Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 43

GEORGE TAKEI TAKES SULU TO ANOTHER WORLD Prim Sulu has turned barbaric iiyi 50-minute "Star Trek" production called "World Enough and Time." Sulu has been transported. "I find myself on another alien planet," George Take! said. "I live 30 years of my life there. I have a child." When he returns to the starship Enterprise, he finds only a minute or two has passed. The episode will be released in March as a free Internet download from the Star Trek New Voyages a 1 D9 HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2006 Winn L-f ii.

iL Vsg "Jackass: Number Two" Rated Now playing in theaters W-t'SSf lJ.nn.ijnn.iJ A Johnny Knoxville delivers the laughs as he faces a charging bull blindfolded in "Jackass: Number Two." Below, Knoxville and buddies take flight: Dave England, left, Steve-O, Ryan Knoxville, Bam Margera, Jason "Wee Man" Acuna and Chris Pontius. Mi 2 A mm'? A rr I 12 With its puerile humor and tasteless hijinks, "Jackass Two" lives up to its name Review by Betsy Pickle Scripps Howard News Service 0 one can say that the guys in "Jackass: Number Two" don't suffer for their art. Well, aside from those who would argue that there's nothing In part of the film that requires a black censoring bar. More sensitive viewers might say that other scenes should have had the same safeguard. What makes all this watch-able is the gleeful attitude and friendship of the men, and the fact that even the most disgusting antics are amusing, whether in a "laughing with them" or "laughing at them" spirit.

Only rarely do the stunts go too far in meanness. Special guests include Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia, director Spike Jonze (in old-lady drag too funny) and "Murderball's" Mark Zupan, who fits right into the "Jackass" milieu. There's no order to the antics, and Tremaine could have done a better job of editing some of the weaker material and organizing more of a build. At 95 minutes, the film should never drag, but it does a couple of times, and the glitzy ending could have been tightened. Obviously, "Jackass: Number Two" isn't for ev pidity and an obsession with torturing the male member abound in "Two." The film starts, hilariously, with the running of the bulls through a suburban neighborhood, with the huffing, overgrown boys barely staying ahead of them.

Later, Knoxville re-creates a "Tom Jerry" moment by blindfolding himself and subjecting himself to a yak's caresses. One sequence has a bunch of bulls keeping an eye on Margera as he allows his buttocks to be branded (not very expertly, and not with a symbol to be displayed in polite company). Later, Margera, Knoxville, Pontius and Dunn ride a "Toro-Totter," a contraption that barely keeps them above the horns of some raging bulls. Other animals contributing to the pain and suffering include sharks; anacondas, a king cobra, a leech, bees and a stallion. The group's fascination with bodily emissions hits its peak (or nadir) with the CEL SHADED Jason S.

Yadao KIKUairs 4 anime series WELL, I'm thanks again to WilmaJ. for filling In for me while I was gone. Let's get right back Into the news KIKU-TV, once the home of such anime series as "Crayon Shinchan" and "Blue Blink," last week started airing four anime series from Funimation's syndi cated block. It is the first non-cable broadcast network In the nation to do so. "K1KU has a history of running anime prior to the craze taking root," KIKU General Manager Phyllis Kihara told me last week.

"We're committed to continue our Japanese and Asian programming, and this was one way to get programming to the. public right now." The series, airing dubbed in English on weekdays, are: i "Blue Gender," focusing on a squad brought out of cryogenic hibernation to battle a race of alien bugs that has taken over "Kiddy Grade," the story of two butt-kicking babes and an overarching intergalactlc con-" spiracy (6:30 p.m.) "Tench! Muyo! GXP," one of" the latest installments in the -long-running Tenchi Muyo!" romantic comedyaction fran- chise. This time, though, Tenchi's neighbor Seina is the one caught up in hijinks with a bevy of beauties (10 p.m.) "Bakl the Grappler," about a fighter who wants to become strongest in the world, like his father (10:30 p.m.) "We were just looking for 7. what we thought might be of interest to anime lovers," Kihara said. "Some anime out there is a bit cartoony; we wanted something that might appeal to someone a little older." Each series will get one com-; plete run-through before giving way to other series; however, Kihara said if there is enough demand from viewers, KIKU will consider rerunning series, as it" has done in the past with sev- eral evening dramas.

