I thought this film was a really good thriller & didn't have any of the cliches these films often have, like screaming lovely American girls running round in circles.

Spoilers:

I was totally gripped from start to finish, so was everyone I went with and thought there was some good acting. Of course it had faults. The house was made out to be bigger than it was and like Fort Knox to get out of in one scene. The lack of Police presence & also, the ending, revealing that, in a sense nobody was responsible nor any reason for the deaths certainly lost it a mark.

The real problem with this film was that it came out after a good genre like 'teen slasher' has been flogged to death. i thought it was better than anything of this exact topic. Unfortunately (& like the action films that try to copy Die Hard) we've really seen it all before. Shame though, as this was excellent.

8/10


I have just watched long time dead and I must say I really enjoyed it. I went to see it not knowing what to expect, not knowing what is was about. An what I got was a good thriller with a psychological edge.

The movie starts off introducing us to some student housemates, and there lives, quickly cutting off to a night out clubbing, and that is when the problems begin. Growing bored they decide to use and ouija board to contact dead spirits, but get more than they bargained for when they summon a fire demon. The Demon possesses one of the group, and gradually they all start dying one by one...

Its not a typical slasher movie, and is different because its getting into your head, and is a very psychological based terror, although there a plenty of jumpy moments.

Joe Absolom from Eastenders fame, reemerges in the movie, and is typical of scared Matthew.

I am disappointed to see that this movie is not being released, with the right promotion, I think it could have done as well as scream, I know what you did last summer.

All in all, a very modern, slick movie, with a nice little twist at the end.

For this style, an 8 out of 10.


In a world were to be scared, pint loads of gore is shown. This film is different it is obvious that not that much money has been spent on it, yet it still manages to truly scare(for many days). a great film based on true things to get your pulse going even more.The film about a fire demon which a group of friends have unleashed back onto the world through the help of a weejie board, the film could have gone the same way as so many others films have gone but it didn't it kept it individuality as well as help retain many jaw clenching classics. A film that i would recommend to anyone. It has to be one of the most under estimated films for a long while.


Dark from the very beginning, and set in a dirty, dingy, depressing part of London, the film is quite unnerving and doesn't let up. Music, sound track and special effects are low key and very effective. The low budget suits the style and milieu.

We saw this film in the United Arab Emirates - the Jinn are spirits mentioned in the Qur'an - for people here, they really do exist, and are not to be messed with. Clear moral - don't mess with ouija boards!

Well done - by the way, to the people who complain about less than perfect camera work and the occasional boom mike visible - I don't care if the basic idea is good. This film is good and deserves to be watched and appreciated.

My horror connoisseur wife loved it - that's saying something.


Long time dead is one of the best films that the UK has done in ages---and quite rare as well, as we never seem to make horror films. This film however, is the biggest exception, and it is ABSOLOUTELY BRILLIANT, as it is a million times much better and more interesting than american teen horrors, which have become a bit dull over the past few years. normally horror films dont scare me-but this one made me jump a couple of times. i like the way that the scenes are shot (especially when the 'demon' (djinn) is chasing each of the group of friends and the atmosphere is totally frightening and sinister. It is so good to see us British people doing these type of films for a change--that is what made it really 'new' and a bit more intersting than all its american counterparts. it follows a typical american teen horror (about a group of friends all bein killed of one by one)--but it does it REALLY REALLY well. My congratulations and praise to the director who should have won an award for the film. I can't wait for the video or DVD to come out!


I hadnt heard of this film at all before i went to see it, so had no preconceptions as to what to expect. Fortunately I was not disappointed - from the initial club scenes right to the very end I was drawn in by the skillful pacing of the script, and the excellent acting by the young cast. Rather than throwing mountains of computer graphics at us, which seems to be the case in most modern horror, the director has allowed us to use our imagination, and also throws enough twists at us to keep us guessing as to the identity of the killer.

A film in which there is always something happening, the tension is built up again and again, leaving this viewer on the edge of his seat throughout.

An excellent film and the first in many years to actually deserve the title of 'horror movie'


I know after a night of going out on the town drinking, drugging and dancing there is nothing I enjoy more than kicking back and playing some Ouija with friends! My first complaint right off the bat is the group were apparently at a rave and didn't seem the least bit high or drunk. It's called acting people! It's not their fault completely. The writing is terrible. There is no way this could have looked good on paper. The story is dumb. It actually gets more and more convoluted as the film wears on until it comes to its utterly ridiculous ending. It is jammed packed full of every teen slasher horror cliché you can possibly imagine. The intense build up, that turns out to be a friend, cat etc. The going into dark deserted areas when something is chasing you (in this case a freaking demon!). A cartoon-ish old man with an ominous warning. In addition to this, all the kills are off screen and the gore is slim. If you are going to make a film that revolves around a demon it is best if you have a budget to work with. If your budget is tight, make it all about the demon. At least if your film sucks than if nothing else you have a cool demon. Critics like myself would say "Hey that film really sucked, but that demon was super cool". This film is a dogs breakfast. What a mess!


Britain has a long history of horror movie productions, with the heyday for such movies being the period of the late 1950s to 1980. Hammer, Amicus and Tigon combined produced the vast majority of British horror movies during this period and helped to keep the industry alive in the 1970s when American investment dried up. Two excellent independent directors, Pete Walker and Norman J. Warren, succeeded them in the mid-1970s and continued their excellent work.

Some viewers of movies from the British horror heyday get the false impression that they were all about vampires, monsters and witchcraft. Well, I admit there were plenty of examples of this type of movie but they were plenty of other types that fall well outside this category. Take for example, Hammer's DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE or the Amicus anthologies or Pete Walker's FRIGHTMARE. Or what about a movie that was not produced by any of the sources I mentioned - THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE.

Since the 1980s, there have been very few British horror movies worth mentioning. The British movie industry has tried unsuccessfully for nearly 30 years to mimic the style and content of infinitely superior American movies rather than staying to its true roots.

LONG TIME DEAD is one such unsuccessful example - funded in part with taxpayers' money through the UK Film Council. British people have the right to be angered their hard-earned cash has been put towards such a travesty as this without them having any say in the matter.

The plot of this movie sounds really great on paper - a group of students having an all-night party start messing around with a Ouija board and unleash an evil Djinn. One-by-one they are murdered in gruesome ways, leaving the survivors to solve the mystery.

Those who say this movie is a throwback to the heyday of British horror are simply wrong. The movie is very clearly inspired by superior recent American teenage movies such as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND to name just two. There are even a few nods to modern minor classics such as SCREAM and one stylish nod to THE EVIL DEAD.

Unfortunately the final result of this movie is something less akin to the decent movies mentioned and more in common with lame cheap straight-to-DVD movies such as THE CHOKE and ONE OF THEM. As in those two movies, characters disappear for long periods of time without explanation. And when any are killed, their friends soon forget about them.

As one would expect with this type of movie, the acting is unilaterally awful, ranging from no acting to overacting. Joe Absolom was more interesting to watch as Matthew Rose in the British soap, EASTENDERS. He was a good choice of actor to have in this movie but his talent is completely wasted.

The dialogue in LONG TIME DEAD is truly terrible. I was reminded of another British horror movie made around the same time called CRADLE OF FEAR. However, CRADLE OF FEAR was much funnier and enjoyable on the "so bad it's good" level thanks to some overacting on the part of lead actors, some weirdo characters who were interesting to watch and cheesy special effects.

The score for this movie has nothing at all to do with the horror theme and sounds just like a random pop song of the kind Hollywood choose to tag on to the end of their movies. It is not worthy of a British horror movie. Listen to the scores of movies from Britain's horror heyday and make the comparison.

Perhaps the worst crime of all in this movie is the sheer tedium. There are long periods of time when nothing is happening. Characters are wandering around checking out places but there is no suspense, no tension. There are only the clichéd jump scares that became worn 20 years ago.

The movie does have a few good points. The killing scenes are well-executed, leaving the most gory effects to the imagination and there is at least some attempt at a decent build-up to them. It is only for this reason that I give the movie a rating of 2 rather than 1.

Overall, I do not recommend this movie at all. American viewers would do better to stick to their own movies, they are far superior. Those wanting to see a proper British horror movie should do themselves a favour by seeking one out from the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s when we had proper talent in this field.


There should be more British horror's like this. Before I continue, anybody who wants to watch this Movie, has not yet seen it, DO NOT pay attention to the bad comments.

This film is a low budget horror and once again Britain manages to create something amazing. From the start the best actors are Alec Newman and Joe Absolom, this is what British films are about, good actors, low money made into something decent. This film is entertaining with slight comedy at times with dark scenes. 100% British in this film, there need to be more

Anyone who has not seen it and wants to, DO!!!


I'm glad I ventured forth on a wind-swept night (while the trains weren't running no less) to see this movie. I always found "Macbeth" to be one of Shakespeare's funniest plays and I'm glad that this filmmaker does as well. After adjusting to the American accents (which add to the humour, because the "Scottish Play" is never actually performed with the appropriate burr anyway), I settled in for an enjoyable 90 minutes of sight gags, over-the-top characters, and word-play that was reminiscent of some of our better television programmes. One wonders if the writer is a fan of Ben Elton or Tom Stoppard (or both?). What Monty Python did for Jesus in "Life of Brian" this film does for Macbeth. Is nothing sacred? Thankfully not.


Macbeth, the comedy is exactly what the Shakespearean community needs , a little mickey take that doesn't take itself so god damn seriously... it was great to see Allison and the cast stir up the Holy of holies... Well done, I laughed a lot and didn't miss the original script one bit.... bassyb, new york


One of the funniest films I've seen in a long time. It's rare treat to find erudite wit and slapstick humor coexisting. I found myself thinking about it at work the next day and laughing. The cast is terrific and I suspect we'll be hearing more from Erika Burke and Juliet Furness who did splendid jobs with Macbeth and Lady M respectively.


