Amazon.com
As the eagerly awaited Cowboy Bebop feature film reunites the original director, screenwriter, composer, and vocal cast, it's not surprising that the film plays like an expanded TV episode. What should be the routine capture of a two-bit hacker by Faye escalates into a deadly game of cat and mouse, as Spike and the gang struggle to prevent the evil Vincent Volaju from murdering every human on Mars. Director Shinichiro Watanabe handles the action sequences with his usual panache. Inside the sinister Cherious Medical research facility, Spike fights a beautiful agent, using a push broom in a series of maneuvers Jackie Chan might envy. The climactic duel between Spike and Vincent plays against innocent yet eerie images of a Halloween carnival, recalling the amusement park setting of episode 20, "Pierrot Le Fou." Knockin' on Heaven's Door will delight fans of the series and provide an excellent introduction for the uninitiated who want to know why Cowboy Bebop is so popular on both sides of the Pacific. (Rated R: violence, brief nudity, minor profanity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

DVD features
As special editions go, this Cowboy Bebop DVD isn't that loaded. The bulk of the extras are six featurettes--about 35 minutes of material--consisting of interviews with the key talents including creator Shinichiro Watanabe and the vocal talent (both Japanese and American). Because the Bebop DVD series was void of any design extras, fans should eat up the 100 or so production drawings and a dandy storyboard presentation. Listed as "music videos," the two songs are essentially clean opening and closing animation cuts (without credits). Fans will also appreciate that the film is presented in both original Japanese language and English in Dolby 5.1. The film lost its subtitle, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," from its American theatrical run for the DVD. --Doug Thomas