It seems like almost every indie filmmaker these days is trying to put his spin on a edgy throwback to capitalize on the current wave of nostalgia. This honestly is a lot harder than it seems and most of these attempts seem to come off as a cheap knock-offs, since rarely do filmmakers completely grasp exactly what it is about these films that has made an entire generation take a look back on their analog goodness.
I sat down to watch Danger 5: Season 2 knowing nothing about what I was about to see except it was an action/comedy, Hitler was somehow involved, and its brief running time fit a hole in my schedule I needed to fill. Comedies with Hitler are always funny right? With that said being blindly exposed to things like Danger 5 simply put is why you come to Fantastic Fest. Nazis, dinosaurs, men wearing animal heads with katanas and sexy Russian spies in Rei Ayanami school girl uniforms adorn what is probably the most batshit crazy take on action nostalgia I have seen yet, that also gets everything right.
The three episodes screened actually play into three separate action sub-genres as the squad is trying to track down Hitler, who as the episodes begin is still alive and working as a mall Santa. We start off getting the Danger 5 team back together after having gone their separate ways, to unite to take Hitler down once and for all to avenge a fallen comrade. While the first episode plays out more like a your standard heroes reuniting scenario. It’s still packed with some great moments that just get better as the team then goes to High School where Johnny Hitler is the coolest kid in school and trying to be crowned the King of Christmas at the dance. The final episode has Danger 5 on action overdrive fighting the police force who think they’re communists, Hitler, and dinosaurs — who are also after Hitler.
Yes, dinosaurs.
The team is your traditional action hero archetypes: a white guy who’s also a ninja, a beat cop with Nam flashbacks, a famous pop singer, and a Russian femme fatale and blonde assassin. United, they are Danger 5. I found out later the title was not a quirky play on something like Leonard Part 6, but this is an actual series and this is the first few episodes of the second season. But don’t worry, thanks to the sheer madness of Danger 5 you’re able to simply jump right in and start taking it all in as Hitler attacks a naked woman in the shower with a great white shark.
Danger 5 perfectly hones and amplifies these tropes of action cinema, delivering a level of homage and parody that is as rare as it is hilarious. The sub-par acting is spot on, the effects are deliciously cheap and the writing seems to perfectly capture the cheesy and ridiculous heart of its source material. Honestly, as soon as one episode ended, I just kept hoping the next one would begin.
If I had to compare Danger 5 to anything, it would be a more comedic, action-centric Astron 6. Danger 5 has mastered 80s low-fi action and repackaged it as pure insanity on screen. I can definitely see this as not being for everyone, but for those that get it you will definitely want to see more. They can definitely count me as a fan from here on out.