"Crows Zero" requires the utmost in viewer concentration, though it never quite earns such devotion. An adaptation of Hiroshi Takahashi's best-selling manga, the feature is blizzard of names and motivations, creating an ideal sensation of screen immersion for fans of the original work, while outsiders are left to question the half-realized subplots and wild tonal changes. It's not a terribly interesting motion picture, though the effort has been dutifully colored by the insanely prolific director Takashi Miike (in the time I took the write this sentence, he just made another movie), who brings a loaded sense of style and intermittent blasts of ultraviolence to the idiosyncratic film. The helmer flexes his visual muscles on occasion, slapping the screen with chaotic fight choreography and exaggerated character designs, but he's oddly powerless when it comes to the glacial pace of "Crows Zero," unable to bring it up to the awe-inspiring speed a few superlative scenes hint at. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com