If you are 8 years of age or thereabouts, run, don't walk, to Market Square East for Pokémon 2000 the Movie. If you're any older, walk.
The almost-2-hour sequel to last fall's Pokémon: The First Movie starts off with endless product endorsements and enough flash ads to last a long time, according to a couple of reviewers. These are followed by a short which encourages the younger youngsters to shout out the names of their favorite characters as they appear on the screen.
Then comes the pièce de résistance, the main event. A Pokémon collector named Jirarudan is trying to find three rare birds who are said to release the sea monster Pokémon Lugia. If bad old Jirarudan can get the bad old monster, it will make him the most powerful Pokémon trainer in the world. Now, we can't have that!
A group of good guys led by trainer-hero Ash Ketchum and his friends set out to right things, and if you really want to know how it all turns out, well… you know how to get there.
Classified as an art/foreign film, it is directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and Michael Haigney, and written by Haigney and four others. Rated G, it's playing at Diamond Cinemas.
