Movie Review: Lucky Luke (2009)

European comics have been around for decades but haven't made much of an impact on American readers despite the quality art, writing, and stories other than Peyo's Smurfs. But I enjoy reading them and watching foreign adaptions even if they have a different sensibility than American audiences are used to.

Lucky Luke is a 2019 romantic, comedy, action, foreign film starring Jean Dujardin (from the recent silent film The Artist) based on the European comics of the same name. It is unrated but is appropriate for tweens and up.

Overview

Lucky Luke is an expert gunsman who is quicker than his own shadow and lives in a fantasized version of the American West battling scoundrels and other villains.

The Good

Capturing the Tone of the Comic. The comic book is what Cartoon Network would call a "cartoon cartoon" with squat, cartoony proportions and silly gags that would never work in real life. The filmmakers did a great job bringing that surreal comedy and nonsense to life in a way that was fun, silly, yet believable enough that it didn't distract from the drama or tension. The only other movie to really capture a comic strip and put it on screen was Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. The movie even manages to include a lot of different characters and incidents from the dozens of adventures.

Lucky Luke. Jean Dujardin perfectly captured the look and feel of Lucky Luke as well as created an interesting character someone who's never read the comic will like.

Action. The first third and last third move along at a great pace and are filled with a lot of fun, surreal action/comedy that is a joy to watch.

The Bad

'Lost His Powers' cliché. The reason superheroes are popular is because of their superpowers. Take those away, and they are pretty uninteresting characters. And yet writers and filmmakers love to do that: Flash loses his super speed; Green Lantern loses his ring; Superman loses his super powers; Spider-man runs out of web fluid for his webshooters. It's not interesting, and the middle third of this movie had Lucky Luke lose his luck and will to live. He is a mopey cowboy no different than any other mopey cowboy. It almost ruined the movie it dragged on for so long and was so boring.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish they had skipped the middle where Lucky Luke lost his luck, or at lest shortened it considerably. It was SO BORING. This movie would have gotten 5 boxes of popcorn if the filmmakers hadn't forced me to watch that.

Overall

Lucky Luke is a fun western flick filled with surreal action and comedy straight out of the comic. The middle third is deadly boring when Lucky Luke loses his luck, but the beginning and end are so fun, enjoyable, and well done that it's worth sitting thru. I give this movie 4 boxes of popcorn out of 5.

   

Movie Review: Your Name

I enjoy anime. Most of it is mediocre to boring, the good stuff is REALLY good. Anime is known for being original, experimental, and breaking new ground. It is film first, animation second. That's what I like so much about it.

Your Name is a 2016 romantic adventure anime involving time travel. It is rated PG and is appropriate for most ages.

The Good

Animation. This film is gorgeous. The visuals alone are worth watching this movie for.

Exploration of Themes. This film tackles very common ideas of identity, time travel, and love, but does it in such an original way that I was truly inspired by it. It' so original and fresh.

Pacing. This movie started off slow (like most anime), but it picked up the pace and felt like a western film early on.

The Bad

Exposition & Setup. This film began a little slow and confused. I wasn't sure what was happening. The director could have shown what time it was to better orient the viewer. Also, the characters figured out they were switching bodies pretty quickly and just accepted it. As realistic and the characters and motivations were, that part was a little far fetched. No rational person would ever think that or accept that without mountains of evidence.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the beginning had had more development, showed how the characters discovered they were switching bodies, and explored the differences of boys and girls. All of that was rushed thru.

Overall

Your Name is a fascinating, beautifully animated film that after a slow start had me at the edge of my seat. It explored relationships, identity, and time travel in ways I've never seen before. I give this movie 4.5 boxes of popcorn out of 5.

    

Movie Review - One Piece Film: Gold

I've heard of One Piece, but I've never read the manga or watched the anime, and I've never really wanted to. But then I saw a trailer for the film, and I couldn't rent it fast enough. But would the film live up to the trailer?

One Piece Film: Gold is a 2016 action fantasy anime film from Toei Animation based on the manga of the same name by Eiichiro Oda. It's unrated, but is appropriate for tweens and up due to some mild language and fantasy violence.

Overview

The Straw Hat Pirates visit a floating casino run by a man who has the power to control gold and engage in a battle of who can cheat whom better.

