nothing morally "wrong" but is still punishing himself not for what he did as much as for what he couldn't do. They contrast the charecter nicely with the more up-front insanity of his cell mate and the cold indifference of the scientists and government officials running the experiment.

By the time the end of the movie comes about, all bets are off, and you're just in it for the fun of watching two powerful creatures duke it out. The film is extremely well shot with an interesting look. The directors cut features a solidly different visual experiance than the theatrical cut (also offered)and is a real treat to watch.

The Japanese sensibility in filmaking is vastly different than the American idea, so there is a period of adjustment before you can get into any Japanese film. IF you can master this shift theough, you are in for a real treat with this film

Huh???? what happened!!!.......2005-02-12

... this movie started out with an interesting story but falls apart after the girl is introduced as stated by the previous reviewer. Very good start but falls to pieces by the end. On the positive side the effects are amazing. Blows away anything you'll see in any Matrix film. The cinematography is also top notch! With a strong enough plot this would have made an amazing movie.

"Alive" is brain dead!.......2005-02-06

This movie started off interesting enough. A man murders the gang that raped his girlfriend and is placed in the electric chair. When the voltage fails to kill him, he is given the option to live or to be fried again. He chooses life. Enter storyline #2. He is put into what seems to be a "Cube" type experiment: locked in a metal room with a psychotic man who claims to have also escaped The Chair. It appears some government scientists are testing how long it will take these two to kill each other. But that's not it. Enter storyline #3. A beautiful woman appears to the men. It seems she is the host for an alien entity that her father contracted from eating a baboon that visited a spaceship in the jungle (Oh, how I wish I were making that up!). The remainder of the film is a mess of Hell images, Kung-fu showdowns with cloned super-soldiers, and random shootings that make no earthly sense. Someone should have read the script for "Alive" and pronounced this film D.O.A. instead.

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