Sitting down for Macbeth the Comedy I was rather expecting a kind of Iris Murdochesque production, full of in-jokes about Shakespeare and Macbeth in particular. How wrong I was. Macbeth: The Comedy takes Shakespeare's well-crafted tale and adds a liberal sprinkling of modern low-level American humour. Apart from lots and lots and lots (many) jokes about gays and lesbians there was an attempt to lace the movie with slapstick comedy, presumably lightening the scene. This didn't work at all, being more the kind of slaphead comedy that doesn't make it much onto tv any more. I was pleasantly surprised to find no toilet humour, but the tone wasn't held much about that with much sniggering concerning the abovementioned lesbian and gay characters in the film: for which one must assume there is a reason. Somewhere.


Macbeth the Comedy tries, it really does. You can tell that the script writer really did want to make it funny, and that the cast really did too. It just doesn't work though. Most of the jokes fall flat (apart from a few near the end, and a good joke on the "new fashion of rhyming" at the start).


This updated, new/old, gender-bending Macbeth mixes the Bard's lines with LiCalsi's text, giving even the Elizabethan-challenged a line on what's happening in Scotland. And England. And Ireland. Witty in a Monty-Python fashion, this one bears more than one watching to catch all the gags and allusions.


"All in all, "Going Highbrow" (1935) is a pretty good post production code comedy although its rather fragmented structure works against efforts to make it a unified story.

Cora (Zasu Pitts) and Matt (Guy Kilbee) Upshaw are hicks from Wellington, Kansas who accidentally made big money at the start of the stock market crash. Matt's broker misunderstood Matt's instructions and invested all his money in put (sell) options for a single stock, the total opposite of Matt's intentions. After the price declined no one exercised their options to buy and Matt got to keep all the proceeds.

Matt is still simple and unpretentious but Cora is determined to crash New York's "Society 400" list. The "nouveau riche" Upshaws enlist the old money (but none left) Marsh family to introduce Cora to the proper people. Part of the scheme involves hiring struggling actress Sandy Long (June Martel) to play Cora's daughter. This sets up an extremely lame romance between Martel and Ross Alexander, who plays the Marsh son. Edward Everett Horton plays Augie Winterspoon, the Marsh's financial adviser. He tries valiantly to link the story elements together.

The soon to be famous singer, yodeler, cowgirl Judy Canova does a nice job in a small supporting part as Sandy's coworker.

"Going Highbrow" is a must see for fans of Zasu Pitts as she dominates the first half of the film with a somewhat different variation on her airhead character. Instead of her usual scatterbrain adventures she plays a self-absorbed social climber, but still manages to infuse the role with her usual comic touches. Pitts was one of the few comedians whose gift for dialogue and expression was effectively complemented by a talent for physical comedy. Because her technique has never gone out of style, her films (including this one) do not seem nearly as dated as other productions from the same time period. Credit Una Merkel, Gloria Grahame, Goldie Hawn, and Brittany Murphy with keeping the Pitts' style alive down though the years.

Horton is almost young looking in this film but has already developed most of the comedic touches he would apply to countless character roles during his long career. He really has too much screen time and during the second half you keep wishing for more of Pitts who effectively disappears from the second half of the film.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.


Even the presence of EDWARD EVERETT HORTON who is at his flustered best, can't save this innocuous little comedy from being a total bore.

ROSS Alexander's career never did materialize as Warner Bros. hoped, and this film must be one of the reasons why. He's the spoiled rich boy in a girl meets boy story striving for a Cinderella touch, since the girl is a poor waitress posing as the daughter of a rich couple so that they can mingle with high society.

Nothing works, not even the idea of a waitress disguised as a rich girl. ZaSu PITTS and GUY KIBBEE are the wealthy couple and JUNE MARTEL plays the hapless girl, making no impression at all.

Even for a programmer, it's a total waste of time.


Without family or a home to shelter him, nine year old Amiro (played by Majid Niroomand) is an iconic character against the changing landscape of the Southern Iran, which has become new ground for military and foreign interest.

Through Amiro's eyes , Naderi depicts scenes of the poverty in the junk yards as the poor fight over trash, the abuse of women being led like animals behind their husbands, or the demoralization of a man who steals from Amiro by not paying for a glass of ice water. The old Iran is crumbling, while Amiro, the child hero, rejects all of it as he "runs" metaphorically to survive.

Naderi photographs Amiro like Tom Sawyer on his journey down The Mississippi, a child joining the changing society of the Persian Gulf. Amiro intuitively knows the oil ships, the planes and the trains are the new Iran and he shouts emphatically "take me along!".

Naderi seemly stacks scenes of the boy feeding himself, washing his own clothes, and building a business as a shoeshine boy for the foreigners and navel officers. He gives the boy very little but his own guts, self-reliance and determination, which help him find a way to fit in among the foreigners. He wants to be included, he wants to go where the planes go, the boats go, the trains go. He cries into the waves his own language. He wants to prove that he is worthy of this new world.

The final scene is a slow motion tribute to Amiro's determination and survival. He races in a competition against the other boys for the block of ice near the oil fields. The telephoto lens captures Amiro's joy against the violent flames of the fires burning off the gases of the oil wells. Through this lens, Amiro survives and shares his joy of winning the race with the other boys like him.

The Runner is a symbolic and hopeful look at what Iran has become, a place where orphans like Amiro are able to make their own way to prove their worthiness, loyalty, intelligence, and strength.


The Runner was perhaps the first of the post-revolution Iranian films to attract worldwide attention, ... and very deservedly so. It set the tone for many of the films which followed: realism, child's eye perspective of the world, innocence, gentleness, set in poor neighbourhoods, exposing great disparities in wealth, resting much of the film on the shoulders of one young actor, using children's lives as analogies for (or explicit expositions of) the problems of the adult world.

Majid Niroumand (Amiro) carries the film and is mesmerizing to watch. Amir Naderi was a famous director in pre-revolution Iran and was best known, if I'm not mistaken, for Tangseer (Tangsir). I've heard that this was the first in, what has been referred to as, "the Amiro trilogy". I would be very interested in finding out about the other two films.

This film still remains as my personal favourite.


What if Francois Truffaut had made "400 Blows" in Iran? Well, he'd probably have ended up with something like Amir Naderi's masterpiece, "Runner". I love movies about children forced to face the world of adults such as "Muddy River" "Spirit of the Beehive", "My Life As A Dog", "Pixote" and "Forbidden Games". Please add "Runner" to this list because it is extraordinary. A young boy, who has lost his parents, survives by shining shoes and carrying giant ice blocks through the scorching sun to men working on the waterfront. It is painful to see the boy, quite literally, running for his life as the ice he's cradling threatens to melt before he can reach his destination. The boy is totally believable and his situation is dire. He still finds time to squeeze a drop of enjoyment from his difficult life, though, and there is a stunning sequence where the boy and his friends race to the horizon where flaming oil fires incinerate the sky. Every shot is compelling, every frame an emotion-laden snapshot of rich reality. What a marvelous adventure this film is, an adventure that is also magnificent film-making with not an ounce of fat.


Davandeh (The runner) is a cinematic ode to the spirit of Amiro, a young orphan boy who seeks to excel in what ever he does, to know more and look beyond his present boundaries, and to seek this knowledge through formal education that has eluded him thus far in life. Without a doubt, the movie is a treat to watch.

The opening shot is of the young boy yelling out a greeting at a distant sea vessel. You wonder what is wrong with the kid. As the film progresses you learn that he is an orphan. He is a normal kid, yearning to know more about the world beyond his immediate boundariesthe big ship and aircrafts symbolize this quest.

But then Amiro is not a normal kid. He also wishes to excel within his known boundaries. He tries to collect more floating bottles in the sea than other orphan boys of his age so that he can earn more and buy magazines with colorful pictures of aircrafts. He is a loner (he lives alone in an old grounded ship) but likes to prove his ability to run with his peers, and beat them in marathon races chasing moving trains. The film is called "The runner" as Amiro's running ability is underlined three times in the filmfirst he runs behind the train and wins a psychological race over his peers, then he runs after a cyclist who tries to avoid paying him for the cool water and catches up with him, and finally running with a block of ice that he has bought while others try to rob him of it, against a backdrop of oil fires. But then aren't we all "runners" of some sort in real life?

Naderi's Amiro becomes larger than life in his next quest. He is persistent in his efforts to learn the alphabet by literally knocking on the doors of the nearest school. By the end of the film Amiro is reciting the alphabets he has learned in school while looking at the symbols of his quest to reach the unknown distant world, beyond his physical vision. It is a literal and figurative quest.

Having seen Amir Naderi's film Aab, Baad, Khaak (Water, wind, dust) also with Majid Niroumand (Amiro of Davandeh) only a day before, Davandeh's power as great cinema was a trifle diluted.

What did Naderi's Aab, Baad, Khaak present that Naderi's Davandeh could not?

1. Davandeh totally excludes women, which Aaab, Baad, Khaak does not. Even in the latter they are marginal. 2. Davandeh revolves around an individual, while Aaab, Baad, Khaak is critical of society as seen through the eyes of a boy. 3. Davandeh captures temperatures (ice block vs. burning oil wells) but Aaab, Baad, Khaak is able to capture all the elements of nature (water wind, dust) that affect the average Iranian living on the fringes of society. 4. Amiro of Davandeh was somewhat larger than life in his quest for knowledge unlike his realistic role in Aaab, Baad, Khaak. 5. Davandeh leans towards veiled political criticism, while Aaab, Baad, Khaak is a pure social and psychological essay without obvious political undertones

Why is Naderi avoiding female characters? Why is Davandeh underlining that foreign lands offer more than one's own (apart from financial disparities)? It is not surprising that Naderi having made these films in Iran, won accolades at international film festivals and now lives in the US far from his native land that provided fodder for his creativity.


