Netflix Friday: Eden of the East

I like anime, but I don't love it. Most of the stuff that other people rave about leaves me indifferent. I tend to prefer light comedies like Oh! My Goddess! or Ouran High School Host Club (just try to get the cute pop theme song out of your head). I have a mild interest in Full Metal Alchemist -- but just mild.

Both of these series are available on Netflix and I'm planning to catch up on them -- particularly Oh! My Goddess, which is probably one of the most romantic and cute series ever made. If you are an anime fan and would like to get a girl hooked on Anime, this is the series you should use. It's about a loser of a college boy who lives in the dorm and, as an underclassman, is hazed by the older members. But he's a good guy, so the universe grants him a wish. A beautiful girl "angel" (they call her a "goddess" but she's much closer to what we would think of as an angel) comes down to grant it, but he thinks it's a joke so he wishes that she was his girlfriend. So, he gets his wish... sort of. She moves down to earth with him and then begins the long process of them living together in platonic bliss as he starts courting her. It's very sweet... until her sisters move in to make sure there's no hanky panky going on.

One of the few action series I like is Cowboy Bebop, which is about bounty hunters in the future. The series is named after the spaceship they roam around the solar system in while trying to make a living catching bad guys. It's a popular series with some of the best jazz music I've ever heard on a TV show. It's also the only anime that my wife ever watched without me. Years ago I rented the theatrical movie based on the series and my wife went to bed about two-thirds through the movie. The next day she actually put it back on to find out how it ended.

My wife said she liked it because, if it had been live action, it would have been a decent action movie. I totally agree with her. Cowboy Bebop would make a great series of movies because it has memorable characters and it's more-or-less grounded in reality. The characters have realistic abilities (if they run a long way they get winded, if they jump down from a high distance they might get hurt) and if they are injured in one episode they might still be healing those injuries in the next.

Eden of the East reminds me of Cowboy Bebop in that way: It's more or less realistic -- at least so far. This series (there are 11 episodes on Netflix and two movies, which are not -- I'll have to track them down elsewhere) seems to be set in the present day, or perhaps just a few years in the future (less than 10). There are no flying cars or space travel here. People move around by motorcycle and airplane.

Here's a description of the series from Wikipedia:

On Monday, November 22, 2010, ten missiles strike against uninhabited areas of Japan, claiming no victims. This apparent terrorist act is referred to as "Careless Monday" and disregarded by most people. The series begins three months later, on Sunday, February 13, 2011, when a young Japanese woman named Saki Morimi visits Washington D.C. as part of her graduation trip. When she gets into trouble, a mysterious Japanese man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, helps her through it. The man appears to have no memory and is completely naked, carrying only a gun and a cell phone charged with 8.2 billion in digital money. While they are coming back to Japan, they learn that a new missile has hit their country.

Akira discovers that his phone is part of a game created by a "Mr. Outside," and that he himself is one of the participants. The game consists of twelve individuals, dubbed Seleção (Portuguese: "Selection"), who are given 10 billion to "save" Japan in some way. The Seleção are able to use the phone operator, Juiz (Portuguese: "Judge"), to fulfill any kind of order for a price. However, if the money is used up completely or for selfish purposes, the individual will be eliminated by the Supporter, the anonymous "twelfth man" of the group...

The series' first episode definitely caught my attention. Takizawa is an amusing character, yet obviously deadly. He finds he has multiple passports and some ability at fighting -- just as I was thinking, "Oh, this is like The Bourne Trilogy," he actually asked something to the effect of, "Am I Jason Bourne?" He isn't like Jason Bourne. Although he has a mysterious past (is he responsible for getting rid of thousands of people?) and why did he buy a shopping mall, close it down and move in? And what's with all the weird activities being enacted by the other members of this game? And then, of course, what is his relationship with Saki? Does he keep pulling her back into his life for romantic reasons, or is there something else?

A lot of this intrigue is hinted at in the opening sequence (here' it is from YouTube, but sorry I couldn't find a version with subtitles to the lyrics).

Right now I'm just about halfway through the series and will probably finish it this week (I only watch 2-3 episodes at a time). I have to give a little bit of a warning: The series starts off relatively light (if you consider a missile attack on Tokyo "light"), but around episode 5 things get darker as we learn that some of the other game players are not very nice people. There is no nudity or excessive violence (some, but it's not excessive -- it's in line with what you'd see on a gritty American TV show), but there is some implied sexual imagery and -- I don't want to give anything away, but there are some pretty intense moments when one of the character is abducted and threatened with  severe bodily harm.

