Subject: REVIEW: GHOST IN THE SHELL (1996)

From: [email-masked] (Yamamoto)
Date: 17 Apr 1996 21:26:37 GMT

GHOST IN THE SHELL
                       A film review by Yamamoto
                        Copyright 1996 Yamamoto

Why is it that whenever there's a woman with funky do which happens
to stick straight up, they have to sit right in front of you at the
movie theatres?  It doesn't matter where you sit, and the movie may
have just started.  Out of nowhere, poof, they'll waltz right in
and sit infront of you and block a good portion of the screen.  I
guess it's one of those life's unexplainable mysteries.

Speaking of difficult concept to grasp, GHOST IN THE SHELL came out
and I had to go check it out.  It's a Japanese anime taking place
in supposed future in the year 2029.  Yes, it's loosely related to
the comic book (which by the way 2 pages worth has been censored
for the conservative American public).  Anyhow, the secret service
in this era tries to capture this super hacker and well, things
don't ever the go the way you planned.

2 dozen nakkid cyber boobs.  9 doz bullets.  3 dead bodies.  42 on
the vomit meter.  No moon shots.  What we got here are:  long
distance peeping tom-fu, killer briefcases-fu, transparent body-fu,
garbage collectors from hell-fu, AP rounds in submachinegun-fu,
dodging crowd-fu, attack of the invisible zombie-fu, one way water
way-fu, runaway truck-fu, soul searching-fu, and of course your
standard issue big gun-fu.  Drive in academy award nominations to:
Bateau for saying stuff like "If I lose contact, I'm pulling the
plug", to Togusa for sayin' stuff like "set them up as a decoy" and
to Aramaki "did you hear me?"  And of course to lovely "Major"
Motoko Kusanagi "have you ever seen your own brain?"

Spoilers - Motoko Krsanagi is the top field agent of section 9, the
secret service.  And yes, most of her body is cybernetic and hear
cloaking device only works when she's nakkid. hmmm.  Anyhow, in the
future, the 'net gets so enormous that without people's knowledge,
one of the black ops programs acquired a "ghost" or a soul.  It
wants to be recognized as a sentient being and of course people
don't want to do that.  Then again, you can't really define real
human's soul so they can't prove anything.  The story revolves
around this premesis of the artifical soul and such.  Oh yeah, you
get your usual share of the guns and explosions too.  And the
animations are to die for.  Three and three quarter stars.  Shaggy
Bob says wicked!

Alien Alert!  Why do I get this feeling that whole country is
wrapped up in Jessica Dubroff's death?  And why is media making
such a hype, not only after the accident but even before?  Are we
supposed to feel the way media wants us to feel?  If you think
about it, don't you feel like you've been manipulated?  Ok, so I
may be bit paranoid but isn't there more important news to cover?
Just wonderin'.

(c) 4/13/96 - Shaggy Bob

Words to the Wise:

> From: [email-masked] (John Gorzkowski)
> not that I have an opinion on the death penalty or anything, but
> just one argument that I heard was that after all the court costs
> of appeals and shit like that, executions cost more than life in
> prison--just something to think about....

That's why I believe in passing this new bill about the truth in
sentencing.  You can teach people who doesn't know better but you
can't change people who just don't care.  Heck, with arrest rate so
low and conviction rate being dismal, the least you can do is limit
the appeals to one and have it done with within a year.