The Good

Opening Sequence. The opening sequence is brilliant! It's basically a large music production mixed with a giant action sequence that manages to introduce the main characters, motivations, and what to expect from the story in just a few minutes. I watched it multiple times.

Villains. The villains were so fun from their designs to their unique quirks to their personalities. They were, without doubt, the stars of the show.

Visuals. This film was a visual feast from the colors to the sets to the costumes to the special effects. Even if the story had been dreadful, this would be worth watching for the visuals alone.

Animation. This film was very well animated with beautiful fighting scenes to great facial emotions. The long, lanky design of the characters was used to the maximum with the frantic movements that both communicated emotion and looked cool in fight scenes.

Plot Twists. This movie had plot twist after plot twist after plot twist, most I expected but a few I never saw coming. And they kept coming up to the very end.

Nonwestern Style of Storytelling. This movie was very watchable to a Western audience, but it wasn't paced or plotted like a typical American film. There were a couple of times I thought we had hit the climax and it would end soon, but it kept going, developing everything fully where an American film would cut it short to fit a certain pattern and pacing. It was nice and refreshing.

The Bad

Straw Hat Pirates. The Straw Hat Pirates are the main characters of the series and movie, and they are probably beloved in the manga and anime series. But in this movie they were the weakest part. They were never properly introduced, so I didn't really know who they were or what they could do until I looked it up afterwards. For fans of the series, this wouldn't be a problem, but it wouldn't have hurt the film to introduce the characters and flesh them out even briefly. The title sequence wasn't enough. They also aren't the main characters of the movie, the King of the casino and his co-patriots are, and they are much more interesting and much more fleshed out.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the main characters, The Straw Hat Pirates, had been more interesting.

Overall

One Piece Film: Gold is a great movie with beautiful visuals, interesting villains, great storytelling, tons of plot twists, and amazing animation and action. I give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 boxes of popcorn.

    

Blu-ray/DVD Review: Sailor Moon R The Movie

I started watching Sailor Moon back in its first visit to America during Cartoon Network's Toonami, and I absolutely loved it. It was so fun and so fresh and so different than the standard American animation, but not so different that it felt strange or alienating. I remember watching all the movies during their respective Friday night debuts and loving them. I always meant to buy them on DVD, but didn't snap them up quickly enough. Thankfully, they're back with an even better transfer.

Sailor Moon R The Movie is an animated Japanese anime that has recently been re-released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD by Viz Media. It was originally released in 1993 as Sailor Moon's first theatrical film in Japan and Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose in America in 2000. Included is the original Japanese track and a new English dub. It is rated TV-14 and is appropriate for tweens and up.

Quick Summary

A friend from Tuxedo Mask's past returns with a flower as promised, only that flower is evil and wants to destroy the Earth. The Sailor Scouts (or Sailor Guardians in this dub) must use their powers to save all mankind.

The Good

Exploration of Loneliness. This film is light on plot. The point of the story is really to explore loneliness and friendship, and the filmmakers do that well. But don't worry, there are some pretty cool fight scenes thrown in to break up the drama.

The Action and Fight Scenes. The action and fight scenes are great with everyone contributing a small part and using several other their powers. There is real struggle and the feeling of actual peril even though you know the good guys will win in the end.

Visuals and Audio. This video transfer is beautiful. The picture is crisp and clear with bright colors. And while I miss the original voice actors, the audio sounds great with an excellent new dub.

The Bad

Thin Plot. This movie is very short and has a pretty simple plot that consists of about four scenes. Each scene is interesting, but little happens beyond a lot of talking and flashbacks and people exploring their feelings of loneliness.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish this had been longer and had more story. It almost feels more like an incident or nice side anecdote than a full-fledged theatrical film.

Overall

Sailor Moon R The Movie is a fun superheroine anime. This film is light on plot as the point of the story is to explore loneliness and friendship, but don't worry, there are some pretty cool fight scenes thrown in to break up the drama. I give it 4 out of 5 boxes of popcorn.

    
 

Movie Review: The Boy and the Beast

I first heard about this film from a YouTube video review and was curious to watch it. I've been a fan of anime since I first saw Voltron as a wee youngster. Anime can be really engaging and unique, but it can also be very strange and derivative with the gems being few and far between. Having enjoyed many Japanese films and having been disappointed by many more, I was a little nervous which way this film would go.

