Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Stachehunter-857-73111 Let's cut to the chase: Boy meets girl. Both parties are emotionally and sexually stunted. Unexplained alien parasites are wandering around looking for humans to mutate into "Necroborgs" who fight one another to the death. Aliens turn both boy and girl into quasi-alien fighting machines, although they really, really like each other. Mayhem ensues, gallons of blood are spilled, and the boy finally proves his love by "growing" what amounts to a giant penis cannon from his chest and blowing up his girlfriend real good. No one ever said love comes easily.This ridiculous and zany entry into Japanese splatter lacks a strong story, as well as the two main characters flat-lining in their performances. The earlier and much better "Tetsuo" is the movie "Meatball" is attempting to emulate. For all the wacky Bohemian mutation going on here, the entire enterprise simply becomes the worst thing it can mutate into: boring.The mutated humans look as if they've been covered in epoxy and rolled around Home Depot creating hardware body shells from stuff mostly found in the plumbing and electrical parts section. Special mention to the rubber hose crew for ripping off the flailing tentacles first seen in John Carpenter's "The Thing". Far too much time is spent on human interior shots, where the parasites do their dirty work. The aliens look like pink versions of 1959's "The Tingler", crossed with those very expensive Hawaiian crab-claw flowers you pay 25 bucks apiece for in an uptown florist shop. The parasites spend a lot of time crying,evidently having sex with themselves, and giggling, for reasons unexplained...until the end of this junk, where you are treated to a ten-minute conversation between two parasites who are evidently pals playing a cosmic game of some sort. The viewer is treated to a final shot of a nasty eyeball thingy spaceship, with a happy voice-over that the games will continue.By the time this stupid excuse for a movie rolls around, you'll feel like someone repeatedly hit you in the face with a plate of rotten sushi. There is not a single meatball in sight, which is sad. Very sad.

dbborroughs Deranged and graphically gory Japanese film about little beings taking people over and turning them into necroborg-zombie like machines- which beat and hack each other apart so that the winner can eat the loser. In the middle of this a pair of lovers become infected.Technically superb horror comedy(?) is only for those with strong stomachs as blood and body parts go flying. Good taste prevents me from describing what happens here, but lets just say its pretty gruesome. If you like this sort of thing with form several steps above slender content by all means see this film. Personally I'm not normally one to enjoy films like this on anything but the how sick and twisted do they go level. Here I was intrigued enough that I can suggest it to people I know who like really gory movies.. Its also a film with enough going on in the details that I want to see it again since now that I know what was going on-as revealed in the end-I want to go back and see what it was I didn't catch on to. There is an internal logic rare in these films.7ish out of 10 for those who like blood and severed limbs, its a zero or more precisely a run and hide alert for everyone else.

EVOL666 The Japanese cyber-punk films have never really done a whole lot for me, but of the handful that I've seen, most have been at least visually interesting and at least mostly entertaining. MEATBALL MACHINE is no exception.The storyline is about a species of parasites that take over human hosts, takes control of their bodies, turns them into "necroborgs", and causes them to fight each other with the sole purpose of eating each other - apparently as a "game" for the enjoyment of said parasites. The film mainly revolves around a shy guy and gal who fall for each other, but whose love-affair is cut short by both being infected with the parasites, and are forced to fight each other. It becomes a test of human-will vs. the parasite's control over their physical bodies...MEATBALL MACHINE will invariably be compared to TETSUO (as most cyber-punk films are), and for good reason. There are definitely some thematic parallels, though the films are definitely different. There's plenty of fun, splattery moments in MEATBALL MACHINE, and the creature/borg FX are definitely the high-point - a mixture of TETSUO-meets-GWAR that are both elaborate and inventive. Depending on your taste for these types of films, MEATBALL MACHINE may or may not be your thing. If you enjoy hyper-kinetic cyber-punk films with a healthy dose of splatter - this one's for you...7/10

Vastarien202 Don't be fooled by the silly title folks, this is one sweet ride! A true successor to Tetsuo the Iron Man and Ichi the Killer, this gem starts with a bang and lays the gore on thick until the credits roll. It seems that aliens are taking over people's bodies and modifying them into war-machines, which are then used to fight each other in a twisted game for the amusement of their species. The winner of the battle eats the loser alive. That's mostly it for plot, but who cares when the gore is this good? I have no idea how many buckets of slime were used, but it's disgusting to behold. There is interesting and effective use of stop-motion when the takeovers are in progress, and loving care is lavished on all of the creature and make-up effects. The CGI is a bit limited, but that actually doesn't detract from the overall quality one bit, at least for me. This was truly a fun and stomach-turning film that deserves much praise, and has truly earned its place in the stack of Cult Classics. Find it and watch, you won't be disappointed!