best movie i've ever seen.

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Crows Explode departs from the flashy and energetic style of the previous Crows Zero films by being adopting a somber tone and giving a few of the characters real, fleshed out emotions and struggles. The problem is that this realism is mixed with the typical Crows action craziness of having various cartoonish thugs fighting for control of Suzuran, a high school that apparently has no classes or teachers. There's not enough time devoted to either and the film is unsatisfying as a result. And to be honest, I came for the fighting, but I left wishing there was more time spent on the drama. The dramatic scenes are in that classic Asian macho drama mold of cool/tough guys suddenly bursting into emotion they can no longer contain, with anger, fear, honor, and respect all coming together at once. It's the kind of awesome stuff that Asian cinema does best, but there just isn't enough time spent on the drama here. Too bad, as the little that is here is pretty good.

I knew that Takashi Miike wasn't involved with the title, so I kept an open mind when I started watching it. But the fact is this movie was horrible, and It felt like I have been watching this movie for 2 hours when I was only 60 minutes in. First, the casting for this movie was horrible, none of the new actors looked like they are suited for their roles. They tried to do a more complex story but it wasn't captivating, and left out a lot of great character development that we saw in the previous 2 films. The bad storytelling also made a lot of the fights in the movie seem meaningless.Most of the great elements in the series(not only the movies) that made Crows great are completely missing in this film. The moments in the previous movies that made you pumped up along with the great music that came on at the exactly right moments are gone. They tried to forced the issue in the movie with similar situation/music, but it just completely failed because I wasn't into the characters and the story. The fights were also extremely boring lacking the moments where they would pull off some sort of choreographed move. There are a lot more reasons but those are some of the main reasons that I didn't like this film. I can't say that this is an unwatchable film, but all of the different things that they did very well in the franchise are all missing. So, I am guessing you might like it if you didn't like the first 2.

I am a big fan of this series and in fact have treasured the copies of first two movies as If it is my personal goldmine. I had waited patiently for the third movie for years. The last movie came out in 2009 and now its 2014 so imagine how long has it taken for the movie franchise to come out with a sequel but was it worth waiting this long? Absolutely notFirst of all we have to deal with the absence of its original star casts like Shun Oguri as Takiya Genji and Takayuki Yamada as Serizawa Tamao. They had immortalized their characters and the entire franchise with their power packed fists and acting. The new release on the other hand does not have an impressive star cast. The franchise which is known for its action is what is lacking in this movie primarily.If I am watching a movie from the crows series, I need to see some action but sadly the only action in this movie is right about at the beginning and at the very end and that too for a very brief second and long gone before you can even feast your eyes. Masahiro Higashide as Kaburagi Kazeo is good with acting but bad with action. He does not impress with his action skills but Yuya Yagira as Goura Toru was still impressive and so was the character black dynamite (only for action). Kento Nagayama as Fujiwara Hajime has a meaty role in the movie but that is what is bothering me. It felt as if the whole plot deviation just took out the essence of the basic movie. A recurring character Rinda man was totally wasted with barely there presenceThe movie franchise which entirely sprouted from its action sequences forgot that basic element in its new movie and instead diverted with a somewhat lukewarm performances and plot, totally disappointing the fans who have been dying for the sequel for a really long time.

I am gonna come right out and say it: "Crows Explode" is my favorite entry in the Crows-franchise.When I heard the news about a new Crows movie I was excited. Even more so when it was clear that Toshiaki Toyoda will be in the director's chair. I really enjoyed the previous Crows movies and Toyoda's "Blue Spring". They show a very unique, if stylized, filmic portrayal of the high school delinquent topic.The combination of Toyoda and Crows works perfectly and results in a Crows movie that really feels like a fresh take the material. Compared to its predecessors "Crows Explode" sticks more to the manga source material and presents a wider array of characters. Admittedly none of them sticks out the way Genji Takiya did but they don't need to. The story works even if the characters aren't as defined as in the previous Crows movies. Aside from that the story follows the same formula as before - nothing special here. The way the characters and locations are designed & presented feels even more stylized and over the top than before. But here it really works to the films advantage. I always felt like "Crows Zero" and "Crows Zero II" never quite managed to find the right balance between realism and the highly stylized action, weird Asian humor and exaggerated drama. Unfortunately "Crows Explode" lacks the humor completely. But what I liked best were all these homages (small & big ones) to the first two crows movies and even "Blue Spring". From the soundtrack to the set design this film is overflowing with elements reminiscent of the franchise's history. Although I gotta say that I would've liked the soundtrack to be more extensive. Especially from Toyoda I expected "Crows Explode" to be exploding (pun intended) with all the timelessly cool songs from "The Mods", "Thee Michelle Gun Elephant" and "The Birthday". I mean they did it before and it worked great why make it different this time?It's kind of funny. I watched the first two movies while I was graduating from school myself so I basically grew with them. They taught me not to have any regrets for my youth and to stay loyal to the people that went on the journey of growing up together with me. It also taught me that we will all have to grow up eventually but should never forget where we once came from. I'd like to see this recent entry in the franchise teaching these principles to a new generation of young viewers who now stand where I stood before them. And I gotta say so far it does this fairly well.