Mutant Action (1993)
7/10
Alex De La Iglesia's first Sci-Fi movie plenty of horror , comedy , gore , amusement and embarrassing situations
22 June 2016
Devilishly funny Sci-Fi-terror-black comedy about some mutants become involved into incredible and frightening adventures . They're a band formed by hunchbacks , cripples , a two-headed man , mentally handicapped people and other mutants , all of them are likeness to ¨Francisco Ibañez's comic books roles¨. This is a full-on surreal Science Fiction movie that blends thrills , a lot of fun , suspense , tension as well as an intriguing script full of underlying lack seriousness . This Spanish SciFi/Fantasy/comedy is Alex De la Iglesia's first foray into absolute and total lunacy , being titled ¨Mutant action¨ or ¨Acción Mutante¨ . The flick centers on a band of attackers , a terrorist group of mutants led by Ramon Yarritu (Resines) abduct at a wedding party the daughter of a wealthy owner , Patricia Orujo (Frédérique Feder), to claim for the rights of the ugly people . But the rich man , the powerful businessman Orujo (Fernando Guillen Cuervo), trying to flee her at whatever cost . As the gang escaping from the police in their spacecraft , Ramon tries to doublé-cross his band in order to get all the ransom . The journey ends abruptly when they crash in Axturiax (shot in Almeria) , the planet (which bears remarkable resemblance to Tatooine of Star Wars) of the crazy miners where no woman live . There Ramón gets trapped by strange bands , weird people , a boastful saloon , as he falls into the clutches of a rare family and many other things . Meanwhile , Ramon and Patricia have been pursued by Rednecks , polices and the wealthy man along with his heavily armed hoodlums .

Alex De la Iglesia's Sci-Fi , horror comedy blends creepy elements with humor , tongue-in-cheek and thrills ; so, the tone of the film is light-hearted . It's a veritable buffet of the cream of the Spanish nineties , full of action , laughs , scares and attacks . Packed with scenes of fantastic nature , robust comedy , this story is exciting as well as frightening , as we follow the strange situations of some peculiar kidnappers whose destination is dictated by terrible events . The narration is so filled with quirk characters , crazy violence mixed with eerie elements and an underlying sense of surprise , and it is so excessive and plenty of fantastic elements , one can't help but keep watching , much as it is over the top in many an occasion . There are a lot of ¨comic books¨ references , such as ¨Lorna and his robot¨, ¨Judge Dredd¨ by John Wagner and ¨Frank Miller's Dark night¨. And the night city is similarly recreated to ¨Total recall¨(1990 , Paul Verhoven) and some scenes pay tribute to ¨The hills have eyes¨(1977, Wes Craven) . De La Iglesia reigns in his style this time around and gives an utterly watchable takedown of Science Fiction/comedy that certainly delivers a few madly inspired moments . Once again De la Iglesia exemplifies why he's one of the most amusing Spanish filmmakers currently churning out foreign cinema , adopting frenetic storytelling much like Quentin Tarantino , Brian Singer , or Matthew Vaughn might dream up . Enjoyable main cast and agreeable support actors deliver one of the most engaging , hysterical, action packed and wonderfully shot Sci-Fi movie in years . Ensemble cast boasts some of Spain's biggest film and TV stars , such as Antonio Resines/Ramón whose character mingles aspects from Terminator (James Cameron , 1984) and Pinhead (Hellraiser) , and the two-headed role by recently deceased Alex Angulo is lookalike monster ¨Basket Case¨(1982 , Frank Henenlotter) . Further cast members are first class Spanish star system such as Karra Elejalde , Jaime Blanch ,Ramón Barea , Bibiana Fernández , Rossi De Palma , and Santiago Segura ; most of them Alex De Iglesia's ordinaries .

It has a nice production design by Arri and Biaffra , plenty of creativity . Catching musical score ,including popular Spanish songs ; furthermore , ¨Mission impossible¨ classic score by Lalo Schifrin. Colorful as well as atmospheric cinematography by Carles Gusi . De La Iglesia , is well known as the Spanish king of black comedy . He's a cool director has got several successes : ¨Dying of laughter¨ , ¨Baby's room¨ , ¨Oxford murders¨ , and ¨Perdita Durango¨ is probably the weirdest Javier Bardem film ever made . And , of course , ¨Day of the beast¨ and ¨La Comunidad¨ obtained the unanimous praise of both the critics and the public and result to be a lot of fun¨, especially for those who enjoy surrealist humor , they won several Goya prizes and and resulted to be a turning point in his meteoric career ; from then on he became his own producer, beginning with '800 bullets' (2002) through the Pánico Films company . In addition , he produced a TV Series : ¨Pluton BRB Nero¨ (2009) with similar characters and atmospheres to Mutant action . Winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars), however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA, but he has strong followers , as his films have a kind of comic edge to them . Nonsense, ridicule , laughters , absurdity , disturbing scenes and many other issues ; you can find everything in this flick . ¨Acción Mutante¨ captures the essence of the best Alex De La Iglesia, a filmmaker who, at this point in his own story, is respected and admired worldwide and has the most committed fans in the film universe . This Spanish SciFi-comedy was much praised by critics as well as public during its European festival run . Being a big winner with various statues Goyas was this Alex De la Iglesia's comedy which dominated the technical categories . This is without a doubt a thrilling and enjoyable movie to be enjoyed for Sci-Fi/comedy aficionados and Alex De Iglesia fans .
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