Suicide Club

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54 young Japanese schoolgirls playfully throwing themselves in front of a speeding subway train, graphically butchered and splattered to hell to exaggerated comic sequence reminiscent of the energy director Peter Jackson brought to his manic cult-horror comedy, <I>Dead Alive</I>, nearly a decade ago. </div> <bR> <div> But as body after body piles up and a beleaguered investigator attempts to unravel the mystery behind the matter, the film just gets sillier, more unbelievable and less compelling as it goes.  </div> <bR> <div> On and on it goes, as dozens of suicides occur and rubbery body parts explode across the screen, with none of it very funny, scary or interesting.  <I><B>Suicide Club</B></I> aims to be a satirical horror comedy about teen suicide, but it winds up as a strained and outrageously amateurish film, without an idea in its head on the order of Michael Lehmann's superb teen film <I>Heathers</I>, which satirized, in a different way, the joys of teenaged death.  </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Suicide Club</B></I> fails to even justify its own loopy premise - a rash of teen suicides triggered by a twisted internet site, or um, a pre-pubescent pop group - and ends up a silly mishmash of styles, genres, disconnected themes and no resolution.  Loaded with blood, mayhem and brutality - all of it played lightly and for laughs - <I><B>Suicide Club</B></I> is a movie that's probably trying to make a statement about teens and suicide, at least evidenced by its corny and pat suggestion to "connect with yourself."  </div> <bR> <div> Just as we saw recently in the low-grade American thriller <I>Fear Dot Com</I>, that evil entity - the Internet - is on the loose again. Only this time it also seems to be working in conjunction with the innocuous music of an all-girl band, whose saccharine hit "Mail Me" is really a ruse for a buried web site code…or something like that.  </div> <bR> <div> It's never really clear who is behind the phenomenon, but there are at least three or four different endings, so I guess its up to you to decide.  Between the body pile-ups, we are treated to a few musical numbers, one of them quite good in its Rocky Horror, ambi-sexual, glam rock way. </div> <bR> <div> A confused mishmash of genres, messages and ideas, <I><B>Suicide Club</B></I> throws in everything but the kitchen sink, and ends up like something that should go out with the trash.   </div> <bR> <div> 99 Minutes</div> <div> Not Rated</div> <div> Graphic Violence, Profanity</div> <div> Japanese with English Subtitles </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> Lee Shoquist © 2002</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Leeshoquist.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>  </div> <div>  </div> <div>  </div> <div>    </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>