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Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Samuel Goldwyn Films


8.3

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

GAMES:

Cowboy Bebop (PS2)

MPAA RATING: R for some violent images

Starring Beau Billingslea, Wendee Lee, Melissa Charles, Jennifer Hale, Nicholas Guest, David Lucas, Daran Norris, and Dave Wittenberg

Set on Mars in the year 2071, this film, based on the wildly popular Japanese Anime TV series "Cowboy Bebop," pits Spike and his gang of gypsy vigilantes against their deadliest adversary ever.

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Marc Handler Keiko Nobumoto Hajime Yatate (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Shinichirô Watanabe
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 24, 2003 Theatrical: April 4, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	114 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Japan / USA
LANGUAGE(S):	Japanese (dubbed in English)

Original Japanese title "Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku No Tobira," which translates as "Cowboy Bebop the Movie: Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There's something to be said for watching an animated movie not with the eyes of a child, but with those of a turned-on grownup.

Los Angeles Times Charles Solomon

Demonstrates how exciting and vital contemporary animated filmmaking is in Japan. The characters may not move with the fluidity of their American counterparts, but the story unfolds with a sinister grace that any live-action director might envy.

Empire Staff (Not credited)

Has something for everyone.

Chicago Tribune Patrick Z. McGavin

Magnetic, beautiful stuff.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Isn't exactly adult animation but it's more complex and ambiguous than the usual Hollywood live-action blockbuster, and just as splashy.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

It certainly fulfills all the conventions of the genre: sci-fi premise, noir stylings, martial arts, snarky dialogue.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The atmospherics are wonderfully dark and film-noirish, if overly violent.

LA Weekly David Chute

There are so many good ideas at the visual level that you can't help wishing the narrative elements had been more cleverly worked out.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

These visual techniques also serve to emphasize the Japanese anime fetishes for violence and female body parts -- you can always count on a gun or a breast to be in the foreground' but I'll take this opportunity to again stress that this is an adult cartoon.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Despite the spectacularly cool opening credits and some first-rate animation, the story starts to flag about halfway through.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

If you want state of the art anime that comes within spitting distance of escaping the limits of its genre, this might be your cup of bootleg sake.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

With all due respect to Japanese animation fans and pop-culture enthusiasts, life may be just too short to plunge into the busy world of Cowboy Bebop.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

There's much visual inventiveness and a good sense of fun here. But I was expecting something more spectacular.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Brisk, engaging story.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

When the action sequences work, they work well; the climax cribs heavily from 1989's "Batman," but improves on Tim Burton's finale.

Variety Robert Koehler

Though it isn't the entirely original creation "Metropolis" was, Bebop is more satisfying.

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Notable chiefly for its eye-catching urban backgrounds and an eclectic score that ranges from jazz and country to classical and choral.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

It's a stylish work, seeping with brilliant animation and potentially interesting characters that didn't need so much time to establish themselves. It's worthwhile, but it's a good thing there's a television show to refer to.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Overlong, overplotted and underdrawn.

Village Voice Janet Kim

Americanized through western showdowns, shadowy film noir, gangster shootings, sci-fi, Bruckheimer explosions, slapstick, and soaps, Bebop aims to transcend its own genre by emulating all genres, and it falls short only in the melodrama.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

When Bebop's anime characters stand still, chirping their strangely stilted, dubbed talk and not moving their strangely blank faces, I feel lost on Mars myself.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The ambition is laudable, but the execution is wanting, and the attempt itself may indicate that Watanabe and company have forgotten what made Cowboy Bebop so much fun.

Film Threat Eric Campos

Good news is that most of the marvelous English dialogue cast from the Cowboy Bebop series has returned for the film. The bad news is that the heart and soul of the series hasn’t.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

sassyGirl F. gave it a 10:
This movie is absolutely amazing, I have never seen the series of this anime but it rocks. Specially to the anatagonist (Vincent) because it speaks louder about me being confused to the reality. I am looking forward to watch another sequence of cowboy bepop.

Ryan H. gave it a 7:
This film was obviously an extended version of a show idea. Not quite as good as a lot of the series episodes but much better than most of the Hollywood crap movies you'll see out there today. Awesome score again by Yoko Kanno, she really knows how to blend together different musical styles. Definately better than the 56 rating it was given though...

[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
This movie RULED!

HiperiX gave it a 10:
This movie is an excellent part of the "Cowboy Bebop" saga. Match perfectly on the Bebop Story. The characters... unforgettables. The history and the music are quite impresionant. Just like the series.

Ace Gabriel P. gave it a 10:
This movie is really one of the best animated movies!!! Without the jazzy feeling from the series but with the country and rock. The plot is for mature audience though. Nice combination of characters makes this thriller a sure entertainer. It offers nice soundtracks and some cool jokes. Nice fight scenes makes this what we call COWBOY BEBOP.

Eric R. gave it a 10:
Screw subtitles....

Mike N. gave it a 5:
A good movie on its own right, but brought down by the shadow of the series (which was far better, IMO). Most of the series' charm and character development is missing -- and instead, we get extended action sequences. Not a good trade-off. (And watch it subtitled, not dubbed. The dubbed voices seem off, though this is a series-wide problem.)

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Samuel Goldwyn Films

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Samuel Goldwyn Films