After all the plaudits laden on this film, and having seen the excellent Sonatine, I was expecting great things from this but was a little let down by it. It's another blend of pretty extreme violence with whimsical, sentimental moments in between, Takeshi is by turns rock hard and a nice bloke, there's some pretty imagery (though the paintings his friend creates, presumably done by Mr Rennaissance Takeshi, aren't all all that great), some crunching violence (pretty much everyone whose path crosses the Beat's ends up nastily dead), but it's just lacks the inspired brilliance of Sonatine. Or it could just be that my wife, sitting next to me loathing every minute, stopped me appreciating it fully. Interesting, but probably not brilliant.
Review of Fireworks
