Lupin III: Walther P38 (1997)

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Reviewed 30 Jul 2025

Someone frames Lupin for the murder of Zenigata, but the inspector's literally too obsessed with his quarry to die and Lupin already has a lead on who did the deed… and then, nothing. The film forgets its own plot in a muddle of dull, gritty 90s “realism”. There's a cool, intricate island fortress, theoretically, but in practice most of the settings are dull and disparate, with no real idea of how they hang together. As a result, it's often unclear what the stakes are in each place. A really good setup wasted on a mediocre and surprisingly tame film. At least the final showdown ends well.