Sakigake!! Kuromati Kôkô: The Movie

i picked up the Cartoon box set a couple weeks ago when i realized one of the characters was suppose to be Freddy mercury which i thought was funny enough to make me buy it without knowing really what it was and when i watch the cartoon it was funnier then i could have imagined. it was hilarious. just so random.

now when yesterday i was out again and i saw this live action movie adaption and i laughed just at the thought of it. i had to get it. and it was just as good. It has a lot of scenes from the cartoon with little changes in them to keep them fresh for the movie and all the characters are acted out very well. It also added a lot of new stuff and new twists.

The best part of the movie tho, is that its like Cromartie high school and not just an interpretation of it by some artsy directer, its really just like the cartoon. If you're someone who needs a solid plot or any Plot in your movies to be entertained..pass on this. but if you want something that will make you laugh until your head explodes, pick this up.

they have both the cartoon and the movie at best buy. (anime section and comedy section)

......and loved it. Full of great humor, and over the top antics. A very fun movie, with all the goof ball cheesiness but yet retaining a sense of charm. A great and varied cast make this film one of my favorites so far this year at Fantasia Film Festival (along with Kamikaze Girls and Shutter). Definitely don't pass this one up. Among some of my favorite characters include Freddy, the shirtless queen, the gorilla Whoopi, and Mechazawa the trusty robot (who partakes in a hilarious spoof of a classic horror film we all know). There are times though when the audience may feel the joke is dragging on too long, and I agree with them, but there is also side of me wanting more.

I saw this movie at Fantasia film festival. I had high expectation because I've liked Battle field baseball. The movie starts like a bomb! Loud rock n roll music, cool characters and good gags! But it doesn't last very long, after 30 minutes the pumped-on-speed mood is gone and jokes become less n less funny. this movie should be 1hour long, not 2, it just feels empty. its not a bad movie, its an average Japanese comedy, its very different from American movies, give it a try. if you wanna see a very good comedy i recommend you Karaoke Terror, i promise you will not regret it, its from the writer of Audition ( you know , the movie from Miike).

The Cromartie High anime series is a very high mark to reach. Admittedly it's a specialized taste but the series worked wonders in it's 10 minute episode format. The decision to make a live-action movie is curious but who knows it might have worked if the writers and director had tried to move away from the 10 minute format.

The first half of the movie is a series of skits and gags which were all done in anime (and I assume in the manga from where this all sprang). The actors are very good but the casting is strange and some of the characters are visually different from the anime. The problem is the lack of a connecting plot to hold it together, anyone unfamiliar with the anime will lose interest pretty quickly. It sort of like watching your friends at a party act out scenes from a favorite comedy show. Some of the scenes work, some don't. The slow pacing doesn't help either.

The second half finally diverges from old Cromartie material but will probably end up confusing people more. That is unless you are familiar with a 1970's sci-fi show, Spectreman. This show was dubbed and released in the US in 1980's on the TBS network. I remember the show and it was fun to have it mixed into the Cromartie universe.

Unfortunately, the whole film never becomes coherent enough or inventive enough to be really interesting or especially funny. Recommended for die-hard Cromartie fans.