Started out to seem like one of those exploitation fliks lots of naked ladies, dodgy doctors, even dodgier prison warders, yes this is what happens in the first half hour or so, but actually it turns out to have a fairly good ,if not basic, story line. No surprises,obvious out-come, but ok acting bearing in mind it must have been made for about £250. Goes on to have a moral deciding theme, do you go by the rules or do you break them? Give this film a go, if you are male you will probably love it, if you are female....I'm not so sure.


But not in a good way. I would consider myself fairly well-versed in "Girls in Prison" films, and this one set a new standard. As with all of these films, there were naked women, shower scenes, lesbian guards, etc. However, half-way through the film, there was a definite switch in direction, involving a genuine plot twist, but unfortunately, the direction the film took was a poor one. The movie had a lot of nudity, including the body of Stephanie Ann Smith which is worth a look in and of itself, but no real sex scenes. Disappointing. In a "girls in prison" movie, the only real reason to watch is for the lesbian sex scenes. No dice. The acting in the movie wasn't terrible, at least between the three main characters (Tina, Danielle, Sarah), but the rest of the cast, especially Vega, lacked greatly. Whoever wrote the story, however, should be strung up by their toes. The plot makes no sense. Apparently, there are no consequences in this world. Plot summary (Warning: spoilers....) The main character (Danielle) is an undercover FBI agent in a women's prison, trying to befriend the girlfriend (Sarah) of a gangster, who the FBI is trying to bust. They become friends (had they become more than friends, it would've been a better movie), and eventually get transferred to a different prison. Surprise. On the way there, they get ambushed by agents of Sarah's boyfriend (Vega). Danielle (undercover as a prisoner) gets ahold of a dropped gun and returns fire, killing some of the attackers. They get away, but not before Sarah is shot and killed (a genuine surprise, although I can't help but wonder if she just refused to do any more nude scenes unless they changed her contract, so they got rid of her. Unfortunately, since she had the best body, the rest of the movie sucks even worse). The one surviving prison guard (Tina, the most attractive correctional facility guard I've ever seen) and Danielle run into the woods and somehow end up back at FBI HQ, where Danielle's boss tells her that her daughter's been kidnapped. After some more horrible plot development, Danielle gets suspended by the FBI. So, naturally, Danielle, Tina and a European supermodel/secret agent break into Vega's mansion, kill some people, capture Vega, and get Danielle's daughter back. Conveniently, the FBI shows up about now and praises Danielle for B&E, murder, defying her suspension, and bringing two non-FBI agents into an FBI investigation. So she gets promoted and Tina (who never did get naked, damnit) gets accepted into the FBI. Like I said, the movie seems to have no redeeming quality other than Smith's body. If you are looking for a truly horrible movie to show at a bachelor party or some such, this wouldn't actually be bad. Other than that, steer clear. Pick up "Ishtar", "Showgirls", or some other quality flick.


It's amazing what movies people will make these days. When I heard this was made in 1995, I was at first surprised and then understanding. This movie is a women in prison movie, and as such makes use for gratiutous nudity (thank you!) plenty of violence and a REALLY cheesy plot line. This movie is so cheesy I think more mice watch it than humans. A definite must for a bachelor party, a definite must not for anything else!


This is a VERY bad movie, but that's half the fun of it. It starts out as a typical chicks in prison movie then when they get bored of that it becomes a 'buddy movie'. Copious amounts of nudity and unneccesary shower scenes, incredibly bad acting and one of the worst scripts imaginable make this an entertaining exploitation flick. Oh yeah, and the character 'slash' (the REALLY bad actress) used to be a porn star.


Cowboy Bebop is the best anime ever. I'm 21, don't tend to be fanboyish, and have seen plenty of others. And it's the best anime ever.

What other anime features a mix of the best choreographed/energetic/ kick-ass fighting scenes - hand-to-hand, hong-kong gun fights and air-space battle?

An unbelievable mix of comic, tragic, violent and fairy tale style episodes...

An incredible sound track - Yoko Kanno is a genius that can do memorable and emotional jazz, blues, classical, fantasy-style, j-pop and even heavy metal. I wouldn't even consider buying the soundtrack to any other anime.

It quite literally oozes "cool" - characters (Spike is probably the coolest - not awsomest, but stylishly coolest) music, action and narrative.

Hell, it's the only show that has both a "cute animal" character and a "cute annoying kid" character that I don't wish a horrible death upon. And if that doesn't convince you, then nothing will.


Let me start by saying, i registered today to write my comment on Cowboy Bebop.

I finished the series for the second time yesterday, and it made an even bigger impression on me this time.

Simply put, this is the best series ever created in my opinion, regardless of anime, live action, or whatever. The story is exceptional work, the characters are as alive and deep as it ever gets. It is (forgive me for using this word again, but there is no other expression)exceptionally well drawn, even for an anime. The soundtrack (oh the music)has been a part of my collection for a long time now. It is just fantastic, i cannot imagine anything else, that would fit the world of Cowboy Bebop better, than the kick-ass jazz, blues, medley that dominates this brilliant list.

All in all, nobody should miss this stuff. Im sure there are and will be dislikers, but nothing is perfect, and thats the way it should be. Me, i cried at the end, sitting on my couch completely blown away.

SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY, SOMEWHERE, SOMEDAY! I'm gonna carry that weight...


Cowboy Bebop is bloody fantastic anime. I could watch it over and over, not get bored with it.

Admitidly, not everyone can understand a certain anime, which means then you'd have to see it right from the start, or you'll be bored to death. A lot of anime's do have concepts that are sort of hard to understand the first time around, but Bebop is pretty simplistic and to be fair I first viewed it at, I think, the middle of the whole series, I got it no sweat.

Despite being simplistic, it does not disappoint. It carries it's humor, action, drama, and style around without a slight flaw. The voice acting in both versions is great as well, including the marvelous musical score by Yoko Kanno.

In short terms, Bebop is flawless. No debate whatsoever if you ask me.

In a lot of cases it appears that the sub version triumphs over the dub version easily. With Beobp, though I'm in the middle of which is better here. I love both with a passion. Who am I kidding? There both great.

Bebop is a solid watch indeed.

A perfect 10 out of 10.


Wow. I've been watching anime now for a while, but I come to Cowboy Bebop late.

This was worth waiting for. I will continually judge both live action film/TV by the standards I judge Cowboy Bebop. It is truly that good.

Many before me have given reviews that I'm sure I'll duplicate, but this is truly the best anime I have EVER seen. It is a genre all its own. The music complements the show in such a way that is so rare today. The animation is wonderful. As a fan of HK action flicks, this show delivers in spades (especially the movie). It manages to transcend so many genres at once with its characters and its soundtrack.

This is true television bliss!


Cowboy Bebop has proved to stand the test of time, for myself at least, and keeps getting better with each run through.

Set in a futuristic world where there are colonies throughout the entire solar system, Cowboy Bebop tells the stories of the bounty hunters, or "cowboys," that reside upon the ship the Cowboy Bebop. Our main character is Spike Spiegel, a very suave character who doesn't seem to take life too seriously until you start to dig into his past with the infamous "syndicate." Next in line is Jet Black, the owner of the Cowboy Bebop who used to work as a police man and is now a bounty hunter just trying' to get by. He's another cool cat who's the wise and "aged" one of the rather motley crew. Then there's Faye Valentine who seems to have the most interesting story in that she can't remember her past at all until she finds a few lost artifacts from her original time. Then there's the comic relief: Edward the hacker and Ein the data dog.

Combined, this posse seems to have some of the strangest luck and it's told beautifully throughout the episode. The way it's told, it seems to have an amazing knack for conveying some pretty deep ideas in a rather playful manner. Nothing that I can think of can really compare to this style.

What really takes Cowboy Bebop over the top is the music. Yoko Kanno masterfully blends jazz, funk and a hint of rock to really add to this atmosphere Cowboy Bebop creates. I've actually bought a few of the OSTs, a fine addition to anyone's CD collection.

If I could, I'd give this anime a 9.5/10, but unfortunately I can't do that on IMDb, so I gave it a 9.


Like the name suggest, music is central to this show. Instead of an opening theme you are hit with "Tank!" and right away you know it's about cool. The scores supplied by Kanno are phenomenal. The man is to jazz and anime what John Williams is to classical movie scores.

The series has a hint of a 70's, retro, kung-fu movie / "Shaft" feel, particularly early on, driving home the cool feeling. This is just an undertone to the Western feel in which Clint Eastwood would be at home.

From all of this, the aspect that truly makes this series wonderful is the quiet desperation. The three principal character are utterly flawed though superlatives. They are all desperately searching for pieces missing from their lives with a pain and loneliness that drives them together and makes them sympathetic to the end. Broke bounty hunters, barely able to find enough money to eat yet unable to be anything but compassionate stoke this sympathy even farther. The two minor leads, Ed and Ein, are geniuses at what they do, but a child without a care in the world and a dog that cannot speak are wonderful comic relief and consequently very endearing.

This series is a tour of histories coming back to torment the characters, and the interplay of relationships is magic almost never seen - there is no need for expositions and out of place statements. The science fiction is neither overbearing nor unbelievable. Space is a fringe wilderness, and the Western feel is totally appropriate. In fact, it is a mix rarely seen so well - only the "Firefly" series comes to mind.

This is definitely a series for a more adult audience - subtle character interactions, and no fear of blood, vice, or lack of action. At the same time, young teens to adults will enjoy it if for no other reason than the cool factor.


-Spike and Jet are two bounty hunters that live in the far off future. In this future the earth is not under attack by evil robots or anything like that, it's just severely messed up due to asteroids constantly smashing into it. So mankind lives in space and like we always do manage to mess up even space and have criminals running rampant, which is when Spike and Jet are called in to take down these criminals who run away. Spike is tall slender man that loves to smoke and has one eye in the future and the other in the past. In the very first episode, we see Spike in a violent gun battle against people unknown, and we really don't revisit that event till several episodes later. That aspect of showing us one thing then moving on to the other then returning to it is one of the reasons why the show is so great. Just when you think they forgot something or just had a random episode they come back to it and prove you wrong.

