Review of Hold Up Down

Frankly speaking, unless you are a V6 fan, I don't think I want to recommend this movie to you. I like some of the members, OK with the group in general but wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan though. That is why I can't bring myself to say that I do like this movie.

The first movie V6 did was also made by SABU but I forgot the title of that one. What I do remember was that there are some similarities between both movies:

- Nagano Hiroshi plays another car maniac again. Well, I know he likes cars but there's no need to put him in a similar role.

- Putting Sakamoto and Nagano together. The previous time, they were salarymen and now they are police officers.

- The whole story just seems quite nonsensical. A number of coincidences bring about changes to the characters' lives.

Other things worth mentioning:

- Okada seems to have the least lines among them since he was "frozen" during most of the movie. And what's with that hairdo?!

- Inocchi and Kashii Yui playing a train maniac couple. Those two are quite funny especially when they were discussing train trivia even though Kashii's role was supposed to take the statement of Inocchi who was arrested for robbery.

- Morita playing a guy who seems so troubled that he tries to seek divine help and ends up burning the church by mistake. And I still can't fathom why Ito Ayumi's role seemed smitten with him despite the only thing he has done being helping her to catch a robber.

- The crazy fighting scenes in that strange mansion/hotel. V6 members have their dancing backgrounds to help them with these action scenes but then it felt so funny rather than giving me a kick. For example, when Nagano and Miyake were fighting on the second floor which had no barriers and Nagano almost fell to the ground but he did a Matrix-style act to regain his balance.

- The ending part where Nagano quit his job and was eating some sandwiches with kindergarten girls. Oh, that looks so sweet! He looks so gentle and kind in this scene.

- Again, the ending part, where Inocchi and Kashii held their wedding by booking a train and the reporters were more interested in the antique train rather than the couple.

Somehow, it looks as if when it comes to group movies, there is a pattern. For example, the two V6 movies by SABU are of a similar style (equally senseless but I found the first movie still bearable) and the storyline is built on a series of coincidences. On the other hand for ARASHI, they seem to be stuck in those youth seeking dreams formula-type of films. Then again, their movies are produced by J-STORM which determines their directions so I guess it's not easy to change given that you are putting more than 1 member in the movie.

To conclude, I will only give this 3 out of 10. It's a must-watch if you are after some V6 eye-candy. Otherwise, forget about it.