If you thought Chocolate Rain was awesome ... : "Black Rain"

OK, so the goofy YouTube video du jour and the Ridley Scott/Michael Douglas collaboration from almost 20 years ago have nothing in common aside from a reference to falling water. Still, that "Chocolate Rain" song is catchy, isn't it? "Chocolate Raaaain ... Made me cross the street the other day ... Chocolate Raaaain .... Made you turn your head the other way."

Won't spend much time on this since it's late and I've got a 10-hour drive with the family ahead of me tomorrow. But after an aborted attempt several months ago, I ended up watching one of the more overlooked Ridley films over the span of two or three nights. (Honestly can't remember.) Guess what? It wasn't too bad.

There are problems, true. One, Michael Douglas, playing the motorcycle-riding NYC cop in over his head in Japan, has classic -- read, unfortunate -- late '80s hair. Just feather it out and be done with it, Mikey. Second, while I applaud Andy Garcia's youthful energy -- this was well before the unfortunate "Steal Big, Steal Little" -- he's still a little nutty here. Finally, Douglas' jeans were too tight.

But really, this movie was OK. Say what you will about Scott, but he's got a nice eye for scenery. When our heroes Mike and Andy fly into Japan to return an extradited thug, the landcape recalls "Blade Runner." We also get an "Alien" feel every now and then with some of the chase scenes. The movie, on the whole, looks decent.

As for the story and performances ... eh, good enough. Douglas overacts a bit but is OK as the detective bent on justice in a strange land. The villain, some Japanese actor, is sort of bizarre but works well, I suppose. Apparently he normally played funny men but wanted to do something different as he was dying of cancer or something bad. OK, then.

The best turn, though, is by the guy who plays the Japanese cop assigned to hang with the Noo Yawk boys. His name I'll look up -- it's Ken Takakura -- because he really nailed the subdued, respectful-yet-hangdog look that fit the character perfectly. Seriously, he's the best part of the movie, which is interesting given the various bang-bang scenes.

Let's not pretend "Black Rain" is better than it really is. But it's also plenty watchable, falling nicely into that category of "Hmmm, it's about 9:30-10 pm. I've got a whole movie in me before I got to bed. This could work." I think that shelf is right next to "Musicals" at Blockbuster. Or "Fetish." I forget.