Lorna, Lisa and Souichi are behind the wheel again, and this
time they're rockin' in the USA! This is supposedly a movie but it seems like
most of the budget went to the 3D department. The cars are a mix of cel shaded
3D and 2D art, with varying results, some scenes being very bad, while others
fitting in quite nicely. The character art misses the beauty and finesse you generally
expect from a (theatrical) movie. This is nothing like a Ghibli production,
Escaflowne movie, or Oh My Goddess movie. In fact things look disappointingly
less good than the original éX-Driver OVA. Music is once again generic
rock, with some of the tunes reminescent of 80's hair bands.
The
Americans portrayed here are mere charicatures, especially David the shallow and
slightly oafish show-off éx-Driver. Fortunately there's also a shady looking
businesman named Gambino whose wild daughter Angela was rescued by our trio. Most
of the focus of the show is on these two characters and Souichi; Lorna and Lisa
are a bit underused. There's a funny scene involving Gambino where he signals
to his right hand man for something, who promptly gives him a gift-wrapped baseball
bat, much to Gambino's dismay who doesn't really want to be reminded of his New
York crime boss days of yore. Souichi decides to help Angela to prevent her father
from gambling again and falling back to his criminal ways. So far the movie is
amusing though unremarkable. But when the real villain pops up things get improbable
and boredom sets in. Ultimately disappointing.
(2.5)
