Cromartie High - The Movie (2005)

Yudai Yamaguchi returns with another "weird high school" themed movie, this time with no baseball or zombies, but a gorilla, a robot and some aliens... who are also gorillas.  Tak Sakaguchi returns, but only for a cruelly brief cameo.

Apparently a popular manga which nobody thought could be brought to the screen because of its bizareness.  Well, Yudai Yamaguchi proves them wrong,  in that he has brought it to the screen.. though perhaps what people were really saying was it shouldn't be brought to the screen, in which case he really hasn't.

Although he clearly had more of a budget here than in BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL (which isn't saying much), he doesn't necessarily put it to good effect.  There are a few special effects that don't suck, and it feels less like it was shot by actual high school kids, but the film doesn't develop much of a story or any real sense of suspense, intrigue or emotion.  Although it's fairly random, it's not quite enough so to be considered a "sketch movie".  Not that it would be much better if it were, since it's only intermittently funny.  There are a couple of scenes which are great or nearly great, genuinely funny... but more that are just dull to be honest.

So, not recommended :)