The Boy and the Beast is a 2015 action, fantasy, anime film. It's rated PG-13 for language and a few intense fight scenes but is appropriate for most audiences.

Overview

A young boy's mother dies leaving him to the care of relatives. He runs away and follows a mysterious man to a world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. The man he followed is actually a beast who is competing with a more popular beast to be the new lord of this world when the old one ascends to godhood. The beast trains the boy and the two develop a father-son relationship.

The Good

Exploration of Relationships. While this movie contains martial arts fight scenes and a plot about who will be the next leader, the story of the movie is about a young boy growing up and discovering a father figure in his sensei, and his sensei growing up discovering a son in his apprentice. The movie does an excellent and thorough job of exploring what it means to be a father and many of the dynamics that are involved in the father-son relationship. The young boy grows up and finds his real father and that relationship is explored and contrasted. I've never seen the subject handled so well, even in live action film or print.

Characters. The characters were all very likable, unique, and sufficiently developed. I found myself actually caring what happened to them.

Animation. The animation was suburb. It was very smooth with the characters' movements doing an excellent job conveying their emotions. You could follow the movie and understand what was going on even without the dialogue.

Art Direction. This film was gorgeous to watch from the background paintings to the character designs, to the colors, to the music. Even if the story had been awful, the visual would have been worth watching the movie for.

The Bad

Pacing. This movie is a Japanese movie and is evenly paced and slowly developed like a typical Japanese movie, so to a Western viewer it feels a little slow.

Predictability. There is conflict in the film and a question of who will be the next lord, but everything is resolved exactly how you think it will be with no real surprises or no real suspense. It did not affect the enjoyment of the film, but it was a missed opportunity.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wouldn't not have minded if the story had moved a little bit quicker and had a few surprises. I did find myself checking the clock and actually watched the movie in two sittings, because I got a little stir crazy after the first half hour.

Overall

The Boy and the Beast is a beautifully animated, beautifully told story about the relationship between a father and a son. Being a Japanese film, it was a little slow by western standards, but the story, characters, animation, and fight scenes are so well done that it is very enjoyable to watch and leaves you with a good feeling at the end. I give it a solid 4 out of 5 boxes of popcorn.

TV Show Review: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

I could never get into anime during the Japanamation explosion of the 90s. Maybe I was too young. But when I got to college in the First Decade, there were a few shows from Japan that caught my interest. At the time I went to school at 8am, was on campus most of the day, then worked the afternoon and evening until around midnight. I'd come back to my apartment and watch Gundam Wing on the Midnight Run of Toonami, and I loved it!

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing is a 49-episode science fiction anime that debuted on the 90s, an alternative reality in the Gundam universe that began in 1979 with the TV series Mobile Suit Gundam. In Gundam Wing, a number of people from Earth have moved into space and live in space colonies, but there is a lot of animosity between the colonists and those still living on the planet. Five pilots and their giant robots called Gundams are sent to Earth as part of Project Meteor. War ensues as the concepts of war, peace, power, and loyalty are explored.

The Good

Story. This series has a lot of content, which a lot of twists and turns and changing allegiances. If you miss even a few episodes, you've missed a lot of story. There is real change and real consequences to actions that have serious effects on characters and the war itself. Most tv shows and most anime are much more simplistic.

Characters. I love the characters in this show, even though they are very Japanese. They are so different and so multi-layered. No one is truly good or evil with all the major characters showing great acts of heroism and making great mistakes and even betraying their friends.

Art Direction. This show is beautiful to look at. The character designs are gorgeous and unique. The Gundams all look awesome. The scenery is beautifully painted. This show was produced before computers played a major role, so the show is hand drawn and hand painted very skillfully.

Ideas. This series explores several themes from war to peace to loyalty to doing what's right to acting with regards to the consequences for the future, and with 49 episodes, each is explored in good detail.

Fight Scenes. This series has the best fight scenes I've ever seen. They are exciting, intense, and beautifully shot. You feel the intensity but are still able to see what's going on, something current movies and tv shows have yet to figure out.

