Imagine the movie. He's a ganster. He's a hired assassin. He's an avid reader, sometimes street corner librarian, ice cream eating, bird training, rap listening, message sending samurai.

It's my opinion that Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai has the most high concept punch of any arthouse film. It house both quality and quantity.

That's SO FUNNY! As I was reading your description, I was thinking "Ghost Dog." Maybe it was obvious by the description, but not many people saw that movie. It was great though. Forrest Whitaker is solid.

that's a great movie, and the RZA's score was nice.

How about "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension"? Peter Weller (pre-"Robocop") plays the title character, a rocket-car driver, neurosurgeon, pop/rock singer, inventor, U.S. government agent, physicist, etc., who saves the world from evil aliens, "led" by John Lithgow. His band of helpers all have a wide variety of specialties as well. The ending, where they show the coming attraction for the sequel which was never made, is particularly priceless. I'm NOT trying to say that it's a GOOD movie, but it's definitely UNIQUE!

Ghost Dog looks great, can't wait to see it. Jim Jarmusch has never put me wrong yet.

My favourite high concept film at the moment is probably The Happiness of the Katakuris. The mixture of claymation, musical numbers, zombies, natural disasters and an over-the-top happy family makes for a weird but hilarious movie.

Buckaroo Banzai certainly isn't everybody's cup of tea, mark. I, however, have been a passionate fan since day one. I'm sorry that Buckaroo Banzai Versus The World Crime League was never made, but given my surprise that the original film was made in the first place, I'm not complaining.

An interesting side note, there was a spec script for BBVTWC floating around the 'net for a long time. I read a few pages, but it didn't really hold my attention.

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