-The non-linear approach to the show is great and sets it apart from other animes and what makes the show great. Spike's partner is a former cop called Jet who has a prosthetic arm. He is a good person but don't count on him to be your guardian angel when you need him most. Much like Spike, we learn more about him through flashbacks and begin to understand why he puts on that tough exterior that he has. Joining the two bounty hunters is a sexy woman called Fey who doesn't remember anything from her past. She was in a coma and when she woke up, she remembered nothing, not even her own name. and like always we also learn more about her as the show moves on and see what her makes so Fey. The last crewmember on this bohemian space ship is a hyperactive girl called Ed who's a computer genius. She's my favorite character on the show and she's just cute as hell.

-What sets this fantastic piece of anime apart from others is just how mature and intelligent it is. They don't water down the show so kids can understand, and since their target audience is not kids it gives the chance to do whatever they want. The heroes in this shows aren't pure of heart, and don't walk around catching bad guys because they feel it's the right thing to do. They catch bad guys because of money and they live their lives the way they want to. Spike is a chain smoking man that has in some way given up on the finer things in life and Jet is just a hard ass who sometimes has a heart of gold. Fey is also not a role model since she dresses like a hooker from California and has a gambling addiction. I think the only truly good people on the show are Ed and Ein the dog, and by making all the characters flawed and not perfect they give the show an amazing sense of realism. The episodes mature and wonderfully written with my favorite episode being "The Real Folk Blues".

-The music is also a highlight of the show and is really a surprise. There is a lot of action in the show and you'd expect loud brassy music or some BS techno music, but instead what we get is quite, peaceful smooth jazz music. I was never a fan of that type of music but after watching the show I now owe a lot of records from the smooth jazz realm. The creative team behind the show made a very smart move by doing that, because we know it's an action scene so we don't need loud music to tell us that. The smooth jazz is also an advertising ploy and is heavily advertised in the promos. Jazz isn't the only music though as they employed some deep African drums for one episode, some boys choir for another, and soft rock music for a lot of episodes.

-This show along with the superb "Gundam Wing" is something I really want to make into a movie and coincidentally the same anime studio makes them both. I already have the story pinned down and plan to add some more once I think about it. If I were making it right now I'd probably cast little Dakota Fanning as Ed, Clive Owen as Spike, Jessica Alba as Fey, The Rock as Jet, and Keanu Reeves as Vicious.


For reasons more fully explained in my posting for Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. So I can be brief here

First, Cowboy Bebop is an anime series that actually made me care for the characters and want to learn more about them. Be assured that is one extraordinarily rare occurrence on TV, at least for me.

Next, several story arcs were at first hinted at, then truly converged and were resolved by series' end. (You might not like the resolution, but a resolution it well and truly is.) In fact the series became more interesting as it progressed. (The movie is a careful thematic side step, neither adds nor detracts.) Excellent voice acting and characterization in both Japanese and the dubbed English. Exceptional music that introduced me to the works of one Kanno Yoko and The Seatbelts.

And as with GITS:SAC, action, obligatory gore (albeit animated), some expletives and "cheesecake" (ditto), but all tempered with a captivating and truly surprising allotment of characterization, dialogue, insight, wit, and "breathing time."

Time well spent, and the best introduction I can think of to the genre.


"Cowboy Bebop" is, according to some, one of the best anime ever. It's a "classic" and a "required viewing" for any anime fan. It's "the best" because it has "multiple-layered storytelling", a "freely-flowing story", and so on.

I'm calling it as it is. Cowboy Bebop is the most over-stretched, plodding, boring, (insert curse word which begins with "c" and ends with "p" here + "-py") biggest piece of (insert curse word which begins with "s" and ends with "t" here) anime I have ever seen.

My gripes are as following: 1. The story is original, yes. But, Shinichiro Watanabe aimed too high with it, and it came out a piece of (insert curse word which begins with "c" and ends with "p" here). All episodes are over-stretched and full of various story lines to the point that they're, actually, incredibly boring and utterly dull.

2. The characters are (insert curse word which begins with "f" and ends with "k" here) annoying. Spike comes off as a big idiot who is only capable of sleeping and eating, his fighting abilities appear forced so that Mr. Watanabe wouldn't be stuck with the dumbest lead character since that (insert following curse word: combine the one which begins with "s" and ends with "t" + the British slang one which is "a" + "r" + "s" + "e") from DNA2. That Ed person is even more annoying: I couldn't tell until the movie if the character was male or female. Pretty much every character annoyed me to a certain extent, the only exception being Jet.

Sidenote: isn't it quite odd that no character has a Japanese name?

3. The story moves along at the exact pace of a wounded snail trying to escape from under a tire in slow-motion. In short: it's too (insert curse word which begins with "f" and ends with "k" + "-ing" here) slow! If you're a webcomic fan, think MegaTokyo, and you get the picture (if you're not a webcomic fan, think about the old modem connections in the 1990s. Those were really really slow) Not only that, but there are too many story lines which intersect at once, again, slowing down the show horribly and making it look both haphazard, plodding and directionless.

The only thing I liked about the series is its soundtrack by Yoko Kanno (and sometimes Yoko Kanno's band "The Seatbelts"). No, really, you should just throw away your DVDs and settle for the soundtrack CDs. This is the only thing that matters. It reminds me strongly of the old "Blues Brothers" movies. Which in essence is good, but it's better that it dosen't consist of just funk/blues stuff. It's also got electronic and trip-hop things.

In conclusion: Cowboy Bebop is just about as entertaining as staring a sack of (insert curse word which begins with "s" and ends with "t" here) while paint dries in the background.

I'm still amazed how this absolutely horrible thing gets so many accolades from people.


These are excellent series, not just "animation" series. "Cowboy Bebop" easily reaches the pedestal of series such as "The Prisoner". Cowboy Bebop consists of stories about an oddball group of bounty hunters in, get this, action/sci-fi/western/detective/comedy genre. But the most amazing thing is that the creative team actually manages to balance all the genres well enough to avoid being absurd, in fact, well enough to be thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. The quality of each episode ranges from good to excellent. And even though the series borrows from easily identifiable sources such as 2001 Space Oddessey and The Good the Bad and The Ugly, it does it with enough finesse not to undermine itself. It really is ironic that the Japanese animators manage to pull off American pop culture references better than most American filmmakers can. But then again, good film-making/animations transcends all cultures. For those people who cannot get pass "Disney mentality" - that animation cannot be a vessel for "grown up" film-making... all I can tell you: Its your loss.


I think the best way to begin this would be not to thank but to bear hug,the creative geniuses who created this piece of art..i mean everything about this show is f**king perfect-the characters,the plot,the direction,the music,the screenplay,the script..Its a perfect example of when all the things come together to make something that is larger than the creators themselves..I don't know how i stumbled across the page of cowboy bebop but it must have one my lucky days..I have to say i was not intrigued from the plot as much as from the characters,which i read about in the comments..my expectations from the show were pretty low despite the rating but man when i watched its first two episodes,even the 9.4 rating seemed an insult..and IT IS THAT GOOD..you would filled with awe for its creators after you watch it..you would even love the cowboy bebop sign that comes in between the show..The best thing about the show is that is has no specific genre,or you can say its a genre in itself..i wont have the slightest doubt if the show gets a cult status..so you never know whats gonna come out in the next scene,whether you will be convulsing with laughter or staring at the screen in empathy for one of the characters..as the show goes on and on,you keep on going deep into the skin of the characters..you don't know when it happens that the characters just occupy a permanent space in your head..you start to wish that they are always around..with a bored spike smoking his cigarette,jet watering his plants ,sulky faye with her frown and industrious ed jumping around with his laptop..and when the show ended,i actually felt a part of my life going away..and i bet you will feel the same way when the show ends..you will stare into the eyes of spike and say " no this is not going to happen,i wont let you go"..its a rare feeling for someone in real life but its almost impossible for someone in reel life..

so my respect to shinichiro wantanbe from the bottom of my heart for directing the show so perfectly and congratulations to hajami yatate for writing something so perfect in itself..and kobayashi and yoko kanno,no man i ain't forgetting them either..the show wouldn't have been complete without their music which encompasses everything from jazz to metal to blues to country to electronic..I urge everyone who reads this comment to watch this show..doesn't matter if you're not an anime fan..this show is apiece of art and it must not be missed..and if you're an anime fan,then you wont be seeing something as great as this in a long time..i guess if you take my word,then you're in for one of your luckiest days of your life..

SEE YOU IMDb COWBOY..


Go and do yourself a favor and watch this anime. The truth is Cowboy Bebop is one of those classics shows that you can watch over and over again. By that I don't mean watch just one or even a couple of episodes, but the whole entire series and, if your up for it, the movie as well.What really caught me off guard about the show is how each episode was at least or nearly a masterpiece of all of the elements it had for positive reviews.Everyone's positive complimants concerning the music, storyline, and art direction is true. There's no way of looking for a negative perspective for this show and to be honest there is only one word to describe this anime........phenomenal. See You Space Cowboy


Cowboy Bebop deserves all the praise it receives. This show can be appreciated by almost anyone, regardless of their feelings towards anime in general. I have heard a number of times from people who dislike anime that they really enjoyed these 26 short sessions of brilliance. There are of course a few (very few) episodes that don't measure up well against the others but all in all every episode is entertaining.

Jazz, film noir, the golden age of cinema...I would use these words to describe Cowboy Bebop. To get the feeling of this show, think of movies like Casablanca, Brick, Swingers...you get the point.

It's also worth mentioning this show's dubbed voice-overs are some of the best in all anime (dub voices or original). One of the few I prefer to watch in the English version.

You have to give this one a try


Cowboy Bebop is a series that should need no introduction to anime fans. However, for anyone unfamiliar with the show, it's basically about space bounty hunters set to an old time jazz music soundtrack with plenty of classy old time stories and dark morals along the way. If you like action, space, jazz, or comedy, you may like Cowboy Bebop. If you like old time bounty hunter, private eye, or detective movies, you'll probably like Cowboy Bebop. If you like dark stories with twists that really make you feel for the characters, you'll like Cowboy Bebop. This is one series you don't have to be an anime fan to appreciate, but you have to be willing to give it a fair chance.

