Ah, this is more like it. I didn't love the "One-Eyed Flashback" from last year so much, but this is more of a traditional clue-based outing for our diminutive sleuth. It's a bit like "Scooby Do" does "Sleepy Hollow" as some of his friends and their professor espy what looks like an headless horseman - only in this case it's a motorcyclist. Luckily, "Conan" is on his way to a festival where bikes that can just about ride themselves are being exhibited by the ingenious "Mr. Omae". When people associated with the project to develop this technology start to die in suspicious circumstances, and now full of questions - it falls to "Conan", his friends and accomplished cop "Chihaya" to get to the bottom of things before this mysterious rider - now nicknamed "Lucifer", causes even more havoc. In true Holmesian tradition there are plenty of sub-plots, red herrings; there's a lady with a limp, some hoodlums, plenty of explosions and high-speed chases along dimly lit roads. No, there isn't a massive amount of jeopardy as regards the whodunnit elements of the plot, and the film does go on for perhaps twenty minutes too long, but I like the characterisations of "Conan", "Ran" and the always to the rescue internet genius "Haibara" and this is a quickly paced action adventure more rooted in a plausible and quite entertaining storyline. Good fun.
