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Samurai Champloo is the long-awaited next project from Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe. His two short films in the Animatrix compilation (Kid's Story and Detective Story) give American audiences a sneak peek at the phenomenal art style of this series, but they barely hint at the jaw-dropping action and unorthodox blend of history and music contained therein.

The similarities with Bebop end at the fact that the series has three protagonists: the vagrant swordsman Mugen, the rogue samurai Jin, and the tea-shop waitress Fuu. This unlikely and volatile trio begin a road journey through post-shogunate Japan (ca. 1780), brought together by circumstances best seen to be believed.

"Champloo" means mixed-up or stir-fry, and that's what this series is: a stylish blend of old school values and situations, meshed with more modern sensibilities, fighting styles, and visual design. Over the lush, dynamic art, a soundtrack of some of the best hip-hop from modern Japan plays. Though it's a noticeable device in the first few episodes, it doesn't take long before the music feels like second nature despite the anachronism.

Champloo is many things: a mature drama, an action series, an uproariously funny comedy and a visual feast. Watanabe-san demonstrates here that the success of Cowboy Bebop was uniquely his, and no fluke - fans of that series will not be disappointed, despite how radically different the two story lines are from one another.

As the title card of the first episode of Samurai Champloo says, "Just shut up and watch."

KILL BILL I is many things: a lovingly-researched homage to the Hong Kong action flicks of the modern era, a showcase for Uma Thurman, an example of beautiful production design, a fun popcorn flick with a little of the old ultra-violence thrown in to discourage the squeamish. There are also many things it is not: a well-crafted story, a genius-level example of time-shifting narrative, two hours of witty repartee.

Knowing what it would not be going in, and also knowing what it was supposed to be, helped me manage my expectations. Wo Ping's fight choreography is becoming so well-known in America that some of the sequences here will be familiar to the audience as more than just homage - specifically, a few look recycled. Tarantino's time spent lingering on his heroine and her prey in staring matches tends to dissipate the tension rather than increasing it. In addition, his penchant for showing the narrative out of order is unnecessary here, and further drains the story of the buildup that's part of the joy of revenge tales.

My biggest complaint was how much quick-cut editing happened in the fight scenes. From reading interviews, it appears Uma Thurman was up to the task of the long sequences, and that she pulled them off. Many times, I wished for a longer take, a better opportunity to see the grace of the martial artists working through their moves.

Even so, this was a fun time. The anime sequence is beautifully drawn and compelling. Since the beginning of film, animation has been used to show us stories that would be too horrific and graphic in live action, and it works very well here. The over-the-top violence and gore are laughable at the right moments, as they were in PULP FICTION - giving the audience a collective moment of reprieve just when the tension is at its highest. Uma Thurman shows flashes of better acting than I'd seen her do in the past, most often when she's not speaking. And to be fair, while the stare-downs are buzzkillers, I appreciated the moments of wary sizing-up that happened in the middle of fights - this is more like what a real fight to the death would feel like. Characters are given a moment to contemplate whether their next move will be their last. Music is used well, as in Tarantino's previous efforts.

KILL BILL I earns an 8/10 for me based on how much fun I had. The real verdict won't be in until the story concludes, however.

MYSTIC RIVER is full of excellent performances. Sean Penn resembles Robert DeNiro so much it makes me wonder if some Hollywood fling brought him into the world. Kevin Bacon has matured and for the first time in many years, turns in a performance that is both dark and sympathetic. Marcia Gay Harden plays haunted better than anyone, although we don't see a great deal of range from her in this film.

Tim Robbins was perhaps too obvious a choice in his role, but he delivers exactly what JACOB'S LADDER and ARLINGTON ROAD showed he could do before, so the choice can be forgiven. He chews a bit of scenery, but always when it's called for.

The film is worth seeing for the acting alone. Eastwood directs like a man in love with his actors and his scenery, employing long takes and two-shots to give the story a sense of real time that is too often eschewed by younger directors in favor of interesting angles. In the end, while this is a great performance showcase, it bogs down a story that holds relatively little suspense, as it lumbers on toward the inevitable horrific conclusion that plays out over perhaps 40 minutes at the end of the film. (It is not unlike that last long, ponderous sentence I wrote. I'm still in the rhythm of the movie.)

MYSTIC RIVER is not a police procedural mystery. It is a mystery about human behavior, about these men and their pasts and their relationships with women and their world. It is only about their relationships with one another as those relationships are colored by external events. As such, this is safe territory for a "guy movie" that plumbs deep emotion without feeling anything too personal. It's a story about what Real Men dream of doing, and how it feels when the dreams become real.

With all this weight, I can't imagine what the composers were thinking while scoring the film. Certainly, of something happier and more uplifting than what played out on the screen. The score was at times so utterly out of place as to be insulting, and I cringed more than once when the refrain played.

I can't address any issue in the plot without unraveling the tapestry Helgeland weaves in his screenplay. I can say that this film is full of disturbing moments, sucker-punches, and anguish, and it will not apologize to you after the beating. But sometimes, a beating is worth it for what you take away, even if the lesson is that such a beating is better fantasized than delivered.

8/10 for the performances, screenplay and Eastwood's steady hand; points deducted for a too-indulgent pace and the ridiculous score that snapped me right out of the moment a half dozen times and made me grateful for moments of silence.