Odoru daisosasen the movie 2: Rainbow Bridge wo fuusa seyo!

I saw this because Zatoichi was standing room only, and I was influenced by the many trailers I'd seen for this where Oda Yuuji (who plays Aoshima) appears. He's rather good-looking, I think! Additionally, the setting is Odaiba, the man-made island in Tokyo connected by the Rainbow Bridge (hence the title), which I'd visited mere days ago.

Some people may have problems with this film due to it's refusal to stick to one genre - really, that's their problem. It covers drama, police mystery, comedy, and holds my attention doing so.

For those worried about following the plot, it's worth knowing that it's not too difficult at all as many of the jokes are visual. However, you may need to be able to switch between formal/informal Japanese to get the whole story. In any case, my monolingual (English language) father had few problems. If he can understand and enjoy it, anyone can! :)

I'm Japanese, and I really enjoyed this film. This is set in Tokyo, and the system works totally differently compared to all others around the world, so I wouldn't expect for any foreign countries to understand the concept of the film. Besides, it's originally in Japanese. What do you expect if the lines sound cheesy? The sense of humor between laguages are impossible to be translated directly and understood at the sametime, so you can't really tell if it's funny or not unless you watch it with real Japanese viewers. So if you're going to watch this film, don't think too much of the lines. Just go with the flow and enjoy what you see! That's how international films should be watched.

Went into the cinema with absolutely no preconceptions of the show - hadn't heard of it, or its sequel, and chose it because it looked like it might be good, brainless entertainment.

In the end it was just brainless. It really was. Plot loopholes aplenty. Illogical logic. Lame, flat humour, cheesy lines, uninspiring action. Everything was so obvious, so run of the mill, so pointless. Really, I couldn't figure out why this show was even made, let alone how it came to be "Japan's biggest live action box office hit".

Maybe the ending would've redeemed it - I wouldn't know. From about 15 minutes in I knew the movie was a bad idea, and despite valiant attempts to fight the urge, good taste prevailed and I walked out about 70 minutes in. I've only ever walked out on two movies before in my life, mind, so I'm not the type to often vote with my feet.

Looking at voting here people seem to think better of the show, but I know my friend and I who were both watching the show thought the same of it - very little indeed. This was a -1/5 (yes that's negative one) on my personal scale - not just a waste of money, I almost feel like writing to the show's producers for a refund.

The same cast is back with a much bigger budget with their success on the first blockbuster movie! You can tell right off the start they spent a lot of money on this. It has the same style as the first with yet another awesome title intro and music score. I thought it was well crafted and much bigger than most Hollywood movies. I believe this movie was out in theaters in Japan while Battle Royale 2 was. And I can see why this movie was #1 and Battle Royale 2 was lower down the rank. Battle Royale 2 was a major disappointment, and was stressing to watch with the constant screaming and random shooting, a total Saving Private Ryan rip-off, and ridiculous ending! Well, I guess that is a totally different review but I can see why this movie was #1, as it was MUCH MORE enjoyable to watch. The pace of the movie moves pretty fast. I wanted to see more! But it had to end. The story wasn't completely mind blowing but it definitely had its moments and kept me focus all the way to the end. I don't know why but I actually got a bit teary in this one scene!

What was sort of a letdown was the criminals in this one did not stand out much. The idea of the criminal type was cool but I expected them to do more and be a little more strong and threatening. But this is more of a comedy so I guess they can't really go deep into that direction? Well, comedy and drama is a hard mix but they do a pretty good job.

If you plan on watching this movie with English subtitles, just be warned, they aren't done that great. Especially the subtitles in one scene, I guess isn't much of a big deal there, but the subtitles says apples when it's really suppose to be pear! That mistake stood out the most but there were others.

Bayside Shakedown 2 has an awesome soundtrack, fun and likable cast, great cinematography, and it's just a fun movie to watch that is not to be taken so seriously. It is mainly a comedy after all, not the "Dumb and Dumber" kind though. The making of the film was quite interesting to watch too!

Definitely worth a watch, especially if you've seen the first one.

Overall Rating: 7/10

The writer of most of the Bayside/Odoru movies and shows, Kimizuka loves to poke fun at the bumbling police chiefs as they scrape, and bow trying to please their superiors as they jockey for position in their desire to get ahead. In this movie, he goes even further pitting our heroes against a group of embittered men who were fired, and refuse to choose a leader, each acting independently as they carry out their crimes. This leads to Mashita questioning whether this approach gives the gang an advantage over the police's own military style hierarchy where everyone is supposed to follow orders.

Muroi, Aoshima's ally at HQ, makes an early mistake, and is replaced by a woman Okita as the new head of the investigation. In the heat of the moment, Okita implies that the Bayside petty crimes work are not important leaving Aoshima and Sumire outraged. Yukino gets kidnapped, leading our hero/heroine to ignore orders, and swing into action in an effort to save Yukino and the innocent bystanders.

Kimizuka has opened up a can of worms with all these different threads, and so his conclusion might not sit well with many viewers, but this movie probably has the most social commentary of any in the franchise.