Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
EMAILPRINTSamuel Goldwyn Films

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Marc Handler
Keiko Nobumoto
Hajime Yatate (story)
Directed by: ShinichirĂ´ Watanabe
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 4, 2003
DVD: June 24, 2003
Running Time: 114 minutes, Color
Origin: Japan / USA
Summary
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.
Also On Metacritic
GAMES: Cowboy Bebop (PS2)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
It certainly fulfills all the conventions of the genre: sci-fi premise, noir stylings, martial arts, snarky dialogue.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The atmospherics are wonderfully dark and film-noirish, if overly violent.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
There's much visual inventiveness and a good sense of fun here. But I was expecting something more spectacular.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
Though it isn't the entirely original creation "Metropolis" was, Bebop is more satisfying.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.)