If you like anime, you will almost certainly like this series. If you have an open mind  about anime but are turned off by excessive violence, magic/sci-fi, then this series is definitely worth checking out. If it were a live-action series, I think people would be talking about it. If you don't like anime, I think you should go back and start watching Ah! My Goddess! (sorry, it's spelled both Oh! and Ah!, depending on which edition you're watching).

As for me, I know what I'll be watching this weekend -- I'll be finishing Eden of the East.

See ya Monday for some more thoughts about Comic Collector by Collectorz.com

Netflix Friday: Miranda & Mad About Men

As I said last week, Netflix Streaming is not your best bet when you're looking for a specific movie. Last night, for example, I decided to look for some of the weird I had watched during my college years (I think I was curious to see if they made any more sense now than they did then). Alas, none of these were to be had:

• Liquid Sky - 1982
• Electra Glide in Blue - 1973
• Zabrisky Point - 1970

On the other hand, they did have the original Andromeda Strain (1971), but not its 2008 remake -- which I might have been interested in watching just to contrast to the original. Amusingly, the listing for the 1971 version features updated artwork that looks very modern. I suppose it's to entice younger people into watching it.

Gathering vs. Hunting

I ran a version of Friday's review of Netflix Streaming over at a friend's blog: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff. One of the readers there commented that it was nice "if you weren't picky about what you watch." I have to take that to task: It's not like we're not picky (in fact, my wife and I are both very picky about what we watch). It's more like the experience you get when you go into a video store or a book store to browse the stacks and see what you can discover. This, by the way, is something I used to do for hours and now still do, but on a smaller scale (and now I'm such a coach potato that it's done from the comfort of my La-Z-Boy). 

One such treasure I pulled from the depths was an old movie that I had never seen before: Miranda. This is an adorable little comedy from 1948 that was based on a play. Here's the description from the Netflix Website:

After an alluring mermaid rescues a physician from drowning, she insists that he take her to London -- but soon begins pining for her watery home.

The film stars the wonderfully quirky Glynis Johns, an actress you'll instantly recognize from having been in numerous films -- and after a few seconds it will click that you know her as the mother, Winifred Banks, from the movie Mary Poppins. Speaking of that classic movie, look for David Tomlinson (the father from Mary Poppins) as the chauffeur who is smitten by her beauty and charm. I think this is the first time these two ever appeared together in a movie.

Glynis has that characteristic lilt to her voice that always reminds me of Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of of Oz. The physician referenced above is played by Griffith Jones, an actor who looks vaguely familiar but doesn't ring any bells. The wife (yes, he has a wife and he brings home a beautiful woman to stay with them!) is played by the wonderfully named Googie Withers. For me, however, the breakout character was Margaret Rutherford, who is easily recognizable as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple from a series of films in the 1960s. She was an absolute treat in this movie and pretty much stole every scene she was in.

Diving into the Movie

I don't want to go into the whole plot because, honestly, it's rather thin: A doctor goes on a fishing trip, falls almost drowns, is rescued by a mermaid and she gets him to take her home with him so she can alleviate her loneliness as his house guest for a month or so. The problem is, they have to hide the fact that she's a mermaid (so they put her in a wheelchair like Superman's college girlfriend, Lori Lemaris, and yes, he dated a mermaid -- I suppose when you're an alien you swim in a different dating pool).

I do want to say that the character of the wife (that wonderful Googie)  is surprising in a wonderful way. At first she seems to be a one-dimensional angry wife, but then she changes and acts more realistically like a woman who's been married for a long time and does trust her husband. She adopts an attitude of bemusement, one that I think most older married men have seen in their own wives when they are caught looking at a pretty woman in a movie or on TV. And yes, I mean an older wife who is secure in the knowledge that her husband loves her and isn't going to cheat -- he's just a man and he can't help looking. Younger wives, for the most part, tend to get jealous, but an older wife just gets that "Yeah, like Angeliina Jolee would ever have anything to do with you," look.

But I digress.

The movie plays well and was a nice diversion. Nothing great, but worth the investment of the 80-minute running time. You can watch a scene here on YouTube:

There's also a sequel: Mad About Men, that was released six years later in 1954. Whereas the first film was based on a play, this was an original screenplay. The plot is, again, a bit thin, but it serves its purpose and gets Miranda back on land and suitable love antics ensue. This time from IMDB:

Flirtatious mermaid Miranda swaps places with a schoolteacher who has gone on holiday. All is well until she falls in love with a human.

