Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 1999. That movie is "You're Under Arrest: The Movie". Or "The Motion Picture", because even though that's what it says on the DVD cover, most sites I've read refer to this thing as "You're Under Arrest: The Movie". I have no idea if that's the actual title or not, but I'll stick with it and see if they're right on that.
So...this movie's been put on the back burner for quite a long time for various different reasons. For starters, trying to find a decent image for the cover of this movie for the R&R title card was a pain in the ass, because a lot of the images that I could find were all blurry as shit. Secondly, other movies that I had found, either online or at my local video stores, were considered more of a priority over this thing, so I kept pushing it back. And lastly, this movie is based off a series that I have never seen. So I wasn't really sure if it would be a good idea to cover something without having seen a bit of the series first. And for a while, I was contemplating on just watching this movie on my own time...at least, until I WAS able to work in a cover image for the title card that wasn't fucking blurry as hell, and I decided to cover it for this month, because I was tired of pushing this movie back from the schedule.
So, you might be wondering, with all that has happened with me pushing this movie back, why did I want to cover this movie? Well, honestly, it really has to do with the premise. The premise to this movie is that a bunch of traffic cops, while on traffic duty, have found a secret document that contains very detailed plans from terrorists that want to blow up all of Tokyo. And I was sold on it just based off the premise alone. Now, as I stated earlier, I had no idea that this movie was based off a series with the "You're Under Arrest" title. So when I finally decided to look up the scant bit of research about the series, I found out that the series originally ran for about 12 years. All the way from 1996 to 2008. And seeing as how this movie came out in 1999, I'm probably gonna be missing out on some details, seeing as how it was released during the show's early years.
Now, I'm hoping that those details are very minor, because I really want to see if this movie is able to stand out on it's own. And if I end up liking it, I may have to look up some episodes of the TV show online somewhere and give them a watch. I'm not sure if this movie is gonna be a good ambassador to the series, but I'm still hoping for it to be pretty good. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "You're Under Arrest: The Movie".
7 minutes later
Well, guys, I think can safely say that whoever they got to voice this female cop with the glasses sounds like shit. I know you guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but every line of dialogue she has given out, so far, sounds overly sarcastic. And it's beginning to sound grating already. Mind you, the acting from everybody else sounds OK, but the voice that this female cop has sounds fucking terrible.
5 minutes later
I am willing to say this, guys. While the movie is a little bit dull right now, I can say that the music here is pretty good. Again, I know you guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this song that's playing here is actually pretty jammin! I'm really digging this song, guys.
20 minutes later
So, guys, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to ask this, but I'm going to anyway. Is anything interesting gonna happen in this movie? So far, the only things we've been established is that a police chief has been put in jail because he might aiding a former partner of his that he hasn't seen in 2 years. That's it. Everything else has been rather dull. I'm genuinely hoping that the movie's gonna get interesting at some point. But as of right now, I'm not sure if it's going to.
1 minute later
Well...I was asking for something interesting to happen, and blowing up a bridge was certainly the way to do it. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come for this movie.
4 minutes later
OK, I have a question about something. Considering that there are so many bridges in Tokyo, why doesn't the Bokuto police department enlist the Japanese military for assistance? I understand that there's not really a war going on, but considering the stakes that are going on right now, wouldn't it make sense to enlist them for help? That way, you would be able to speed up the process of defusing the bombs faster and not risk having all of the bridges in Tokyo blow up. But hey, perhaps that's just me.
3 minutes later
So...this entire bombing was just a false flag attack, just so the terrorists can use this "Bee Number One" program to assault the various police stations all across Tokyo. I gotta say...that's actually kinda brilliant. I really would've never thought about that. And that also throws out my question in regards to the Japanese military not getting involved. So, I guess that makes me look rather foolish.
10 minutes later
Wait, so all of these guns that the Bokuto police force are using have the ammunition of paint balls? OK...seems kinda stupid. But then again, considering the conditions that they're currently in, I guess they gotta make due with what they got. Still never thought I'd see paint balls being used against terrorists, though.
18 minutes later
O...K. I didn't think that it would be possible to lift a fucking tire with one arm and throw it at a precise point, where it breaks the glass at the front of a boat that the terrorists were driving. That was actually really cool! I'm kinda impressed by that.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "You're Under Arrest: The Movie". And yeah, that is the actual title thanks to the opening credits. Anyway, let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Hmm...how to go into this one? Well, I will say that the movie was...OK. It wasn't amazing, but it's certainly not awful either.
So, I guess I should probably get into this thing by talking about the writing. Writing here, on it's own standards, is decent. What I mean by that is that if you were to view this as a basic police thriller, then it's OK. I mean, it's certainly nowhere near as good as, say, any of the "Dirty Harry" movies, but it's still a rather entertaining movie on it's own. However, this is gonna tie into a big problem that I had with this movie. And when I say that it's a big problem, I mean it's only a problem if you're someone, such as myself, who has never seen the "You're Under Arrest" anime series. Because when it comes to this movie, there is no character depth to be had here. Being that this was the first movie, I'm going to assume, that ever came out under this title, you would think, maybe, that you'd get some depth from some of these characters. And outside of the Chief and Natsumi, nobody has any real depth to speak of. Everybody in this movie is just there for the sake of being there, and I wasn't given a reason to care about a lot of these characters. Now if I actually had watched some of the anime first before diving into this movie, then I probably would've gotten more character development from there. However, a movie that's tied into a series should be able to stand out it's own. If you want proof of this, then go watch "Transformers: The Movie". It was able to do just that, even as that series was still going on. You didn't really need to watch the series in order for you to get into the movie, because it was still able to stand out on it's own with it's strong writing. And while I will say that, again, the writing here is decent, it doesn't really do a good enough job to where it's able to stand out in order for you to not watch the series first. And that, to me, is a huge disappointment. Because since character development doesn't really exist in this movie, it kinda leaves a lot here to be desired. However, again, that's only a problem if you went into this movie without having seen the anime first. Some people who have seen the anime will probably get into this movie with no problems. However, for non-viewers of the anime, that's not gonna be the case. So, just to warn you ahead of time, you might want to watch some of the anime first before you dive into this thing. I feel that it would be much more beneficial if you did that.