The Bad

Pacing. This series is very slow with a lot of narration and a lot of recapping. It feels like they came up with 26 episodes of story but were forced to stretch it to 49 episodes. It does drag more often than I'd like

Limited Animation. Like most Japanese animation, there is limited animation during the majority of the show. The slow pacing and overabundance of narration makes it more noticeable than other shows. When the animation is good, it's incredible, so I guess they had to balance that out to stay within budget.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish they would have either had fewer episodes or more story so the show didn't drag so much.

Overall

Overall, I loved Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. The characters were all interesting, unique, and fully fleshed out, the animation during the action scenes was incredible, the character designs, vehicle designs, and set designs were all gorgeous to behold, and there were several serious themes explored. I recommend this series to fans of science fiction, philosophy, social issues, and war and give it 4 out of 5 remotes.

    

Blu-ray/DVD Review: Black Jack The Movie

I've been a fan of Osamu Tezuka ever since I read my first Astro Boy comic. And it wasn't long after that when I read my first Black Jack comic and instantly became a fan. Black Jack is an unlicensed surgeon who performs procedures (usually surgeries but not always) that others can't or won't and charges exorbitant fees for his services. He stared in a series of 20-page manga stories beginning in 1973. Half his adventures are medical dramas, and the other half are unrelated adventures.

Black Jack The Movie is an animated Japanese anime that has recently been re-released in the United States on Blu-ray and DVD by DiscoTech Media. It was originally released in 1996 along with a 10-episode series in the same style. Included is the original Japanese track and an English dub. If it were released in theaters today, it would probably receive a PG-13 rating for medical-related gore and is appropriate for teenagers and up.

Quick Summary

This film stars Black Jack, an unlicensed medical genius, who is called in my a large corporation to investigate the mystery of the sudden appearance of super humans and their unexplained violent deaths.

The Good

Story. This movie had a really enjoyable story. The point of this movie is the mystery of the superhumans, where they came from, and why they are sick. Because of this, the character development is kept to a minimum, which many people will probably complain about, but character development isn't the point of this type of story.

Animation. This was animated in the 90s, which (in my opinion) was the height of craftsmanship for Japanese animation. The character designs are edgy, the colors bold, the action exciting. Everything was still mostly done by hand, and it looks like it. Today anime is too clean with too many filters and effects to cover up the poor draftsman skills.

Mystery. This movie is actually a series of mysteries with the solution of one leading into a new mystery that continues until the very last minute of the movie. It kept me at the edge of my seat with the resolution of each mystery being very satisfying. Too many shows nowadays fall into the trap of presenting the major challenge at the begging of the show or season (like Flash or Green Arrow seasons 2+) and bore the audience with failure after failure at solving it for the two hours or the 22 episodes. Black Jack does not fall into that trap.

Pacing. This movie starts with an interesting incident, the Olympics, and continues at a steady pace that never feels too rushed or too slow. This film never lost my attention.

Medical Illustration/Animation. A lot of time and care was put into making the surgical scenes look beautiful and accurate. It really sets this anime apart from others.

The Bad

Songs. This movie had the most random, dated track that had a completely different mood than the intense action scene it was set against.

Shoe-horned Environmental Message. At the very end, one of the main characters explains the mystery and then out of nowhere suddenly says people are killing the Earth and has this impassioned plea to take drastic steps to save it. This comes out of no where. There is not a single environmental or anti-industry message in the entire movie. Even if you agree with the sentiment, it still feels completely out of place and bizarre. If you want to make such a statement at the end of the movie, have a little foreshadowing beforehand.

Convenient Plot Elements. This movie flows pretty smoothly from one scene to the next with everything working out perfectly to advance to the next scene. There is no real challenge or

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I would have enjoyed a little more effort put into the writing. There wasn't a lot of conflict, the obstacles were quickly and easily overcome, and there were a few too many convenient occurrences in the plot to advance the story to the next scene. It wouldn't have taken much to justify why the characters did what they did or decided to try what they did.

Overall

Overall, Black Jack The Movie was an exciting, thrilling, mystery that kept me thoroughly entertained and wasn't fully resolved until the very end. It felt more like an American movie with very little evidence of Japanese culture which most people in this country will enjoy. I give it 4 boxes of popcorn out of 5.