The schoolteacher, by the way, is also played by Glynis Johns. It's sort of a Patty Duke/Parent Trap thing going on with her playing two parts via split screen. I think the thing I love best about this sequel is the return of Margaret Rutherford who returns as the nurse who knows Miranda's secret -- and loves it. I also love that they didn't waste time with any sort of pretense about how they got Margaret back into the movie: there was no plotting or scheming, they just called her up and she happily joined in the fun.

By the way, that is one of the things I loved about the sequel to Sister Act. Rather than find some lame scheme to get Whoopie Goldberg back in the habit, they just dove in and had the mother superior ask her for help. Perhaps not the most realistic thing (I find it hard to believe that they would have her disguise herself as a nun, rather than just bring her in as a secular adviser, but what the heck, it got the movie moving and that was a relief.

You can see a clip here (in fact, I think the whole movie might be available on YouTube). As I said, these are not great movies, but they are solid, good entertainment. At only 85 minutes, this pleasant B-movie is a worthy sequel and my wife and I enjoyed both of these movies. I recommend them.

See you Monday for the review of the software that I finally selected to start cataloging my comic book collection.

Netflix Friday: National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze

Way back in the halcyon days of the mid 1980s, National Lampoon magazine was one of the funniest, most irreverent things on the news stand (okay, we've had this discussion before -- on the magazine rack at 7-Eleven). These days, its name lives on only to market cheap comedies filled with sex and drug references.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. After a long week, sometimes that's exactly the sort of thing I'm in the mood for. The other day I saw a trailer for the upcoming American Pie Reunion movie, which put me in the mood to find something of similar ilk. Friday night after my wife went to bed, I browsed Netflix and found something that -- for no discernible reason I could fathom at the time -- I selected National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze.

I went in with low expectations, hoping for a few funny gags and some non-gratuitous T&A (that's right, I wanted T&A that was essential to the plot, not just extraneous -- you know, like you find in your better slumber party pillow fight scenes). Well, there were no pillow fights in this movie, but I was wonderfully surprised by a rather enjoyable farce that moved at a pleasantly brisk pace. Of course, you would never know this from the official description from the Netflix site, or even from the movie's trailer (both included below).

-- Description from Netflix Web siteAs Christmas break approaches, coed college students run amok in their dorms in this comedy of misadventures. It's a case of mistaken identity when two girls who are both named Dominique visit campus: One is a hooker hired to deflower a male virgin, while the other is a foreign exchange student who speaks only French. Other higher-learning high jinks involve a couple of gossipy girls, a geek, a gangster and a missing purse full of cash.

Ignore the official info and read on as to why you should watch Dorm Daze.

Dorm Daze is a classic drawing room/manor house play set in a modern dormitory. The classic roles of servants, cooks, maids, valets, master, mistress, rich sons/daughters have all been replaced with about 11 college students and a few other characters (like the aforementioned hooker named Dominique). Honestly, with very little work this screenplay could be rewritten and would do quite well as a Masterpiece Theater production with the BBC.

Here's some twisted highlights (and no, I don't think I can make it much clearer because it's one of those types of movies); One of the girls is about to lose her scholarship when she receives a package containing a plaid purse with $30,000 and a note. She calls a phone number on the note and meets a guy who thinks she's some sort of hit woman or criminal; she's not sure which, but she plays along and cooks up a scheme to get the money so she can stay in school. Meanwhile, Styles hires a prostitute for his younger brother's Christmas present (now that's brotherly love), but the brother doesn't want it because he's in love with his girlfriend. Then we've got the hooker and the foreign exchange student, both named Dominique, who naturally get mistaken for each other; so Styles is trying to get the French girl to do his brother, whereas the hooker is getting upset about not getting paid. Then there's a visiting guy named Cliff who doesn't want to talk to anyone, so he pretends he can't speak English (which means that other people talk freely in front him, wherein he learns about the money and figures out who the hooker is). Then there are the romantic entanglements: Geeky Newmar likes Adrienne (she got drunk and made out with him last night), but she has feelings for local hottie Foosball, who is actually gay. Things go wild from there, with four notes (love poem, instructions to the criminals, love letter and a phone number) all get mixed up with predictable results. We even have trouble between long-term girlfriend/boyfriend Claire and Tony with a subplot where he accidentally keeps banging into her, so the local drama/gossip queens Marla and Lynne are convinced that Tony is beating Claire, and cheating with Adrienne. Honest-to-gosh, they do the old bit where Adrienne and Tony are rehearsing for a play and are overheard through a door, after which many misunderstandings ensue. Until, of course, true love finds its way at the end and all is right with the world... or is it?

