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DVD Cowboy Bebop The Movie / Metropolis
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie As the eagerly awaited Cowboy Bebop feature film reunites the original director, screenwriter, composer, and vocal cast, it's not surprising that the film plays like an expanded TV episode. What should be the routine capture of a two-bit hacker by Faye escalates into a deadly game of cat and mouse, as Spike and the gang struggle to prevent the evil Vincent Volaju from murdering every human on Mars. Director Shinichiro Watanabe handles the action sequences with his usual panache. Inside the sinister Cherious Medical research facility, Spike fights a beautiful agent, using a push broom in a series of maneuvers Jackie Chan might envy. The climactic duel between Spike and Vincent plays against innocent yet eerie images of a Halloween carnival, recalling the amusement park setting of episode 20, "Pierrot Le Fou." Knockin' on Heaven's Door will delight fans of the series and provide an excellent introduction for the uninitiated who want to know why Cowboy Bebop is so popular on both sides of the Pacific. (Rated R: violence, brief nudity, minor profanity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
Metropolis Adapted from Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga, Metropolis (in Japanese with English subtitles) is an opulently beautiful film that fails to present a coherent story worthy of its extraordinary visuals. Evil Duke Red (voice by Taro Ishida) plans to rule the world from Ziggurat, his newly completed art deco tower. A new robot is being developed by his henchman Dr. Laughton (Junpei Takeguchi) to control all the machines in the world from Ziggurat. Japanese detective Shunsaku Ban (Kousei Tomita) and his nephew Kenichi (Kei Kobayashi) arrive in Metropolis in pursuit of Laughton and are plunged into Red's plot. When the duke's maniacal adopted son Rock (Kohki Okada) attacks Laughton's hidden lab, Kenichi and the waiflike android Tima (Yuka Imoto) flee into the city's subterranean slums and fall in love. Despite a protracted series of chases and violent shootouts, there's little excitement and less character development. Director Rintaro (Hayashi Shigeyuki) borrows heavily from Fritz Lang's 1926 Metropolis, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, but his staging makes much of the action hard to follow. The film takes an unintentionally hilarious turn when Ziggurat crumbles to Ray Charles's "I Can't Stop Loving You." The computer-generated skyscrapers, machines, and airships offer dazzling vistas of an overscaled and sinister deco-dystopia. But Tezuka's flat little characters, with their big eyes, round noses, and bubble-shaped feet, don't fit into that realistic three-dimensional environment. (Rated PG: contains considerable violence and grotesque imagery) --Charles Solomon
Review(s): DVD Cowboy Bebop The Movie / Metropolis
Great Movie
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
The series was good, the movie was better. This movie is enjoyed slightly more if you've already watched the series, but is still fantastic without any previous knowledge of Cowboy Bebop. The best R-rated cartoon I have ever seen.
Each of the snazzy 25-minute installments from the most popular Japanese animated TV series of 1998 is a satisfying adventure tale about a futuristic hipster bounty hunter. This is an elegant action-comedy anime, with smoothly integrated CGI space-flight elements, gorgeous graphics, blues harmonica and sax riffs on the soundtrack, and a no-sweat post-Tarantino attitude. Despite occasional eruptions of gun-fu Asian-action violence, and some intimations of heavy-duty drug use (in the first of 26 episodes, one especially noxious narcotic is administered as an aerosol spray straight onto the user's eyeballs), the tone is surprisingly convivial. None of the generic tough elements are grim or mean-spirited. Lanky antihero Spike Spiegel is a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kôichi Yamadera - Unshô Ishizuka - Megumi Hayashibara Director(s): Shinichirô Watanabe DVD Release Date: Released the 13 December 2002 This item is currently not available.
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The skillful blending of drawn animation and computer-generated imagery excited anime fans when this science fiction mystery was released in 1995: many enthusiasts believe Ghost suggests what the future of anime will be, at least in the short term. The film is set in the not-too-distant future, when an unnamed government uses lifelike cyborgs or "enhanced" humans for undercover work. One of the key cyborgs is The Major, Motoko Kusanagi, who resembles a cross between The Terminator and a Playboy centerfold. She finds herself caught up in a tangled web of espionage and counterespionage as she searches for the mysterious superhacker known as "The Puppet Master."
Mamoru Oshii directs with a staccato rhythm, alternating sequences of rapid-fire action (car chases, gun battles,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Atsuko Tanaka - Iemasa Kayumi Director(s): Mamoru Oshii DVD Release Date: Released the 31 March 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Although it didn't fare well on the Fox Kids network (where it played in an edited format), Escaflowne has a large, loyal following, perhaps because this sprawling fantasy offers the ingredients of classic mecha, sword-and-sorcery, and magical girl adventures. After psychic teenager Hitomi has a vision of a man battling a dragon, Prince Van of Fanelia and a dragon materialize. He slays the monster and transports Hitomi to the mysterious world of Gaea, an odd mixture of advanced technology and medieval culture. A typical romantic triangle develops, involving Hitomi, diamond-in-the-rough Van, and ideal knight Allen Schezar. The saga attains a byzantine complexity when Zaibach emperor Dornkirk captures the trio. He's at work on a machine that will enable him to create alternate... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kazuki Akane DVD Release Date: Released the 23 July 2002 This item is currently not available.
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Isao Takahata's powerful antiwar film has been praised by critics wherever it has been screened around the world. When their mother is killed in the firebombing of Tokyo near the end of World War II, teenage Seita and his little sister Setsuko are left on their own: their father is away, serving in the Imperial Navy. The two children initially stay with an aunt, but she has little affection for them and resents the time and money they require. The two children set up housekeeping in a cave by a stream, but their meager resources are quickly exhausted, and Seita is reduced to stealing to feed his sister.
The strength of Grave of the Fireflies lies in Takahata's evenhanded portrayal of the characters. A sympathetic doctor, the greedy aunt, the disinterested cousins all know there... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Tsutomu Tatsumi - Ayano Shiraishi - Akemi Yamaguchi Director(s): Isao Takahata DVD Release Date: Released the 08 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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My Neighbor Totoro is that rare delight, a family film that appeals to children and adults alike. While their mother is in the hospital, 10-year-old Satsuki and 4-year-old Mei move into an old-fashioned house in the country with their professor father. At the foot of an enormous camphor tree, Mei discovers the nest of King Totoro, a giant forest spirit who resembles an enormous bunny rabbit. Mei and Satsuki learn that Totoro makes the trees grow, and when he flies over the countryside or roars in his thunderous voice, the winds blow. Totoro becomes the protector of the two sisters, watching over them when they wait for their father, and carrying them over the forests on an enchanted journey. When the children worry about their mother, Totoro sends them to visit her via a Catbus, a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Noriko Hidaka - Hitoshi Takagi Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki DVD Release Date: Released the 03 December 2002 This item is currently not available.
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