A single episode of Cowboy Bebop packs more punch than a bruce willis movie. If you're not a fan of the show by the end of episode one alone, you probably won't be. The characters are as real as any old time bounty hunter / detective movie, and every bit as interesting. The sci-fi space twist doesn't take away from the show in the slightest, it adds much. A good way of thinking about the show is Lupin the 3rd mixed with Outlaw Star, with more depth. With episode titles like Asteroid Blues, Honky Tonk Woman, Waltz for Venus, and Jupiter Jazz, the space, class, and jazz heavy style is quite apparent from the beginning. This isn't just some theme slapped on top of an anime, rather a critical part of the show.


Don't ruin this film for yourself by going in with expectations, limitations, rules, preconceptions, etc. of what you think it's supposed to be. Step inside the movie and let it tell you the story. It has the formula down for the typical old style western but it's done in a unique fashion. It's not supposed to be a carbon copy of an old American Spaghetti Western. Appreciate that, and you'll appreciate what this film has to offer. The Japanese-accented English only added to its charm, although I will admit that it was difficult to understand the dialogue at times. The film does include subtitles so no worries. The visuals/cinematography were wonderful, the story was interesting and overall it was a fun movie to watch. Purely entertaining.


--While the spoilers in this review concern the plot, they will not ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it yet. It is written with such people in mind.--

I am a big fan of prolific Japanese director, Miike Takashi. His movies are not always good (which would be an accomplishment, considering he averages about three feature length films a year), but he doesn't mind experimenting or playing around. Not everything he tries works, but when it does, it can be pretty damn awesome.

His subjects and genres vary wildly from a musical about a family running an inn, to a kid fighting goblins, to some of the best yakuza flicks I've seen. Meanwhile, he tends to get good performances from his actors, even when they are children or non-native Japanese speakers. The only time I've been completely disappointed with one of his pieces was a rejected instalment in Showtime's "Masters of Horror", entitled 'Imprint'. The story was stupid, and the acting was bad. This was Miike's first all English production, and it showed.

So, when I found out one of his 2007 films, "Sukiyaki Western Django", was in English, I was a bit put off. How did I find out? Well, I started watching it, and that was the only language track. You could tell the actors hadn't been dubbed over, either from the way much of the all Japanese (except for Quintin Tarantino) cast struggled with their deliveries. As such, the film is an excellent example of Bertolt Brecht's 'theatrical alienation', constantly forcing us to deal with the movie as a movie, but this is not something we are entirely comfortable doing.

It took me about 45 minutes to get over the choice of language. So, for artistry, the original dub accomplishes what it sets out to, but, man, it would be nice to see it overdubbed by native speakers in several languages. This is probably the only time you'll ever see me say that about anything that isn't a comedy which I want revoiced by Mexican actors. Mexican voice actors make everything funnier.

Diction aside, it was pretty good for an adaptation/prequel of the second Italian, western adaptation of Kurosawa's wonderful tip of the hat to the genre, "Yojimbo" (which, itself, was an adaptation of a noire novel). That's right, "Sukiyaki Western Django" is both an adaptation and a prequel to the Spaghetti western, "Django", which came out two years after Sergio Leone's "A Fistfull of Dollars", both of which were adaptations of "Yojimbo", which was a samurai nod to westerns, but based on Dashiell Hammett's noir novel, "Red Harvest". Follow? SWD is less derivative than you might expect.

Sure, "Red Harvest", "Yojimbo", "Fistful of Dollars", "Django", and "Sukiyaki Western Django", all centre around a martially talented drifter who finds himself in a town with two warring factions and a demoralized civilian populace. All their lead characters attempt to play the two sides against each other and are eventually dragged into fighting both, ostensibly for the good of whatever's left of the town by the end. But SWD fashions its own world, unlike the rest.

It is apparently set in something like the mid to late 1800s, after the Shogunate has begun to lose power, but before the Meiji emperor's government has gained dominance; a time in which Japan appears to be in decline, and has been humiliated by foreigners. It's hard to pin down, though, because the film doesn't really concern itself with such matters. The competing groups are the remnants of the Genji and Heike clans, whose twelfth century conflicts were famously recorded in the performative epic poem, "Heike Monogatari". One of the gangs' leaders finds inspiration in Shakespeare's "Richard III".

The two factions face off in a town whose very architecture conveys the strange lineage of this film, looking for its fabled treasure and fighting each other with guns, swords, dynamite, and whatever happens to be handy. Their garb fits with the architecture, and exhibits occidental, Japanese, feudal, and semi-modern influences. Their dialogue is peppered with hackneyed western clichés, delivered in by actors who mostly no have idea what they're saying.

In the few reviews I read, I saw some glancing comparisons to the arch, technicolored western tribute, "Tears of the Black Tiger". They're both recent Asian films offering tribute and parody of the same (outwardly) American genre, so that's understandable, but I think SWD is better compared and contrasted with "The Quick and the Dead". They have a more similar purpose, but where Sam Raimi failed (despite a stellar cast) to find a decent treatment for westerns along the lines of his horror and superhero flicks, Miike has mostly succeeded by introducing a bizarre cultural mix and his own cult cinema sensibilities.

Anyone who likes weird should check it out.


The title may sound like this would be a satirical comedy spoof,it sure is not, The director Takashi Miike normally has directed horror film, here he attempts a western, with a decided Japanese flavor. .The dialogue is all in spoken (NOT dubbed)English,giving the stylized film a sense of reality. Combine all the qualities of a Japanese Samaurii film & a classic shoot out western ala the Italian Spaghetti westerns of Leone films of the Sixties. The film is very well acted & the production values are first rate.

The various stunts & effects are all real I doubt if any CGI was used.

The film is quite violent with an ending almost tragic.

It is not a great film,BUT is very interesting & well made.

The DVD includes excellent extras including 54 minute 'making of' short subject.

Ratings *** (out of 4) 87 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10) **

** this rating would be about the same on most GOOD American westerns of years back.


It's nothing new, genre-bending. Some of the better examples might be movies like THE FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE, an Italian western with a Chinese star (Chen Lee) that may or may not have been inspired by the then-current American teleseries, KUNG FU. More recent fare would include the likes of SHANGHAI NOON, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, and the Thai movie that most closely resembles SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, while it boasts some incredible production values (from the town itself to the pyrotechnics to some absolutely beautiful cinematography), suffers badly when it comes to story (YOJIMBO has been emulated so many times over the years that it must be tied with MOST DANGEROUS GAME by now) and character (it's impossible to pull for the hero because he's rarely little more than a bit player; we never get to know him to the degree that we do, say, Toshiro Mifune in YOJIMBO and SANJURO). Miike is at his best in terms of direction; that's what makes this one worth seeing.


At every turn, another expected unexpected event springs fourth to entertain and amuse. For those of us who have seen Django, this movie will support your prejudices while allowing you to enjoy the fabulous cinematography, costumes, acting and scenery. The plot is barely enough to keep one interested although the movie, as a whole, is grossly entertaining. White vs Red, last man standing, evil vs evil with a tinge of good barely surfacing gives this movie a turn from the usual pap so often seen in cinema. Miike pulled out the stops for this one giving us enough blood and guts to wonder what was coming next while allowing for his own unique style to peek through. While not for everyone, this belongs in the midnight movie genre, suitable for those of us who enjoy something off of the beaten path.


If you watch this movie expecting a gore fest in the likes of Gozu and Ichi, you will be very surprised. Compared to Miike's others, Sukiyaki Western is like Bambi when it comes to gore and dementia. While I expected something else, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. When it comes to blood, Miike followed the old saying of "quality, not quantity". It is very tastefully done and certainly is one of the more original movies of our time. Miike really went the artistic route with this one. The entire movie utilizes a unique style of cinematography and uses colors that are symbolic to the plot.

My copy of the movie was imported from Singapore. I haven't seen anyone mention the obvious flaw with the subtitles, so I'll assume it is unique to my copy. Like the other reviews said, the spoken word of the movie can be very hard to understand since the actors are speaking a language other than their native tongue, but when I turned on the subtitles, they turned out to be almost completely nonsensical! They read like a computer's bad translation mixed with Yoda-speak. The words related to what was being said, but they did not make sentences. It was very strange, and added a whole other atmosphere to the movie, probably unintentionally. Hopefully I stumbled on some sort of rare edition of the movie.


I must confess I am a bit of a fan of the prolific Takashi Miike. Films like "Audition", "Dead or Alive", "Visitor Q" and "Gozu" left rather indelible impressions on me. That said I have not watched all of his many films and at the rate the man churns them out I may have my work cut out for me just to keep up. That said let's focus on "Sukiyaki Western Django" just released limited in the US.

Right at the get go we begin with an off the wall cameo by Quentin Tarantino, featuring a monologue and a gunfight, all set before an almost cartoonish painted backdrop of a snow-tipped mountain and a looming red sun. After this quirky intro the real story begins, a "Yojimbo" themed western tale, featuring an all Japanese cast delivering there lines in English and seemingly often dubbed as well. Here is where some already voice there objections, arguing that the native Japanese speakers should speak in their own language rather than sometimes struggling to deliver the lines in English. It does make for sometimes rather herky jerky deliveries on the part of the actors, but when you consider that the whole film is paying loving homage to a great tradition of films by the likes of Leone and others, which usually featured overdubbing, often by other actors even, it seems almost fitting that the dialog delivery in "Sukiyaki" is what it is.