In the "Hey, I know that actress file": Marla is played by Danielle Fishel who played Topanga in Boy Meets World, and Claire is played by Tatyana Ali who played Ashley in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

By this time, though the pace has picked up so much that if you're still watching, you're going to just dive in and enjoy the ride. This is not a serious movie, but it's actually better written and better acted than you would suspect from the official descriptions and from my babbling on about it here. If you want something a little more cogent than my fanboy ramblings, check out this fairly detailed plot summary from IMDB.

The IMDB summary calls this a "collegiate comedy of Shakespearean proportions." I find that really apt since, as I said above, this really felt like an old-fashioned play. While watching it, with all the door slammings and note swappings, I couldn't help but think of the classic play (and movie), Noises Off! You could almost swap out the play-within-a-play -- Nothing On! -- with a reworked Dorm Daze, and you would still have a hit on your hands.

If you like classic comedies built on mistaken identity, misunderstandings, slamming doors, running down hallways, misplaced notes, and duplicate bags of money, then this is definitely a movie you should watch. Fair warning: it does have an R-Rating, so there are a few curse words here and there (nothing much, though), and a little bit of completely necessary nudity (okay, it wasn't necessary but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it). All in all, the naughty bits are pretty mild and were not included for shock value.

Out of five stars, I give this movie ****
Summary: "If you give this movie 15 minutes, you'll get sucked into a modern update on a classic drawing room/manor house comedy."

Netflix Friday: The Last Lovecraft, Relic of Cthulhu

I caught a cool movie on Netflix the other night while I was browsing around in the various genre categories. I was in the mood to chill out and wanted to see something that I had not seen before. I definitely found it in The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu.

Here's the plot from :IMDB: Jeff is an ordinary guy that is stuck at a dead end job with a boring life, but when a strange old man gives him an Ancient relic and tells him that he is the last bloodline of H.P. Lovecraft, He and his friend Charlie embark on an adventure to protect the relic piece from falling into the hands of the Starspawn and his minions that wish to reunite the relic and release Cthulhu back into the world.  Or, to put it another way (in my own words), an ancient cult is trying to resurrect Cthulhu and a secret society is trying to stop them. It turns out that H.P. Lovecraft was an adventurer who discovered the truth about these evil creatures and he wrote his stories to get the info out there, but disguised it as fiction so only select people would be aware of it. Lovecraft, by the way, was immune to Cthulhu's psychic powers, and that immunity has been passed down through his bloodline. The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu is available as a streaming download via Netflix, or you can buy it from amazon.com.

This is a very low-budget movie with a few really good things going for it. First and foremost, it's got Cthulhu. I mean, who doesn't love seeing the one of the Great Old Ones in a movie every now and then (and please, if you play Call of Cthulhu and want to correct me on some minor point about how he's technically part of the Great Old Ones, then you are possibly too geeky even for me to hang out with). Secondly, the title sequence is actually top-notch. It uses comic book style art and really does a great job of capturing the feel of the material, while looking pretty darn cool while doing it.

Okay, the acting isn't the best on the planet, and some of the make up is a bit... well, "Sci-Fi Channel" if you know what I mean. Oh, wait. I'm sorry... I meant "SyFy" (I still think that sounds more like a disease than a cable channel, but what the heck. They can mention my anger about that and the demotion of Pluto from planetary status on my tombstone.). Yup, the effects are a bit weak and the make up is a bit cheesy, but that really doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the film. In fact, a beer in hand on a Friday night will often find me seeking out the cheesiest movie I can find... and this definitely fits the bill.

I think, for me, one of the funniest things about this movie  is the absurdity of the plot, and how it would look if Gamers really had to save the world. In short, this is not about butch guys with mondo combat skills trying to save the day, it's basically about a guy who works in a crummy office and his jerk of a roommate finding out that Cthulhu and all that crazy stuff is real, so they hunt down the biggest geek they knew in high school so he can tell them how to defeat The Great Old Ones. With the bad guys on their trail, they wind up on a really bad road trip into the desert to find the only one who ever fought Cthulhu and lived... Captain Olaf. The good Cap'n lives in the desert, you see, because he wanted to get as far away from the Deep Ones and Cthulhu as possible.

