I've seen a handful of unusual comedies from Japan and the most recent one being the Calamari Wrestler followed by Cromartie High School which also featured two well known wrestlers; Takayama and Hashimoto (RIP), playing complete opposites of their fighting characters of course, but in a script that would make the Power Rangers' screen writers shake their heads in disbelief.
The film opens with the purposely lengthy lesson of the school's chaotic legacy. The school in the present time looked like a strong candidate for the Battle Royale competition (which I thought the film would eventually rib, but never did). The main character, a composed young man decides to enroll despite possessing higher education, but soon regrets after his not-too-bright friend flunks the 'subtraction exam'. Some promising sidekicks get introduced, including Takayama's character who hates all types of transportation and decides to help the hijackers of a plane just so they wouldn't fly. The film showed much potential, but sidetracked twenty minutes in after shelving these winning characters and spending way too much time with the intros of the gorillas and the "Hard Gay" man who ended up offering very little throughout the film. And where the hell were the Freddie Mercury impersonations?
Yes the film needed such off the map characters (like the depressed Pootans), that was a given, but it failed to realize what direction to go with and what characters/situations to stick with in its full feature form. A perfect example of film-making where it seemed like the direction had no working script, just sketchy gags thought out by the crew late at night. Simply putting a blonde wig on an evil alien ape and calling the duo, Gori and Lla wasn't enough to tickle my funny bone. Spoofing of the Exorcist with a possessed robot, revealed to have only been infested with a cat was just a wasted, lazy attempt at parody. Again, I wasn't looking for sensible comedy or in-depth characters here, but even as a sleazy, low budget com-oddity, this film failed to keep me laughing and to exceed the wacky goods and true characteristics of the anime show. But, if you find these types of films irresistible and are a die hard fan of the show then I guess you'll watch and enjoy this movie regardless, as it was mainly aimed at its fan-base.