Film reviewed:
   ------------------
   Scoopers



           **************    Spoilers Follow   ***************

   Rating System: 4 O's -- (4 Otaku) Kill your friends as you try to buy a
                           copy of this film.
                  3 O's -- Merely wound your friends as you rush to rent
                           this.
                  2 O's -- Walk, don't run.  Not worth spending your own
                           money on this.
                  1 O   -- Not worth spending your friend's money on
                           this.  Avoid if at all possible.
                  0 O's -- Give this to your worst enemy's ex-spouse, in
                           that enemy's name.  Under no circumstances
                           should you expose this film to any part of your
                           own personal self.



   Scoopers (3.5 Otaku)

   _Scoopers_ is a 58 minute 1987 video release directed by Jun Hirabayashi
and Hideo Watanabe, story and character design by Monkey Punch, and
music by Yasuo Kosugi.  Recorded in Dolby stereo.  The designs are great,
the background art and music are both very good, and the story is typically
"off-the-wall Lupin style."  Unfortunately, the character animation isn't
as smooth as it could be, and there are some camera tricks that are very
jarring as the director tries to cover up the use of fewer frames during
some driving and running sequences.  The story breaks down near the end,
and leaves the way open for a sequel.

   Peter is a photographer for his female reporter companion, Yoko.  He is
also an attack android programmed to protect his partner while they mix
with dangerous people in their attempts to get a scoop.  Mr. X is the
murderous mastermind behind a wake of killings designed to cancel the
trail linking X to the explosion of the space shuttle during it's
launch, and to his amusement park: "Techno-World."  There's LOTS of blood,
and some very good dialog exchanges between the lecherous android and his
shapely partner.  Sprinkle in a liberal amount of weird villians and heros,
and you get what you'd expect from a Monkey Punch story.
   Further on in the film, you also get a combination of Westworld, Bubble
Gum Crisis Bumas, and Tron -- there's a melding of cel-on-paint, with simple
3-D graphics for the battle that takes place within Mister X's monster
computer.  The combination isn't all that tight, but it does provide an
interesting effect

   Definitely recommended.