Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door Studio: Bandai Visual/Sunrise Format: Movie Released: 9/1/2001 Written by: Face The original Cowboy Bebop T.V. series had a seductive style and a swaggering attitude that seemed to ooze out of every crack and cranny. A cool, almost celestial nonchalance teamed up with profoundly stunning animation, and newage trend-setting music to create 26 charming episodes starring a misfit quartet of antiheroes. Many of those episodes didn't end with discernible resolutions, but they never ended without an innovative touch of stylish splendor. Sadly, once the cool opening credits pass, it is obvious Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door lacks the irresistable charm which was rife throughout the series. The movie takes place before the end of the T.V. show (around episode 22). The whole crew is back in action, and even newcomers will be able to grasp the movie's sidetracking plot line. Spike and Jet are scoring a small load of woolongs at a local convenience store as the movie opens, and Faye is on the tail of a pubescent hacker. After leaving the racetrack, Faye immediately responds to a lead given to her by Ed. As she chases the suspected criminal, the truck he was driving explodes, spreading a chemical weapon throughout the city. Martian officials immediately place a 300,000,000 woolong price on the perpetrator's head, and naturally, the Bebop cadre can't help but try their hand at the case. As each member begins their own investigation, they realize the comlexity of the situation, and the possible implications if the disturbed mastermind (Vincent) isn't stopped. While Vincent definitely fits right in with the swank Bebop attitude, his tumultuous monograph painfully jostles about for much of the two-hour long film. Inordinate amounts of time is spent vigilantly tracking down Vincent's past secrets, and much of it fails to connect with any forethought. This foolishly wasted time could have been spent giving Jet and Ed a little bit more of an on-screen presence, instead of having them mindlessly meander about. In the end, it truly doesn't matter who gets the most screentime; all four of them have their coolness progressively disembowled as they stodgily muddle around a ho-hum plot premise better suited for an American buddy-cop movie-crapfest -- what a shame. There are also quite a few rip-roaring combact encounters such as a fabulously choreographed aerial skirmish, but they are nothing more than complimentary eye-candies, and utterly inconsequential action sequences wasted in spendthrift. However, Bebop's offbeat vehemence is noticeable in the finer edges of extraneous finesse, especially in Yoko Kanno's stellar rockin'-country soundtrack, and equally in the characters' jazzy hautiness. There is something fundamentally irresistable about watching Spike foolishly jeopardize his own life. Nevertheless, underneath its stylish facade there is a fruitless attempt at depth left awkwardly vacant. As a Cowboy Bebop fan, I can only feel disappointment from this lackluster movie adpation. At nearly two-hours, it feels like an overlong and unspectacular letdown. Perhaps, Jet was right when he suggested the crew had gotten themselves in over their head with a case that is simply too outspread to deal with... * * 1/2 (Fair) A.K.A: Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Posted: February 24, 2004