Very well executed

Perfectly adorable

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

Bizarre hardly begins to describe this peculiar offering. Tamura is a divorced company employee about to embark on a new venture with his company. Suddenly is sweetheart is found murdered and he's the prime suspect. Did I mention that Tamura is a koala? No? Oh! The fact that he is a koala doesn't seem to have any bearing on the plot at all. It's more of a strange distraction from the films inability to focus. By the time it gets to amnesia, implanted memories, and a shady past, it is all a bit too much. Certainly enjoyable at times, but when switching from dreamlike martial art sequences and axe murder, you can't really fathom what it's aiming to do.

While CALAMARIE WRESTLER wasn't one of my favorite movies, it wasn't unwatchable, either; EXECUTIVE KOALA, on the other hand, happens to be one of the funniest movies I've seen in quite some time. A grex of, say, David Lynch's RABBITS, Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES, and GREG THE BUNNY (who prefers the term "fabric-American" or "muppet-American" or somesuch designation to being called a "puppet"), EXECUTIVE KOALA features a salary man who just happens to be a koala bear. Though there's no pandaring here, EXECUTIVE KOALA is the kind of kid's movie kids LOVE. Sure, it's a murder mystery and our hero's in a bit of a pickle, but kids also happen to love HOODWINKED; 'nuff said? Or IS it...? "It's not black and white," one detective tells Tamura (the title character): "It's GRAY- like a koala." Tamura's blackouts leave him a bit flustered as to his whereabouts on the night of the murder: is he innocent, or is he being given the old GASLIGHT treatment? "You're as normal as the next koala," his psychiatrist tells him. EXECUTIVE KOALA is a psykoalagical thriller to rival the likes of GASLIGHT, SUSPICION, and PSYCHO II (and there's even a very funny homage to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN) and Momo the squirrel is just too cute for words. Writer-director Minoru Kawasaki has given kids of all ages a glorious gift. Don't miss it.

I'm sure I missed some of the nation-specific satirical barbs in this off the wall Japanese comedy about cutthroat corporate culture and an anthropomorphic koala who may or may not be a killer. To this Western viewer, "Executive Koala" played like an Adult Swim entry with its unfailing, straight faced commitment to the absurd. Trying to cope with the disappearance of his wife, businessman and man-sized koala Tamura attempts to lose himself in corporate negotiations. He increasingly finds himself haunted by memories of violence and develops a tendency to fly into fits of unbridled rage accompanied by blinking, glowing eyes.I don't want to spoil any of the film's surprises and would advise renters to avert their eyes from the DVD label as it gives away one of the film's best visual gags. Those viewers who complain about the cheap special effects--for instance, the zipper being visible on the Koala's costume--have failed to realize that these are both budget and style choices. Director Kawasaki, who previously brought us "Rug Cop" and "Calamari Wrestler," has developed a cheapo aesthetic and this is an undeniable part of the film's charm. Troma fans are sure to be delighted by Kawasaki, but will find a sweeter, more gentle film in "Koala" than those produced by Kaufman.But a little of this goes a long way and the film's story is too flimsy to be compelling. The film works to a degree as it continually amps up the absurdity, but the plot is a tired retread of Hithcock themes with more concern about style than storytelling. It's DePalma for furries.

I have no idea why people say ''Executive Koala'' is hard to understand. Almost everything is explained, bluntly, and the story is pretty linear. Aside from being unfinished, this movie is pretty simple. Described as a ''psychological thriller wrapped up in the packaging of a nonsense comedy--with giant animal characters'', I expected this to be humorous, at least slightly. No. ''Executive Koala'' wasn't even humorous accidentally! (Well, I guess if you find ax murder hilarious it could be.)So it's not funny. But this is supposed to be a convoluted storyline that (in the words of one reviewer) ''...changes direction frequently, especially in the thirrd act, when the plot changes several times...''. Sorry, it fails there too.I found the plot very linear, the story unfinished, and the movie fairly...simple. There are no ''plot twists and turns'', nothing ''funny'', and definitely nothing nonsensical.In the end,''Executive Koala'' isn't a total waste of time, it's just EXTREMELY misrepresented by its advertising.