As for airing other series In j. Funimation's syndicated cata- log, which Includes fan favorites like "Kodocha," "Case Closed," 4 "Negima" and "Fruits "It's possible," Kihara said the sequel to the 2002 hit that resembles art at all. Art or not, the bawdy, earthy, puerile humor of "Jackass: Number Two" is definitely entertainment, and it's probably less sadistic than its ancient forebear: Romans throwing Christians to the lions in the Coliseum. At least here they volunteer for potential goring and gnawing, and no one dies in the "Jackass" version. They come close, but they all survive.

Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, Preston Lacy, Dave England and Ehren McGhehey reconvene with director Jeff Tremaine for "Number Two." As in the first film and the turn-of-the-millen-nium MTV show that launched it, excrement, stu stallion. It the one eryone. But for fans of the brand, it will hit the spot; v. -ff ll (W I 1 I 'lf -11 Cel Shaded, a weekly look at the world of Japanese anime and manga, appears every Monday. E-mail Jason S.

Yadao at Jyadaostarbulletin.com PHOTOS COURTESY PARAMOUNT PICTURES GET YOUR GAME ON IlS 1 1 Creativity makes 'LocoRoco' simply irresistible By Matt Slagle HI iitf Mat. COLUMBIA PICTURES SUA Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a coach in "Gridiron Gang." DOXOmCE The top 10 movies in North America Friday through Sunday with estimated gross (in millions of dollars): Sony computer entertainment lously simple controls. Only two buttons (the and shoulder buttons) are used to roll and jump around the whimsical worlds, which range from the squishy insides of chameleons and whales to the slippery slopes of winter wonderlands. What's disorienting at first is how the controls actually work. Instead of moving the LocoRocos, you pivot the angle of the entire world to make them roll, jump and slide in various directions.

It definitely takes some getting used to, and it's a sensation that still has me bending my neck in odd angles when I play. The Japanese synth-pop music and childlike mutterings of the LocoRocos lend further whimsy to the game, though the songs got rather repetitive after a few hours. This platformer is a keeper, with its cuteness and charnv Associated Press Reviewers often praise video games for their great graphics, cool sci-fi settings and replay value. With "LocoRoco," heaps of cuteness, creativity and charm make what could have been another boring platformer into one of the year's most original and irresistible video games for the PlayStation Portable. The E-rated game has you leading the rescue of the hopelessly happy LocoRocos from a gang of evil aliens called the Moja Corps.

LocoRocos are tuneful, tiny blobs in various colors that grow into mega blobs as they gobble up red berries scattered around the world. Ending each level with as many LocoRocos as possible, though, is really just an excuse to experience the game's fabu $28.1 1. "Jackass: Number Two" Beneath all this sugary-sweet happiness, there's a certain amount of redundancy to be found in the levels as well. The game isn't particularly difficult, and there are only so many ways one can roll and jump a collection of singing blobs, after all. But all that is mitigated by the tremendous creativity and myriad secret tunnels and lo- cales to discover, LocoRoco is definitely a landmark title for the PSP, the sort of game that makes owning the pricey handheld worth the money.

4 It's also one of the few titles 1 felt compelled to show my non-gamer friends and say, "See? There's a lot more to video games than just dragons and gun battles." $10.6 $9.7 $6 $4.75 $4.4 $3.8 $3.3 $3.28 $2.9 2. "Jet Li's Fearless" 3. "Gridiron Gang" 4. "Flyboys" 5. "Everyone's Hero" 6.

"The Black Dahlia" 7. "All the King's Men" 8. "The Covenant" 9. "The Illusionist" 10. "Little Miss Sunshine" Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.

Inc. and Nielsen EDI Inc..