Really the whole film is a "what if"... What if instead of Europe posing as the wild west we had Japan and instead of predominantly Italian/Spanish actors we had a Japanese cast? Well Miike asks the question and answers it with "Sukiyaki Western Django" a gleeful homage that lovingly references and even satirizes the hugely popular westerns so firmly rooted in the pulp and legends of the American West, and yet ironically shaped so decisively by the perspectives of men like Kurosawa and Leone. Not my favorite Miike film but nonetheless very much worth the watch, and akin in spirit to Tarantino's own recent homage of sorts, "Death Proof".


This is further proof that cult Japanese director Takashi Miike is not for me: as can be deduced from the title, the film is a pseudo-homage to the Italian Spaghetti Westerns (though Django has almost nothing to do with it!). In fact, the plot is yet another rehash of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic YOJIMBO (1961), which had actually led to Sergio Leone kick-starting the Spaghetti Western subgenre with that film's first remake A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)! Anyway, for Miike, this is typically violent fare  even more pointless than usual and all rather amateurishly assembled; besides, having the actors speak English results in unintentional laughter more than anything else (though Quentin Tarantino's absurd cameo is no less embarrassing: incidentally, I may well have been witness to the genesis of the picture back when these two mavericks 'butted heads' at the 2004 Venice Film Festival!). Needless to say, the squalid atmosphere peculiar to European Westerns is largely missing herebut, then, neither does the film extract particular benefit from its own country's heritage! With characterization tending towards mere posture (when it is not insipid), we are left with a clutch of stylized-but-hollow action sequences to grab the attention  all of which, ultimately, leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Perhaps mercifully, the version I watched is the shorter (by 23 minutes) International Cut.


In a way, everything Takashi Miike makes from here on out could easily be considered fan service. That's partially because he has fans that wouldn't be disappointed no matter what he does (from the straight street dramas of the Black Society Trilogy to the messy violence of his more famous cult classics and lately to the more surreal works of "Big Bang Love, Juvenile A" and "Zebraman"), and partially it's because nobody really has a handle one what he's doing except that it's bizarre. So how does one tell a good Miike movie from any other one? How kick-ass it is. Yup, sometimes it just boils down to that.

"Sukiyaki Western Django" is a boiled mish-mash of various conceits and approaches, an almost chaotic display of Western bravado meets mixed-genre in-jokes. With Quentin Tarantino and a brief animated display, nonetheless. However, what makes it really work are those things that wouldn't have worked if it wasn't half the point: the broad widescreen of Sergio Leone--used to show a color-corrected Japanese landscape that looks nothing like the West; the Man with No Name approaching a nearly empty gold mining town--made in Japanese architecture complete with the man hanging off of the rectilinear entry-gate; set in a dry universe of gun-play and whiskey--that suddenly turns to rain and snow once the violence and vengeance comes reigning from the sky. Yup, the point isn't to make a Western with Japanese people, the point is to make an epic shootout with grit-teethed character. The rest are all details. Anachronistic, displaced and utterly absurd details, but beautiful beautiful detail at that.

It's not strictly parody and it's not strictly surreal. At one point there's a hint that it's a prequel to the title movie. It has references to things from "Yojimbo" to "Once Upon a Time in America" to "Kill Bill", but it exists utterly in its own logic and is completely unpredictable. The characters discuss anime as a weakness, a sheriff starts grappling with himself like Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings", and the spider-woman gunslinger might be a hermaphrodite. But while I do not believe in a "Miike Universe" that cross-references between different movies, there is most certainly a "Miike mood" which is the ability to range from pure hysterics to morbid fascination to disturbing reveals to good ol' fashioned fireworks. This movie might not make a lick of sense in terms of chronology and setting, but that won't stop you from caring deeply about its characters and laughing at its jokes.

This is one of those things where I really wish I could get more people to buy/rent the movie at work, simply because it's so much Goddamn fun, but have to settle for the fact that for the most part, the incredibly sincere Japanese acting and the over-the-top Western landscapes (including a painted backdrop that purposefully gets blood sprayed on it) won't mesh with the average viewer's careful expectations of what they want from a movie. For shame, too, because this is actually precisely what you want from a Western. Nobody goes into a Western for it to make any historical sense.

--PolarisDiB


This is what movies should be... A mix of whatever grasps the writers creative soul and splashes it on the backdrop in a red streak of blood. Seriously this movie is not for the average. It's very out there and has very heavy accents. If you don't mind such things and seek to find somethin which is a true art piece then you have found it. A perfect blend of the old and new, of east and west. A mashing of the old Kurosawa films with the spaghetti western remakes we in North America are so fond of. If you are a fan of Asian cinema you'll find that every character is so perfectly what you expect and then some (Im not gonna bother with spoilers cuz it plays it out for itself). I am so inspired by this film I'm gonna hunt down the original Django. I highly advise this for art house film lovers (as well as Tarantino fans). Best movie I've seen in a long while. Enjoy!


This Sukiyaki Western begins in a really bizarre way, more or less like a play with Ringo (Quentin Tarantino in a total tribute to the man with no name, with the poncho included ), a man who knew the story about the Genji and Heike clans or the whites and the reds, a story that happened hundred years ago. Our story takes place in the present of the whites and reds, when their rivalry is still alive. Of course the old mythology is still present and with some flashbacks we are going to see how this two clans ends in the same town that now is almost abandoned and is controlled by the two clans. Here is when the man with no name or the Sanjuro of our story enters, a man that comes from nowhere but seems that he arrives in the right time for the people in the town. Here a family story is also shown, with a couple that when they get married they forget about the clans but now the woman is going to avenge the dead of his husband by joining the clan of the whites.

This is like a summary of this picture, listed as a remake of Django that was a remake of Yojimbo. I don't remember when was the first time that I hear something about this film but since then and when I saw the trailer it becomes for me the film to check this year. I mean, it was a Miike film, it has a cameo of Tarantino, it has Japanese actors and actresses talking a strange English and itself was a tribute to the Spaghetti Westerns called, in a really unique way, Sukiyaki Western Django. Knowing all this, it was just an offer I couldn't refuse. Now that I have finally seen this film on the Japanese DVD I can write that Miike has made an extremely enjoyable and entertaining western with a basic and common story but with many unique scenes and a great denouement.

Even I really liked the first part of the film, with the story of the town and some memorable scenes (like the "now my name is Henry" or the escape of the gunman), is the final part the best one. Apart of the final confrontation in the snow between the gunman and the white leader, one of my favourites moments of the entire film is the story of the character of Ruriko. She has the classic unbelievable past as a true legend and her story is shown with the style of a QT movie. Of course not a coincidence that Tarantino's character result to be the master of Ruriko and the father of her son, Akira, the mentioned husband who was murdered. In the end we have that this actually was the story of the son of Akira, who actually saw how both of his parents were killed, having in the end gratitude with the gunman and later finding his own way to Italy (a really memorable and even hilarious final detail of the film).

Finally, I really liked Sukiyaki Western Django and the entire concept makes that this is a must see film not only for Takashi Miike fans but also for all the people who loves westerns. I'm glad I finally saw this picture, one of the most expected of the last year and now one of my personal favourites. Just hoping that soon we can get the Region 1 DVD with some of the extras that are one the collector's edition.

django! Django, have you always been alone? django! Django, have you never loved again? Love will live on, oh oh oh... Life must go on, oh oh oh... For you cannot spend your life regreatting django! Django, you must face another day django! Django, now your love has gone away. Once you loved her, whoa-oh... Now you've lost her, whoa-oh-oh-oh... But you've lost her for-ever, django. When there are clouds in the skies, and they are grey. You may be sad but remember that love will pass away. Oh django! After the showers is the sun. Will be shining...


Takashi Miike makes a samurai movie as a western. The Japanese cast speaks in English, the music is eclectic with strong spaghetti western influences, and the material is referential and full of homage and send up.

It begins with a Quentin Tarantino cameo, then switches to the story of two clans fighting over the supposed treasure in a small town. Into the stand off rides a stranger with no name.

Forgive the brevity, but if you've seen any number of spaghetti westerns then you've probably seen something like this story that spins out here. The tale of gold lust and warring factions isn't anything new. What is new is how Miike dresses it up. Clearly the Japanese could make a western if the wanted to. Its a clever re-imagining of the genre and is interesting enough to warrant at least a brief look see.

The problem with the film is that its 30 to 45 minutes too long. A very good first half hour gives way to long exposition in the middle hour, and while there are some genuinely nice moments its a little too plodding as it tries to cover one cliché too many. The film then picks up in the final 40 minutes with a huge shoot out. Its a schizo movie at times as things just go on and on. However when the film works- which it does at the ends and for a chunk of the middle, this is some of the best film making I've seen this year so far. The characters, the action, some set pieces are simply stunning, not to mention touching, there are several moments of real emotion.

And make no mistake, this is a spaghetti western, and the film is a bit more fun if you know the genre. For example the Django in the title will alert anyone who's seen the Franco Nero film of Django what is inside the coffin that is dragged around. You don't need the know the genre but it will help you identify what they are stealing from.

7 out of 10 for the mixed up and down nature of the film.

Probably the only one who could have pulled this off was Miike and he did it wonderfully.


'Sukiyaki Western Django' has a pretty literal name, even if it looks goofy to those unfamiliar with the genre being referenced. The name is straightforward: "sukiyaki" being a traditional Japanese dish (standing in for "spaghetti"), "western" referring to the genre, and "Django" referring to the gimmicky B-movie series of westerns from the '70s which the film constantly references. So the name literally is saying it's a Japanese B-movie Spaghetti Western.

Miike takes inspiration from, and references, almost everything here: classic Clint Eastwood westerns, the anime 'Cowboy Bebop', B-movie slashers (and obviously the terrible cult classic series, "Django"), Kurosawa's 'Yojimbo', the old Japanese story of 'The Tale of Heike' and so on. Quentin Tarantino has a small narrative role in the film as well.

And it ends up being pretty entertaining. The film is entirely in English, or I should say "Engrish," done by Japanese actors. The results are goofy and funny and sometimes downright unintelligible. It's pretty original/charming in concept, though, and I wonder if Miike wouldn't also like to make a samurai film entirely with Americans speaking broken Japanese. And regardless of how deeply the characters can inflect based on their accents, some of their visual expressions are really wonderful (my favorite was when the guy in the paddy-wagon grabs the sticks of dynamite!). The film is actually quite nice to look at throughout.

