it does start off with a moody vibe that easily piques your curiosity. Unfortunately, after the first 9 minutes or so the movie falls completely off a cliff and straight into el stupido land. “Heaven’s Door” turns out to be a road film of sorts, pairing a grown man with a young girl, while they run from the law to reach the ocean. About the only memorable part of “Heaven’s Door” is seeing young Mayuko Fukuda holding up a pharmacy with a loaded pistol (this is probably the equivalent of watching Hannah Montana appearing in a “Bonnie & Clyde” remake).

“Heaven’s Door” starts off with rugged Aoyama (played by Tomoya Nagase) getting canned from his job as a car mechanic. While leaving work, he suffers from a migraine that causes him to nearly pass out. Aoyoma then visits the hospital to receive some ultra-heavy news: the cause of his migraines is an inoperable brain tumor the size of a human fist that will likely take his life in the next couple of days.

During Aoyoma’s first night at the hospital he meets a spunky girl young named Harumi (played by Mayuko Fukuda), who steals his cigarettes. Harumi is also a terminally ill patient suffering from cancer. Later that evening, the two sneak down into the cafeteria area and drink lots of tequila together. While in a drunken haze, Aoyoma decides to take Harumi out of the hospital and to see the ocean for the first time in her life. When the pair walk out of the hospital they spot an expensive import car with its doors unlocked. What Aoyama and Harumi are unaware of is that the car has millions of dollars in its trunk and its owners will resort to any means to retrieve their money.

Yes, as clunky as the story sounds, the actual execution is even worse. The film is directed by American expatriate Michael Arias, who first directed the 2006 anime film “Tekon Kinkurito.” While it seems Michael Arias has a knack for delivering a certain cinematic style, actually delivering a worthwhile story seems to be a whole another matter. Leading man Tomoya Nagase strikes an imposing figure with his masculine stature, but whenever those migraines come about he doesn’t seem nearly as convincing. Mayuko Fukuda, playing the role similar to Natalie Portman in “Leon,” shows promise, but there’s also a lingering feeling that she was miscast for the role. Probably the worse elements of the film would lie with its overly cartoonish villains and the action scenes which just wasn’t very convincing at all.

I actually had a much better time picking out the cameos in the film. While Aoyama and Harumi walked through the streets of Harajuku they end up shopping at a clothing boutique operated by none other than Yumi Yoshimura (one half of the J-pop duo Puffy AmiYumi). There’s also singer & actress Anna Tsuchiya making a brief cameo appearance as one of the patrons at the male host bar that Aoyama and Harumi would visit later in the film.