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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 20 July 2005 12:21 |
 Back to Cowboy Bebop, where the gang have to
deal with space pirates, mad clowns, teenage fung shui experts and
wannabe cowboy bounty hunters - and Spike, as usual, seems to manage to
find death waiting for him at every turn. If I was him, I'd be
looking for a quieter way of life. For the rest of us, though,
some decent viewing awaits...
19 - Wild Horses
While Jet & Faye lay in wait for pirates to
take the bait they've set for them (namely, Faye), Spike's headed down
to Earth to have a few repairs and modifications made to his ship. The
work's being done by an old friend of Spike's, Doohan, whose 'hobby' is
to bring an old Space Shuttle back to space-worthy state. Later,
another crack at the pirates leaves Spike's ship disabled by a computer
virus, and the only thing that may possibly save him in time is
Doohan's old Shuttle...
Editor's Note: There's an interesting bit of
'life imitating art' here - Doohan's shuttle is the Columbia, which has
some problems with its heat-resistant tiles on re-entry. While Doohan
& co managed to get back to Earth in one piece, the real Colombia
and its crew weren't so lucky when they suffered the same problem, a
few years after this was made...
20 - Pierrot Le Fou
On his
way back from a bad night's pool, Spike is witness to a gruesome
killing - which isn't half a strange as the killer: a fat, clown-like
figure with the ability to fly and deflect bullets. When the clown
realises he's been spotted, he takes the 'leave no witnesses' approach,
and it's only by pure luck that Spike escapes with his life. A little
bit of digging by Jet reveals a name - Mad Pierrot - and the news that
he's been responsible for a string of recent killings. He appears to
be the perfect killing machine, and no-one who's see him has remained
alive for long - meaning Spike's in trouble. While Spike responds to
an 'invitation' from Mad Pierrot, Jet & Ed do some digging through
ISSP's restricted files to find Mad Pierrot's true origins - as a
genetic manipulation experiment gone wrong...
21 - Boogie-Woogie Feng Shui
When
Jet receives an unexpected mail from an old friend, Pao, he follows it
up - but the only place it leads him is to a grave on Mars, and to the
now deceased Pao's young daughter Meifa. The message was sent just
before Pao was killed, in an unfortunate traffic accident, and now his
daughter needs his help. For no good reason, Jet finds himself
agreeing to Meifa's request. Pao's last message was heavy on the Feng
Shui mysticysm, but Meifa believes she can unravel what it meant.
Seems they're not the only one looking for something of Pao's, though
- the syndicates are also snooping around, and it seems that Pao may
still be alive...
22 - Cowboy Funk
Spike's on the trail of
the Teddy Bomber - a serial bomber who's been creating no end of
problems. Unfortunately for Spike, just when he catches up with his
prey, he's interrupted by the Solar System's most inept bounty hunter:
Andy, a dimwitted blonde on horseback who has delusions of being Wyatt
Earp, and who's under the impression that Spike is the Teddy Bomber.
With the Teddy Bomber having made his escpae (and blown up another
building) in the mayhem surrounding Andy's arrival, it's back to square
one for Spike and his search for bounty, and every time Spike and the
Bebop crew manage to track down their target, Andy spoils the show.
Will Andy ever remember that Spike's not the Teddy Bomber? Will
Spike ever catch his target without being interrupted? And will the
Teddy Bomber ever be able to finish his "I'm sending a warning" speech?
Comedy gold in the form of Cowboy Funk, some great action (and the most
demeaning end to a bad-guy ever) from Pierrot le Fou, and a scary
amount of prescentience from the writers with their Columbia scenes and
tower-demolishing terror attacks. Remember that these episodes
were made before the Columbia an 9/11 events. I can see some
people taking offence at those scenes, but IMO people can be way too
touchy these days. Take the show as it's meant to be -
entertainment.
Which is something that at least two of the four episodes on this disc
provide in large doses - Cowboy Funk and Pierrot le Fou are two of the
best episodes in the series, albeit in very different ways (action -vs-
comedy). The other two episodes are so-so - enjoyable enough, but
nothing special. Put them together and you get a disc that rates
as 'not bad'.
Only one more volume of Bebop to go, which promises to be a good one - the return of Vicious awaits...
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