"The Super Egg is the world's largest diamond, a cut rock the size of a rugby ball. Stolen in a previous heist and stashed somewhere inside the Statue of Liberty, it should be the ultimate prize for a man like Wolf III, master-theif and scourge of every law enforcement agency on the planet. But now the police are running a computer database capable of predicting any move Wolf makes, including stealing the Egg - is it time for the world's greatest crook to hang up his lockpicks and go straight?"
"However, the dark forces are massing behind the scenes. The Super Egg is vital to the plans of Conquer The Universe Incorporated, a satanic organisation who will stop at nothing to achieve total control. With CTUI 's army of killers on one side and the cops on the other, Wolf s retirement can't last long, and soon he is back with his partners Jingen and Goemon to carry out the most audacious crime of their lives - stealing the Statue of Liberty!"
Original Story: Monkey Punch
Director: Osamu Dezaki
Screenplay: Kanji Fashiwabara
Copyright: Monkey Punch/NTV/TMS
Language Format: English Language
Cast: Wolf: Bill Dufries
Jigen: Eric Meyers
Goemon: Garrick Hagen
Zenigata: Sean Barret
Fujiko: Toni Barry
Running time: 96 mins
Certificate: 12
Label: Manga Video
Catalogue no: MANV 1154
Price: £13.99
Release Date: 9th September 1996
Another disappointing Lupin III movie, in which the Super Egg, the world's largest diamond, is the ultimate prize for various gangs of thieves, not least Lupin and his associates. The rugby-ball sized gem, stolen in a previous raid, is hidden somewhere in the Statue of Liberty. The police forces now have a computer database which enables them to predict Lupin's every move, but despite this he is determined to lift the gem.
Also in the story are Fujiko, who is enjoying the company of a very rich man, and a religious cult, Conquer the Universe Incorporated, whose mad and ancient leader also wants the Super Egg. If this sounds a bit like the previous Lupin movie from Manga, you're right, it is the same formula and it fails for much the same reasons. A lot of implausible and sketchily
defined characters engaging in fantasy slapstick does not necessarily make a great movie, and in this case it certainly doesn't, the movie being too fantastic and arbitrary to engender any suspense. (The tape proved less interesting than a sampling of the evening's TV viewing). One suspects, on admittedly scant evidence to hand, that excessive fidelity to the manga may be the problem.
My Lupin advice: first get CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (Manga) and PLOT OF THE FUMA CLAN (Western Connection) and maybe GOLD OF BABYLON. [Geoff Cowie]