This movie is definitely a gamer's delight because of the comic book references (flashback stories are told as animated comic book sequences), ridiculous geeky behavior (a guy wears a Cthulhu mask and he actually has a "Mastercraft Quality copy of the relic mentioned in the title of the movie). And combat skills? Forget it. These guys are in the physical condition of many standard gamers: too skinny or too fat. When geeky Paul runs from the cultists to draw them away from Charlie and Jeff (the latter being the titular "Last Lovecraft"), he actually calls for a time-out as he doubles over gasping for breath from his 100-yard dash. A bit cruel to gamer/fanboys? Possibly... but all too true.

Enjoy the OFFICIAL TRAILER here.

Out of five stars I it give ***1/2
SUMMARY: If you enjoy humorous sci-fi with a hint of horror (there is some gore and rough language, so don't show this to the kiddies until after you've watched it through yourself). If you don't come in expecting a brooding, dark movie, you will probably enjoy this. It's a fanboy fiesta of phantasmagorical proportions for those who like fun, frivolity, and aren't afraid that Cthulhu will devour their sanity.

Comics Talk is continued on Mon. & Wed. >>
Check in Friday for my Media Review or one of my Rants.

Movies: Left behind by the 3D movie craze...

I'm not normally this crabby, so please bear with me and I ask forgiveness in advance, but...

If you don't regularly go to movie theaters, please don't comment. I really don't give a *bleep* that you haven't been to a theater in x number of years because [insert incident] *bleep*ed you off back when [insert US President] was in office and [insert dinosaur name] ruled the earth. To be honest, I just don't care right now. So, you don't like movie theaters. Then don't go.

Now, don't go thinking that I don't have sympathy for you. I hate going to "normal" movie theaters, too. There are almost too damn many kids running around unsupervised or filled with idiots who mess with their cell phones or talk too loud. And I don't care for their high-fat popcorn, either.

However, I do enjoy going to a nice "movie pub" theater (Movie Tavern, Alamo Draft House and Studio Movie Grill). The big screen, good food, maybe a beer if I'm in the mood for one. I was planning to go today. My work load was light, I've got the time, the money, and THOR opened today. I've really been looking forward to this movie. All in all, a perfect situation to have a nice trip to the movies and kick off the weekend...

Except that, each and every movie pub within 30 miles (and there are SIX of 'em ) are only showing THOR in 3D.

There's just one problem: I can't see 3D.

My left eye has been legally blind since I was 5 years old.

I can see some light and color and it registers movement (so it does help with peripheral vision), but I cannot see 3D the way you do. I can't use a View Master, a Stereopticon, or any sort of 3D movie. I tried on the glasses once (over my real glasses) and looked at a screen. All I saw was a fuzzy picture through my double-stacked glasses.

So, what are my options? Go to a theater I don't like? Wait until it comes out on DVD? Ignore the movie forever? I did send an email to Movie Tavern about this (no reply, yet)... in the meantime, I sit here, working on a Friday night, listening to and old "Counting Crows" CD.  Yes... a CD (although I like MP3s, sometimes I still rock it "old school").

So here I sit... not watching a movie I was really looking forward to seeing. And now I'm also dreading the release of other movies that I had been anticipating: Captain America, Green Lantern, and the final Harry Potter movie. Will I be able to go to them? Or, as everyone embraces this new wave of technology, do I just sit here and let it pass me by?

Comics: Willie & Joe

I was at Half Price Books today and was looking through the comics section and I saw this cool, brand-new, slip-cased two-volume set: Willie & Joe: The WWII Years by legendary comic artist Bill Mauldin.
It is a very attractive set: Hardcover, cloth bound in khaki-green, and quite sharp looking. I instantly started drooling over it (thank heavens I was alone at the moment). It was really impressive and -- I must admit -- expensive looking. Furthermore, it was the only copy on hand and it was still in its shrink wrap. Alas, I was certain it was out of my price range, yet nevertheless I picked it up and got a wonderful surprise. It was only $19.95! Less than 20 bucks. That couldn't be right. I quickly looked for the regular price and, sure enough, it was listed at $65. That definitely seemed like a fair price for such a slick looking product. Ah, but I was in Half Price Books, and it's not uncommon to find an amazing deal tucked amidst their dusty shelves.