The sets and costumes are pretty nice for an independent film, though a lot of the interior decor often reminded me of the US interstate food chain, 'Cracker Barrel.' Haha! I just mean the saloons and everything were a little...clean. The action is a combination of really awesome and intentionally terrible, though the shootouts are pretty fun to watch and there are some pretty original moments featuring crossbows and computer-rendered effects. Furthermore, Miike likes to toy with audience expectations and anticipation, so prepare for some off-tempo action sequences which border on the bizarre.

And all the typical Miike touches are here: over-the-top manga-style violence, a combination of awful and excellent acting, critical reflections on chivalry, a weird drawn-out dance number that has nothing to do with anything, aforementioned intentionally off-tempo pacing, gorgeous cinematography, and well-constructed sets.

I would have really liked to see some deeper character development. The main characters all looked so similar and told such similar back stories it was hard to tell who was who until the end. And it didn't help that they all spoke in broken English, but then again I wasn't watching it with subtitles. Although it's not gripping for its story, narrative or traditional story-telling, film-making qualities, Sukiyaki Western Django is pretty cool for how unique it is and its goofy Japanese angles on the subject matter. At the very least, fans of classic "B-movie", "arthouse" cinema should find something to like here, as should fans of live-action manga or Miike's more light-hearted moments.


The Genji and Heike gangs show down in a settlement named Utah, while a cliché stoic gunman comes to the support of what's left of the community, inspired by Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti western Django. I haven't seen Django, and actually I saw much more candid likeness to Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars.

The fast-paced action is well staged on a set that sponges both western and samurai ways of life. Miike jumbles both sensationalized gunplay and martial arts swordplay, which interact solidly in anticipation of the climactic fight, by which time we're practically exhausted. What may be the oddest facet of Miike's western, if you'll accept the odd/Miike redundancy, is his choice to apply a Japanese cast to speak English. It's a curious variety that initially feels like a gimmicky innovation, merely to blend into this aimless entertainment's wacky milieu. Nevertheless, it results keeping the characters two-dimensional and the audience aloof. Quentin Tarantino, who plays a bit role, speaks English as usual but with some gawky, cartoonish twang and tone of voice with the talent of an 11-year-old and no sense of cultural origin and no connection at all to the subject matter, obscure though it may be. I really wish he would either never act again, or learn how to portray a real human being and not some B-movie caricature, which no matter what role he's ever played is what he always does. He measures all of life to B-movie caricature.

Miike's typically cynical detachment from his work makes for another one of his zany spectacles, and with stunningly vivid production design. At the end of the day, this dispassionate flourish of style by itself is a very wearing encounter. This is not a film you become absorbed in but instead one that you're expected to watch with a nonchalant, half- sober feeling of sardonic lack of involvement. And some people like to watch movies that way. I don't think Miike has ever made a movie for everyone, even though he's made almost 70 in under 20 years. And for that I admire him.


i have to say i've been a fan of Takashi Miike's films for some time now. i was essentially sold on him after watching "Audition", which was an incredibly creepy piece of work to say the least, but alas, that's not what i'm writing about so on we go.

i have to say i was a little skeptical at first when we paid a dollar to rent this movie, but no doubt it will find it's way into my DVD rack sometime soon. this movie will grab you right from the beginning. the opening scene with Tarantino is a great lead-in to the movie, and from there it never disappoints.

the characters are developed extremely well and all of the action is very well done and choreographed. obviously it's a western, but think more "Ichi the Killer" meets "Tombstone" meets "Kill Bill" and you'll be a little closer to what this movie has to offer.

all in all, if you're fan of Miike, watch it. if you're a fan of westerns, watch it. if you're a fan of action movies, watch it. but most importantly, if you're a fan of good movies, you have to see it.


Imagine an American Western drowned in spaghetti sauce, chewed up and regurgitated by a Japanese. That's pretty much what happened here.

Sukiyaki Western Django takes place in an alternate universe where nineteenth-century Nevada is populated entirely by the Japanese and the only white man around is Quentin Tarantino!

This is colorful (figuratively and literally) and action packed with great production values but the whole thing's just too gimmicky and cute for it's own good. Like seemingly all Japanese movies these days, it's self-indulgent as hell. This tries hard to be a cult film by pandering to film nerds and fanboys, the most easily impressed people on the planet.

This wasn't thrilling or exciting and I never really connected to any of it's characters, probably due to the language problem. Having all the actors speak simplified English was a mistake. This would have been better dubbed or in Japanese with subtitles. Hell, I had to turn on the subtitles anyway!

What I would really like to have seen was director Takashi Miike attempt to make a real western with an American cast. It would probably be better than the ones Ang Lee attempted!

Go watch the REAL Django!


There has never been a documentary like "Land of Look Behind". Relatively unknown due to poor distribution and New York Film Festival skullduggery, this breathtaking film presents a unique epic vision with quasi-dramatic elements and cinematographic wizardry. The non-reggae original soundtrack is outstanding, as is the reggae music of Bob Marley and Gregory Isaacs. The great documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog has called "Look Behind" the non-fiction film that has influenced him most over the last fifteen years. Indeed, this film's peers are the best of Herzog, Bunuel's "Land Without Bread", Flaherty's "Nanook" and Leacock-Pennebaker's "Louisiana Story". With thoughtful viewing, one will see this moving documentary actually end with a lovely little dream sequence. No American has come close to making a film this ingenious in the last thirty years.


This one has gotta be one of my favourite films, apparently this documentary started out as a film about bob Marley's funeral then ended up being something else. Has a very spiritual feel about the whole thing, contains interviews with local inhabitants of the Look Behind area in JA, all of which are reggae lovers, gives there views on RastafarI and Bob Marley, then goes onto feature mutabaruka with plenty of interviews, also gregory Isaacs at his African Museum record label, he also gives a great performance and u can see just how he gets the name "The Cool Ruler", then onto a performance by Louie Lepke singing a song he wrote about bob marleys death. Also shows footage from bobs funeral and the gives a good idea of just how big an event this was showing the mass crowds that turned up that day. A Must for any reggae lover. An Excellent film.........


This is a feature length documentary with trail-blazing poetic/dramatic cinematic technique. Unforgettable images and startling intimacy with the subject. An undiscovered masterpiece.


The best movie about reggae music and Jamaica. It goes much deeper than just explaining the music or the place. Beautifully done like a dream with a purpose. The best documentary I have ever seen.


The only other documentary I've seen that is comparable is Gates of Heaven. I love both and I hope more documentaries are available that go beyond the obvious and "documentable" as these do. The voice of god narration and the feeling that you the viewer are being patronized cheapens even most well composed documentaries for me.

I&I Rastafari!


Awful black movie about a protest organized by the women of the hood to stop violence and make peace between the gangs. As long as the men don't agree to put down their guns there's no sex. Close to amateur with a non-existent script or storyline it seems the director asked a bunch of people to improvise accordingly to the premise of the movie using as much foul language as possible. The performances are as fake and incompetent as you can possibly imagine. Like I said it feels like these people aren't even professionals.

Most of the movie is spent on monologues of a man or woman in front of the camera talking about relationships in the most vulgar way of course. The other half is a bunch of women insulting men and vice versa. Add a generous amount of close-ups on every woman's rear and some stupid jokes in between dealing with sex and taking advantage of the usual black lingo and you got Miami Tail. While it may have a good message at heart, the execution is so mediocre and appalling that one must think twice before even calling this cinema.


Let me start out by saying that I enjoy a good urban movie, even those stereotype ones with lousy humor and stuff. This piece of, well you name it, is so horrific, it should be banned from all places. Or it should be used in colleges to show how NOT to make a movie or act in it.

The acting is horrendous, the only good and funny things are the two drunks and the short fellow with the odd face (Black Zeus' sidekick), they are hilarious.

The rest of the crew, well, they act like they've never acted before (and after this flick, probably never will again), the chairs and tables in this movie act better than the actors! If I wanted to see people reading cue cards or acting like they were wooden puppets, I'd play The Sims. That would be a less waste of time than this.

I like Trina and her phat tracks, but girl, stick to rapping and leave the acting to people more qualified than yourself.


Pretty Cool Movie Well after hearing Trina's albums and being a big fan of course I went out to rent her 1st movie, and hearing her talk about how its important to practice abstenance was the only way to stop the men from violence blew my mind. This movie was mad cute, it is based an a story of Greek mythology and takes place in the hood of Miami. Trina place Alicia a girl who wants to end the street violence and make their home safe. This is actually quite a positive movie and Trina shows great skills in acting. The only thing keeping this movie from more stars is a couple minor actors really are bad at acting...but Trina and the rest of the majors are really good. These movie is very sexual and funny, A must have for any Trina fan.


This movie blew chunks. All of these so called actors in this film need to never ever work in the film industry again. The plot was pointless and the acting especially from Trina wasn't on point. Who comes up with a plan on banning their men from having sex with them just so that they can keep their neighborhood drug free? I'll admit that some of the characters like Sommore & Mother Africa were some of the few high points in this terrible film. The only good thing about the film was that many of the females in the film were looking good but unfortunately cannot act if their life depended on it. Hopefully, films like this will not continue to see the day of light. Also this would discourage rappers to think that they can carry a movie without paying their dues (50 Cent, Ja Rule, DMX, Trina, Drag On etc.).


I enjoyed this movie, it has an up to date urban twist on an old story...but I would wait for the tv version before I let MY mother or mother-in-love see it. It was funny and the acting was mostly above average. My favorites were Monique(the preachers wife) and Mama Africa and Sommore was great. It is absolutely worth the price of rental.


