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When I first read that review of the series, the first thing that came to mind was "Not another giant robot series with the main character, a teenager, discovering that he has some mysterious power or ability that lets him defeat his enemies!"

Very happily, "Gunparade March" failed to live up to that expectation.

Don't get me wrong, though; there is combat in the series - and they are done well - but those scenes are not in every episode. The series is more about people living their lives as best they could when monsters can appear out of nowhere and attack them as well as the high school students who, when the raid siren goes off, have to jump into their HWTs, go into combat, and oftentimes, die in the process. In other words, it's a series that has a great deal of interpersonal relationships involved.

A minor spoiler; a favorite and very sad scene of mine has a TV news anchor read the names and ages of those young kids who died in the day's fighting, and people passing along simply walk along as if they didn't even hear. Great emotional impact, I thought, with dusk and the rain falling, and the voice reading what seemed to be a never-ending list of names.

All in all, this is a great series that I highly recommend. I'm only giving four (actually 4 1/2 :-) stars to this disc as it, according to Media Blasters's website, carries the first four episodes, which provides the introduction to the storyline and characters. You don't really see why someone like Shibamura Mai (one of the main characters) would volunteer to join the armed forces as a pilot - at least, not yet.

The story is rather simple: master thief Slater and his cohorts attempt to do their final job as Kubrick's "The Killing," but realize that the money they get are all marked by FBI. They have to wait another day for money laundering, but while waiting, crooked agent Val Kilmer steps in, to extort money from them.

As the mildly interesting opening of the film shows, "Hard Cash" has slightly comical flavor, not taking itself so seriously. OK, but with what little humor in there soon gone away, the film goes on and on without much to boast of. Though the heist scenes are shot competently, the suspense comes very few between the acts, so even its 90 minutes running time looks very tedious. And obligatory explosions and car chase are, to be honest, very cheap.

The leading players, including Slater, Kilmer, and Daryl Hannah might not impress you, but the supporting cast are interesting -- see, for example, Balthazar Getty ("Lost Highway"), Bokeem Woodbine ("3000 Miles to Graceland"), Sara Downing (TV's "Roswell"), William Forsythe ("The Rock"), and Verne Troyer (Mini-Me of "Austin Powers" sequels). But they have no moment to really show something they can, possibly except for Troyer's "contigency plan" and even he, or always reliable Getty or Forsythe cannot save the show. So, what can you expect from the leads, who plays the characters we don't care much?

Even Kilmer's and Slater's fans would be dismayed with their "acting," because they don't show any. Those who like them should wait for a Lenny Harlin film "Mindhunters" where they are sure to live up with our expectations.

If you've read my other reviews of Gary Daniels' movies, you'll know that I watch because of him in particular. He's an amazingly good-looking and appealing guy. In this movie, he's a work of art -- flawlessly perfect from head to toe. He gets to show off his impressive physique in several scenes, displaying outstanding shape, proportion, and definition. And there is a love interest explored. Indeed, there is even a sex scene, albeit it far too brief and chaste for a guy who has this amount of sex appeal. (How can directors put a man this beautiful into a movie and not capitalize upon his sex appeal? It just doesn't make any sense). If you enjoy looking at Gary, then you must get this DVD, moreso than perhaps any other.

Yes, the plot is your typical martial arts story line of "You're a bad guy who killed my relative, so I'm coming after you out of revenge, and will kill you with my fists and feet and impressive martial arts skills". But the movie does have more humor to it than most of Gary's movies (some of it a bit gruesome though). So if you're into the Jackie Chan type of martial arts movie where there's something "whimsical" thrown in every now and then, you may appreciate that aspect. I'm not into martials arts per se, and except for the final fight scene which drags on far too long for my tastes, this movie had enough plot and character development inbetween fight scenes to keep my interest going whereas most martial arts movies can be a snoozefest for me. I really liked watching Gary here because he does more acting than in some other movies, and his character gets to explore his personal/social side.

The DVD quality is not the greatest, but it's hard to quibble about what you're looking at when it's Gary's pretty face onscreen. The DVD has a choice of english or french language track. No closed captioning. It has scene selections. The special features aren't special, and consist of 2 biographies of people who apparently are part of the company that produced this DVD, and a mini-documentary in french about what appears to be the same company.

MC