So, needless to say, I grabbed it. And, to sweeten the deal, I got another 10% off with my faculty ID! (I mentioned that discount to a friend the other day and his eyes opened wide: "You mean you get a discount if you're a teacher?" I assured him that was true, and that it even works when they are having other sales and promotions.) So, all in all, I walked out with the books for about $18 and a smile on my face.
The sweet deal is not the reason I'm excited. This is a great book. It's almost 700 pages of great comics, many of which have never been reprinted before. And they are FUNNY. I've laughed out loud a dozen times since I opened it. Bill Mauldin really knew his stuff, and this is a worthy treasury of his work.


My two favorite strips:

Page 79
Willie tells Joe: "Joe, yestiddy you saved my life and I swore I'd pay you back. Here's me last pair o' dry socks."

Page 154
Joe is talking to a corpsman: "Just gimme a coupla asprin. I already got a Purple Heart."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put on some Andrews Sisters and big band music and finish reading about Willie and Joe.

Movies: Sayonara Jupiter -- Japanese Sci-Fi DVD review

Sayonara Jupiter
Actor/Actress: Tomokazu Miura , Akihiko Hirata
Director: Koji Hashimoto , Sakyo Komatsu

Year: 1983 / 1984

Runtime: 129

Rating: Not Rated (but it has nudity, sex and medium violence)

Language: Original: Japanese; Dubbed: English; Subtitled: English

Color: Yes

Sayonara Jupiter is a wonderful example of the type of work that Japanese film giant TOHO Studios was attempting to do in the 1980s: Grown up, mature, and well made. At least for its time, that is. When this movie came out in the early 1980s, the first two Star Wars movies were out and they had forever raised the bar for special effects. TOHO did their darndest to meet the challenge, and by the standards of that time, they mostly succeeded.

Unfortunately, the effects and costumes do look very dated right now, and there are some long, verrrrrry slow shows of space ships docking. Things that we would speed up now, but back then looked kind of cool and had a "2001: A Space Odyssey" vibe. Nowadays we routinely see cooler stuff on TV shows like Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek, so we tend not to linger over simple scenes like docking a shuttle to a space station.

The plot is really simple, but fairly well executed:

It's the 22nd Century and we've colonized the solar system. In order to provide more solar energy to the outer systems, they're going to turn Jupiter into a small sun. However, right before they do this, a terraforming project on Mars reveals something astonishing. While melting the polar ice caps on Mars, the water washes away a lot of dirt and debris and reveals huge carvings on the Martian surface -- that look exactly like the carvings at Nazca! These carvings indicate that aliens may have left something on Jupiter.

The movie takes off from there: Earth puts the Jupiter solarization project on hold while they investigate what seems to be an alien artifact hiding in the storm-tossed clouds of our system's largest planet. Some space hippies show up to protest and cause some damage (they don't think anyone should ever leave the earth, and if I lived with them in their little island paradise playing beach blanket bimbo, I'd be happy on earth, too). And did I mention that the leader of the solarization project used to date one of the hippie terrorists? Oh, and there's something about a black hole racing toward our sun and they need to blow up Jupiter at just the right moment to deflect it...

You know, the usual plot stuff you need to put between the special effects shots and the space nookie.

That's right, there are a few things you need to know before you watch this with the kids. There is nudity and a sex scene ("Sex in spaaaaace!"). There is also violence: as people are shot by lasers, blown up by space hippies, and meanwhile, on earth, a dolphin dies in a shark attack. Most disturbing of all, though, if you do let your kids watch this, you might just have to pause the movie for hours while you try to explain why our hair looked like that back in the 1980s.

This is a good Japanese sci-fi film, and I would recommend it for fans of the genre. There are plenty of space ships, laser blasts, and fun to keep things moving, but this actually is a fairly serious film and it does give you some things to think about.

Also, I would suggest you watch this in the original Japanese soundtrack with English subtitles. This is not because I'm some fanatic purist who hates dubbed movies (AIP did some great work on the Godzilla movies in the 1960s and 1970s). No, my reason for preferring the original soundtrack is because the movie is only half in Japanese. Many of the characters speak English (US and UK varieties), as well as German, French, and a smattering of other languages. There are several scenes where one character is speaking Japanese and the other responds in English. In the future, it seems that everyone is multilingual and this sort of babel is common. So, unless you totally hate subtitles, give the Japanese track a fair chance.

So, it's a good movie, I recommend it to fans of TOHO Sci-Fi. And good luck getting that song, "Sayonara Jupiter" out of your head!