Search - M.D. Geist - Director's Cut and Death Force (Collector's Series Edition) on DVD

A Great Anime...if this was the 70s.

Chon-ny | 05/29/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The MD Geist DVD immediately draws you in on first sight.What a cool cover! A super-cool guy in a futuristic helmet. Cool pull out scenes on the back--detailed-looking robots in action, one of them smashing and instantly disemboweling someone. And then the advertised storyline of Geist, one of the Most Dangerous Soldiers (very much in the vein of Van Damme's Universal Soldier), must join Jerran battle forces against the Nexrum invaders to stop a "Death Force" doomsday device. Part II promises more of the same, with the added element of Krauser, Dolph Lundgren to Geist's Van Damme.It's a pretty package that hides a horrendous effort at anime.Now let's re-learn why you should judge a DVD by its Amazon.com review and not by its cover. The ultra-cool looking, blue-eyed futuristically helmeted Geist? Actually an emotionless, unattached "hero." Films will generally push you to hate or love the protagonist so you can root for or against him. The viewer is never privvy to Geist's motivations until late into the first disc, so you have no idea what he's up to. He's just a cold-hearted, "whatever" type of figure for most of the film, not even developing any relationships, romantic or otherwise. Geist would do well as a side character, perhaps a goon, on another series. If the main character is so undeveloped, you can imagine what the rest of the cast is like.The cool scenes on the back of the DVD? No exaggeration, but Thundercats is cut more cleanly than this video (although Lion-O fight scenes would be nowhere as "complex" as Geists). The superb looking robots and fight scenes on the back only look that way because they're in such small scale. The art is actually very bubbly and soft, meaning the art looks like it was drawn with pencils blunt from when they were sharp and used on cleaner anime efforts like Ninja Scroll or Akira, which came out 10 years BEFORE Geist. The violence is the only competitive factor in these films, although the blood, body crosscuts (which look like Disney hams, with the bone sticking out from the middle of a reddish meat) and severed limbs are nowhere close to convincing. The story? Passable, but not matched by the direction. From the read through, you would expect a non-stop, frenetic, chaotic pace of dodging bullet after bullet to stop the doomsday device. Yoink again. There are too many "dramatic pause" moments where characters stare menacingly at each other AFTER a major fight. How does that build tension? You use dramatic pauses to build up to the fight. There is never really a sense of urgency in the film, despite the fact that a major issue is the race to stop something.The Terminator was cold-blooded, but you felt one way or the other about him. Van Damme's Universal Soldier at least struggled with his humanity. Geist never reaches out enough to the viewer to engage thought or emotion. It's a mere run through violence, explosions and a fragile plot, which its hollow protagonist can't stop from shattering.If you still want to watch it, buy it as a gift for someone you don't like, and go over and watch it sometime, but do not add this film to your anime collection."

One of the worst movies of all time...

tomvandeusen | Springfield, Ohio United States | 09/22/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

".... and that right there is the only reason to ever watch it. I don't consider myself a huge anime fan, I enjoyed Akira and Cowboy Beebop, I gag whenever anyone mentions Dragonball Z. This movie, though, is a monstrosity. It starts out with about 12 minutes of text scrolling on the screen before any actual animation takes place. Even after the excrutiatingly long text bonanza, things rarely move, instead, characters kind of shake between two frames of animation, or the camera simply zooms or swipes over a crudely painted image. All of the blood and gore is crude, it's your usual anime head-exploding stuff, although there is a particularly interesting scene where a guy's eyeball pops out of his head and lands right back into his socket. If you can imagine this happening in four frames of animation, you should consider animating MD Geist III. The first fight scene is quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen. I'll give you a run down (Just imagine 80's porno music in the background):MD Geist- Okay, you want to fight. What are the rules?
Huge African American Stereotype- Only one rule (looking directly into the camera) TO KILLLL!!!!!The fight scene that follows is possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I won't ruin it for you, but just as a hint: expect dialogue from a man with his arms cut off and a knife jammed into the side of his head.
The dubbing is some of the worst I've ever heard, it sounds like a bunch of high school students nervously grumbling into a walkie-talkie. Scratch that, make that high school student, because I'm pretty sure the same person does the voice for everyone.
Oh yeah, there is pointless nudity scene, and seeing as how the animation looks like the old GI Joe show, this might satisfy some 12 year old who always dreamed of saturday morning cartoons in the buff.
Well, as for plot, just forget it. As for animation, I've seen better animation from my Grandma slowly handing me Christmas cards. And it's made in 1996!! Inexcusable!!!!!!! As for laughs, I definitely reccomend this movie. Just make sure that you DVD remote is equipped with a "Fast Forward" button for all of the long "dramatic" pauses.Rent it."

Extremely Substandard Animation

tomvandeusen | 01/17/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Sorry to say this was a dissapointing purchase. Aside from a few half interesting battles, this is a very lazy-stillframe-dissolve-montaged excuse for animation. Then I could start complaining about the unsatisfying/incomplete story. It claims to be a "directors cut" but I can't imagine what an even more truncated version of this could have looked like. It also feels fairly ancient but with none of the drama or character of Space Cruiser Yamato or Gundam. Very poor all around. Stick with Neon Genesis, Blue Gender, or Cowboy Bebop, or...you get the idea I hope. Save your money!"

Post nuke B Movie meets Pulp Anime

zwouth | Ashmore, IL USA | 05/10/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Where to begin... well, MD Geist's greatness is defintly NOT for deep plot or advocating peace.If you were ever a fan of B- rate post nuclear wasteland movies from the 80's then this is the anime tribute to all those. If you enjoyed movies in the vein of Mad Maxx then you've probably found something else to satisfy that violent streak in you in full anime style. Since I personally enjoy the cheezyness of the live action types of these movies, I found MD Geist to be a complete hoot =)If you have a violent streak in you, and you chuckled at things like the bathroom scene in KITE, the anatomy lessens offered in the original Vampire Hunter D, or such fun as the friendly "negociations" in Fist of the North Star then you'll get that wicked smile again with MD Geist.Past that, there probably isn't much here for the "traditional" anime buyer looking for the usual national release quality anime. If you want that spin then just read the rest of the anime review sites on the net and you'll find that result."