A Miami Tail is a clever take on the old Lysistrata story. I read Lysistrata in high school and was surprised at how well the filmmakers stayed true to the story. I especially like the way the actors addressed the camera ... it was just like the Greek chorus. Trina's performance wasn't bad for her first movie. No worse than other rappers or singers the first time out. Sommore was excellent. Other standouts included Benji Brown. That guy is very funny. Mr. Cheeks is only in the movie briefly, but memorably. The music in the movie is pretty cool too. Must admit that I have never seen so many beautiful women in one movie. The movie won't win any Oscars, but for a low-budget indie, I think the movie is excellent and definitely worth checking out.


I thought this film was very well executed. It was hilarious from beginning to end, despite some of the bad acting by a few of the actors. It was an original concept and very good fit for a comedy. The two bums had me in stitches and the scene with Sommore and the two bums was classic. And if you wanna see some the HOTTEST Black and Latina models that you have ever seen then you definitely want this film. Also the comedian that plays the sidekick is hilarious! Iv'e seen him on Comic View on BET several times and he does a good job in this film too. Whatever the actors lack in this film, all the comedians definitely make up for it. I also thought it was well written and well directed, despite the shortcomings of a low budget urban film. I could see this film as a big box office hit with a more experienced cast of actors. But I really enjoyed this film nonetheless. This one stays in my collection.


This episode has EVERYTHING! From Milton, the retiree who quotes Longfellow, to a romantic comment between Grissom and Sarah. Who dunnit? Everyone! Cause of death? Everything! A great guest cast, headed by James Whitmore, does an outstanding job in a super setting. A whorehouse in the desert, populated with old coots, beautiful ladies, an inept local constable, and strung out Happy hisself- one of those characters "who needed killing." If Emmy awards aren't given to the writers, cast, special effects artists- it will really be a CRIME.

I really, really need some comic relief, and this episode just made me grin from ear to ear. Thank you, CSI producers- this was the best of the best.


(No real spoiler but hints at the direction of the episode.)

I have to agree with the statements that that this was one of the best episodes this season. The constant redirection, the outrageous things done to the boxer, not to mention the whole "boxer trains at a brothel" idea are some of the most creative of the season.

I really like the continuity of this season. Events and plot lines from previous episodes affect the characters as the season progresses. But every once in a while, you just have to have fun and break away from the formula. It allows both the writers and the actors some freedom from having to continue to answer questions from previous episodes, while still allowing consistent character development.

But, to my summary. I wondered where I had seen the actress playing one of the "pleasure providers." I realized she was the daughter in "What Women Want." She has really grown up.

EDIT: I just realized where I had seen Doris Babinkian (the "madam"): Sister Mary Robert from the Sister Act movies. Talk about growing up.....


This was probably one of the best in a long time. I like the miniature killer, but this was way more fun ... if one can say death can be fun. The Devil from Constantine makes a great Pimp. Don't know who the old Poet or the main Pleasure provider were but they did great. The voice over in the snake scene was very well done. I was touched personally by just a few moments of screen time, Wish I could remember who the actress was. Had a hard time with the "madam," she did well with what she had, winking & all that, but I just didn't know quite what to make of her. When I see it again I am sure I will get a lot more out of her work, but the first time through it was tough. She was in probably the best scene in the movie, when they were sampling her DNA, the thing with the cigarette, Magnificent.

Over all I gotta say the boxer had a bad day.


I've already watched this episode twice, and love it. It's great to see the creators still know how to have some fun with these characters...especially the interplay between Brass and Doc Robbins. My favorite, by far, has to be casting James Whitmore (see also The Shawshank Redemption, Them!, several episodes of The Twilight Zone, and the narration of Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark documentary, among many other credits) as the old man no-one takes seriously. I know it's not the exact line, but when, after completing the "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" poem, Sara tells him to "Keep the Faith," I was almost hoping for her to call him Brooks - again see Shawshank.


This is one of the craziest and most entertaining episodes ever on CSI.

Sometimes the Las Vegas CSI show is bent more on humor than it is drama and crime-solving. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. It dd here, big-time, in the case of an ex-boxer found dead in a pool at a brothel somewhere outside Las Vegas. Man, this guy was hard to kill! How he's killed turns out to be an outrageous series of events. I'll say one thing for the victim: he was one tough dude!

Meanwhile, every time "Lt. Brass" thinks he's solved the case, "Doc Robbins" has bad news for him. "Doc" keeps finding out new ways the boxer became a corpse. The autopsy keeps changing and it gets very comical. Robert David Hall ("Doc") is always good as the medical examiner. I don't know how much "fame" he gets from this role, but it's not enough. He's really fascinating, every time he's on screen.

Another guy is just tremendous in this particular show (and all of them are, for that matter) is Paul Guilfoyle as the above-mentioned "Brass." I'm telling you, Guilfoyle and Hall proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are great comedic actors, not just actors in general. These guys had me laughing out loud several times each during this episode.

As for the guest stars, Peter Stormare, who has slowly blossomed into a film star after his role in "Fargo," is entertaining, as always. In this story, he's "Binky Babinkian." Wendy Makkena is equally entertaining as Binky's wife "Doris." It's hard to imagine she was once "Sister Mary Robert" in "Sister Act." She was cute then, and she's still a very pretty woman.....and a good actress. She and Stormare are hilarious in this episode.

All the characters over-the-top and fun to watch. You can add Vince Lieluf as "Connor Foster," the goofy bartender, to that group. It also was great to see James Whitmore again. He plays "Milton." I can't believe the 87-year-old still is acting. Good for him. There is a wonderful scene with he and Jorja Fox ("Sara Sidle") reciting Longfellow. I see by his resume here that he hadn't acted for four years until this little part, and hasn't acted since.

It was a pleasure to see him on screen again.


It is one of the funniest episodes of CSI. Full of funny characters, turnarounds, weapons, and even theme song is humorous . Peter Stormare, from Prison break plays Russian accented brothel owner. The whole episode is about one murder. A murder of ex-boxing champion.

!!!SPOILER BELOW!!!

Many people tried to kill him, with different things: crowbar hit to the head, crossbow shot through the neck, fellatio administering shrimps, injection of a snake venom, but at the end it was not possible to determinate who really killed him. There were three people who tried to kill him. Bartender, brothel owner, and "pleasure" worker. Episode locations are Brothel and trailer park outside of city, CSI lab, and interrogation room. 70% of scenes are at brothel, which is unusual, since most CSIs are usually at lab.

Must see!


By far the funniest and my most favorite episode. How often do you see a plot where a has-been boxer dies at a brothel. Doc Robbins calling every time to tell Brass and Grissom the person they thought was the killer wasn't it was the best. I hate Brass and seeing him get screwed over and over was great. The dealings with the employees of the brothel is what made it too funny. I won't go into details but I'll mention the major players. First is Binky and Doris, owners of the brothel called the Sugar Cane Ranch. Second is the escort Dreama Little, played by a shockingly grown up and amazingly hot Ashley Johnson, who was little brat on Growing Pains that looked like 'Annie'. Third is the bartender Connor Foster, previously seen in that role in the episode 'Homebodies'.

Beyond that, the best part had to be all of the fine ladies wearing very little, especially the uber-delicious Marnette Patterson. FYI: She's Aimee, AKA the one who says the line "I popped his man-cherry".


This wasn't bad at all, apart from the fact that the sheriff must have been naively optimistic in thinking that he, a deputy and an old-timer could prevail against two different factions each consisting of a score or so men; in the event, he leaves it far too late when it comes to asking for outside help. And I thought both factions were somewhat overheated about the situation.

There's a touch of "High Noon" about the film, in that the action takes place in a short time-span, with a clock occasionally showing what hour it is. In both films the sheriff doesn't have much support when it comes to conscientiously doing his duty.The suspense mounts through both films, though John Agar doesn't match Gary Cooper when it comes to re-acting to it.

I see from other comments that I'm not alone in finding the repetitive ballad-singer an irritation; I almost cheered when he dashed for cover during a shoot-out; what a pity he didn't get in the way of a bullet.

The best fight is between two women, one of whom ends up with blood on her, which is more than can be said for the men who get shot; they just clutch at unmarked shirts. And when someone gets knocked on the head it's out of camera shot, which I thought was a convention that had been done away with some years before the film was made.

Trivia fans may like to note that this is the second Western in which Delmonico's famous restaurant is mentioned in some Agar dialogue; Harry Carey jnr taunts him about eating there in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".


When this film was released in Brazil, a famous critic ranked it among the best films of the year (probably 1957). I would no go as far as that, but Star in the Dust is a B western with higher ambitions that partially achieves them. The story is about the sheriff who has to hang a killer Sam Hall (Richard Boone) before sundown. The cattlemen who probably hired the killer want to turn him loose, but the ranchers (the ones that were killed were ranchers), who have the local teacher as their leader want the hanging to go through. All the time there is a man singing a ballad about Sam Hall and it blends well with the film. Mamie Van Doren in an unusual role where she is not meant to be sexy is the sheriff's bride and also the sister of the banker and leader of the cattlemen. There is a constant betting going on where the odds that the hanging is not going to go through are much higher. The tension builds up very well, up to the crucial moment which is very convincing. A very similar story was used in another western "The Young Land"(1959), also with very good results.


For a Western movie this was very boring and had very little going on. There is no real plot and only a couple of muddled and drama-free sub-plots.

The movie is about some hit-man in a cell who is awaiting hanging for the killing of some cattleboys. The sheriff wants a peaceful hanging (!) without having to prove that he's as good a Sheriff as his father was. And a couple of other minor characters serve no purpose other than to complicate matters for petty reasons.

There are a few silly fight scenes that remind of the A-Team with the wooden furniture falling apart very easily. And, as always, there are embarrassingly fake fights in which there is no penetration seen or any

shown. Were there any R-rated movies in the 50's? But the most annoying thing about this movie is the songs but the 'singing narrator' who only ever uses the same tune but uses marginally different words each time. Ugh! If this is on TV on a Sunday afternoonmiss it. Go out for a walk, even if it's raining.