Now, I'm not gonna let that hold me back from liking this movie. Because, as I just stated, on it's own standards, the movie is actually OK. As I stated earlier, it's about these traffic cops that are after a group of terrorists that are after a computer program called "Bee Number One". Well technically, they wanted to go after an advanced version of that program that's able to destroy the global economy. Which is a really cool plan, all things considered. And it is rather entertaining to see how exactly these traffic cops are going to stop all this and bring down the terrorists at the same time. Now, while I could still rag on this movie for it's almost non-existent character development, it is still going to keep you engaged, especially if you're someone who's into police movies or TV shows. I mean, as someone who's a fan of movies such as the "Dirty Harry" series, or on the TV side of things "Dragnet", I was able to stay engaged with what's going on throughout almost the entire movie. I would say that the weakest part of the writing for this movie is the first 30 minutes. Because the first 30 minutes have almost nothing going on. Outside of our cops stopping a weapons smuggling operation, nothing of interest really happens. And what's funny about all this is that the moment that I complained about that bit, the movie actually started to get interesting. And from there, I was totally engaged as to where all this was going. So, it's kind of a double-edge sword. If you're able to overlook the non-existent character depth, then what you have is essentially a popcorn flick. Where you can go into this movie and not really think too hard about the problems that this movie does have. I will also say that this movie mixes in humor with it's drama and action. And it does kinda work here. It does take itself seriously, but not to a point where it turns into an ultra serious movie. It does leave enough room for humor. And thankfully, it's mosty really balanced here. Again, I could rail on this movie's lack of character development, but as a standard police movie where it's just them trying to stop the criminals, it is rather entertaining, and I'm happy that this movie was able to accomplish that much.
So, writing here is decent, as long as you view it on it's own standards, rather than compare it with the anime series. But with that being said, let's delve into the acting. Now, I opted to watch the English dub. And the dub here is...OK. It's not completely awful, but it's not great either. There are two characters I want to bring up. One of them is Yoriko, the one who I referred to earlier that wears glasses. Her voice in this movie is just painful to listen to. Like I said earlier, she sounds overly sarcastic, at times, when she's delivering her lines, and it just didn't stop with her. Now I have no idea if that's she sounded like in the anime series, but if it is, then I hope it's slightly better handled there than in this movie. The other character I want to make mention of is this one police chief who, I swear, sounds like he has throat cancer. Every time he spoke his lines, I could barely understand what he was trying to say. I could see that the actor was trying to give him a roughly gruff voice, but it just sounded like the chief just had a bad case of throat cancer, and it just kinda sounded like shit to me. Beyond that, though, like I said, the dub here is OK, but it could've been better.
The animation here is really good, for the most part. There may have been a janky movement here and there, but since it's incredibly minor, I'm not really gonna consider it a flat-out negative. The art style here is great. The color pallets are used very well. It is a rather colorful movie to look at. And for 1999 standards, this is a really good-looking movie. It's not amazing, mind you, and there are certainly better-looking animated movies that came out during that time, but that's only if you were dumb enough to compare it to today's standards. However, for the standards of 1999, it looks really good for it's time.
Sound-mix is, actually, a bit of a problem. And it's really only a problem whenever any cop has talk to each other through a radio transmission. Because every time that this happens, the dialogue is almost inaudible to listen to. And I understand that, sometimes, it can be hard to listen to another person through a radio transmission. But I've seen enough cop shows and movies to where whenever they use this sort of technology, I'm still able to hear what they are clearly saying. This movie, however, doesn't really have that kind of luxury. And all I hear is just noise on the other end. But beyond that, though, the sound-mix is OK for everything else. The music and score here is really good. There really isn't a whole lot of music being played throughout the entire movie, but it actually does work to it's advantage. One scene I can think of that does this perfectly is when the terrorists invade the Bokuto police department. The scenes that play out during those bits are actually rather tense, and the fact that there is no music playing helps build the movie's atmosphere really well. And I really like it when a movie goes to that kind of detail. It may be a minor detail, but it's still something that I really appreciate, nonetheless. And the music that does play here is pretty good. So yeah, the score here is most certainly a positive.
So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "You're Under Arrest: The Movie"? I would personally say watch some of the anime series first before you delve into this movie. Because if you're someone who's looking for character development, then this movie is not going to do that for you. This movie is really just a standard police film, if you were viewing by it's own standards. As a movie that ties into the series, though, it really doesn't delve into who our characters are and why we should care about them. Maybe the series actually did more of that than this movie did, so that's why I'm recommending you watch the "You're Under Arrest" series first before going into this movie. However, if you're someone that's just looking for an entertaining police film, then this movie is certainly gonna provide that for you. However, like I said earlier, don't expect anything involving character development, because this movie really falters in that area. But still, I would say it is a decent movie on it's own standards. I may actually look into the series itself online somewhere and watch a few episodes here and there to see if it's any good. And considering that this movie was OK, I think it might actually be pretty good. But right now, I'm kinda in the mood to watch another police movie. I mentioned the "Dirty Harry" series earlier, so I'm gonna go and watch one of those movies. Probably "Magnum Force", since I already saw the first movie earlier this year, and I haven't gotten around to watching the second movie yet. So, I'm gonna go do that next after I'm done putting this review together.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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