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Rupan sansei: Honô no kioku Tokyo Crisis (1998)
Definitely worth seeing
The funniest of all the Lupin III movies I have seen. Endless visual and spoken jokes. And also one of the cheeriest of the movies. Zenigata finally gets to have some sort of warm human relationship outside of his pursuit of Lupin. Plus, Toyko Crisis is well-scored. Thanks to Yuji Ohno again. (I believe that is a cameo of Yuji Ohno playing the piano in the G.H. Nine Jazz Pub) The variety of relationship changes is refreshing and adds to the story. Goeman and Fujiko are teamed up, Zenigata has an attachment, and Fujiko is the apparent leader instead of Lupin. Also, Jigen and Goeman are at their weakest. Jigen has to face his biggest fear, the dentist, and Goeman has been separated from the love of his life, Zantetsuken. The whole franchise benefits and grows from these further explorations of pre-established facets of their personalities, and it's great for laughs in this movie.
I think that in some way, a lot of this movie is about the similarities between Zenigata and Lupin. Like Lupin, there is more to Zenigata than the front most people see. He is not incompetent, he is very astute, as Maria finds out while she tries to keep Zenigata from getting sick on sake. He may be drunk and despondent, but his mind is working and he has noticed the connection between Michael Suzuki and the drivers who caused so much trouble on the highwaya connection a lesser cop might have missed.
I like Maria quite a bit because she's not a worthless dip like some one-movie characters. She's a developed character with motivations or her own, and she stands up for herself and what she wants.
Lupin Tradition: Lupin's underwear during the opening escape sequence, striped boxers.
Rupan Sansei: Episode 0 - Faasuto kontakuto (2002)
Best LUPIN III Movie
The very best Lupin III movie.
Excellent from beginning to end, the characters are spot on, the art is superior, the story is great. It's funny, it's poignant, it is set to some of the best music Yuji Ohno composed, the ending montage is perfect Lupin III.
This movie presents one of many versions of the beginning of the Lupin gang (See also TV episodes and Monkey Punch comic). Not only how they met, but what their relationships are to each other throughout the stories. Lupin and Jigen's brotherhood; Jigen and Goeman friendship of mutual respect; Jigen and Fujiko's antagonistic dislike of each other; and Fujiko and Lupin's relationship of betrayal. This movie even supplies an origin for the classic yellow roadster Lupin's gang drives on and off through all the TV shows and movies (sometimes as a Mercedes, sometimes other things, sometimes two seat, sometimes not).
Also, the story sets up the various likes and dislikes of the characters. For example, Zenigata's devotion to his obsessive version of police work, and cup-of-noodle. Jigen's condescension to people who have bad relationships, and hate of the dentist (a joke in other Lupin III movies). Lupin's mercurial disguises. Especially funny when Lupin and Jigen are captured and the camera pans past a table where their pockets have been emptied. Jigen's pile is a gun, some bullets, and some cigarettes. Lupin's pile is his P-38, and rope, and extend-o arms, and masks, and makeup, and a parachute, etc, etc.
Lupin Tradition: The big boss, Galvez, looks the same way big bosses always do, fat with the triangular bald head. The evil sidekick of the big boss, Shade, also is drawn to tradition. Same hair, same clothes, same tacky sunglasses, same preference for dual guns. Jigen getting shot, any time it happens it is always in the left bicep. Always.
Rupan Sansei: 1$ Manê Uôzu (2000)
A Deeper-Thinking Lupin
One of my favorite Lupins because of the cold ending. (Not ruined here.) The art in this episode isn't very good, and you have to suffer Goeman in his underwear, but the gun jokes with Jigen more than compensate. It's a reasonable story, and it honors tradition. Goeman innocently falls for a religious woman, as he is want to do. Jigen is deeply loyal to Lupin, his partner. And Lupin is a rogue who plays at being silly, but who is in fact very smart and not half the friend he lets people outside of his gang think he is.
If you watch a lot of Lupin you will note that Nabikov is drawn exactly the same way all of the evil sidekicks of the big baddies always are in Lupin movies. Same hair, same clothes, same preference for dual guns.
What's unique about this episode, aside from the great cold ending, is the Fujiko/Lupin relationship. I like the way that Fujiko responds when Lupin rescues the gang in the hearse and reveals his identity. The Fujiko/Lupin relationship is complex and rarely really addressed in the movies, but here you get to see a flicker of real emotion on Fujiko's part there, and then when Cynthia and Lupin deal oil in the office of Lupin's fake company you get to see the way Lupin and Fujiko tolerate and even encourage third wheels.
Happy Feet (2006)
Appallingly Bad
One star for each time the movie wasn't appallingly bad. And you can thank the five little Mexican penguins for both of them. And you can thank Napoleon Dynamite for making Mexicans cool in movies.
We rented this because everything else was checked out. We should have known better, but we figured there had to be at least a few funny moments. Oops.
Expect to find terrible, flesh-crawling medleys. Badly timed low-grade animation. Characters that you are unable to accept as attractive or funny or compelling. Sound good? How about disjointed plot? Worthless scenes? What was the point? That if narrow-minded creatures who have death-defying escape scenes that have nothing to do with their plot less story swim aimlessly and get captured all they have to do is entertain children and they will be magically returned to their homes and saved? Why? Couldn't we have just watched the Mexican penguins kick it up some more? Couldn't the outcast penguin have come up with some plausible and uplifting way to resolve his own problems, or help his tribe find a better life? I didn't think anything could be as bad as Robots, but here we are again, with the same incorrect message: you can't solve your own problems; other people have to do it for you.
Maybe if the script had been left to a high school film class it could have been rewritten to at least tell a story.
I love animated movies. I love quirky characters, good jokes, fun songs. If you do, too, rent absolutely anything else and you will have a great night.