Space Travelers (2000)

Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro

Writer: Yoshikazu Okada

Producer: Toru Horibe, Masatake Kondo, Yuji Usui

Cast: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Eri Fukatsu, Masanobu Ando, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Sawa Suzuki, Masahiro Komoto, Teruo Takeno

Running Time: 125 min.

Plot: See Review below.

Availability: This title is available at HKflix.com

EQUINOX21'S REVIEW: Sometimes you just gotta take a chance with a movie.  In the end, they’re either good or bad.  But thankfully, when only $2.95 for the DVD is on the line, the risk isn’t going to break the bank.  The good news is that Space Travelers was one of those movies that was well worth the money I paid for it (and then some).

Three friends, who were raised together in an orphanage, decide to go rob a bank in order to get enough money to travel to an island paradise they found on a postcard.  When things in the bank go wrong, they end up taking hostages.  They eventually convince the hostages to take on the personas of the anime Space Travelers, a group of outer space defenders of justice.  The rest is a terrific mixture of comedy and drama, with a smattering of action.

Space Travelers was a fun, light-hearted movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously (until the end).  Think Airheads, without the Lemmy Kilmister cameo.  One of the coolest aspects of the movie was the anime intro segment.  It introduced all the characters of the anime that the robbers and hostages would later “become”.  This was a very funny movie.  Most of the actors were very over the top (in a good way), with only Takeshi Kaneshiro really playing it as the straight man (as the leader of the Space Travelers).

It’s always fun finding little, over-looked gems like Space Travelers.  The reason I picked it up was because of Takeshi Kaneshiro, but he isn’t even the sole focus of this goofy little movie.  Pick it up if you can get your hands on it, you probably won’t be disappointed.

EQUINOX21'S RATING: 8/10