Full disklosure: Monster not a fan of mimes. It be a phobia me have (like heights, tight places, and Celine Dion) dat go all de way back to monster’s childhood. Me often try to figure out why dis be, and always come up wit tree possible reasons: 1. Mimes be second-cousins of clowns who, everyone can agree, be creepy mofo’s. 2. Mimes never speak clearly mean dey have someting to hide. 3. When monster just a kid, me get punched in eye by drunken mime. For dese reasons, me tink me not like mimes. Also because, for many years, street mime dat perform outside monster’s apartment building always doing invisible wall gag. It not so bad except dis particular invisible wall be bathroom stall.
Anyhoo, all dis to say: me not like mimes. So when presented wit dis movie about an undead mime (!), monster about as enthusiastic as Grover at a waxing bar.
But dis movie surprise monster. In a good way. Not like sucker punch in de eye.
The Crow be a classic revenge tale. Boy meets Girl. Boy loses girl – and life. Boy comes back from de grave and kill a bunch of bad guys.
After he and his girlfriend get killed by bunch of thugs, Eric Draven take it very personal. He crawl out of his grave, don pancake make-up, and become…Super Mime. No, scratch dat. He become…De Crow! But, er, why he wear pancake make-up? He not exaktly trying to hide his identity. He tell everyone who he really be: cops, a kid, de bad guys he about to kill. It not as if police can go arrest him at his new cemetery loft.
Drawing inspiration – and power – from a crow, Eric, aka De Crow, start exacting revenge on thugs responsible for ruining his life. One by one, he pick dem off, skewering one wit multiple knives, pincushioning another wit needles, taping another into his car before sending it speeding off a dock AND blowing it up, culminating in big shoot-out and Gothic rooftop swordfight in dead of night and driving rain! It all presented as pretty straightforward revenge fare, but it very satisfying because all de elements work. Solid direktion, a good skript dat only occasionally cheesy, and some very good performances.
Movie work so well because it, at it’s heart, be a story about love and loss. De Crow not be your typical vigilante but a tragik figure. Dis conveyed in his backstory, his love for his girlfriend, in brilliantly broody performance by Brandon Lee, and in his relationships wit two secondary characters: a by-de-book cop and a street kid wit a chip on her shoulder. On de surface, de latter seem as cliched as de movie’s plot but, like de plot, it transcend formula and stereotypes to deliver a film wit surprising heart and depth.
Verdikt: Puts almost every other bloated, big budget superhero movie to shame.
Rating: 8.5 chocolate chippee cookies!
All through watching this movie I kept trying to remember whether I saw this in the cinema. Some of it seemed familiar but I’m not sure if I’d just seen bits and pieces over the years, or I’d seen the whole thing when it was released and just forgot, or there were just so many clichés that I only think I saw it.
Anyway, I’ve definitely seen it now and I can’t see what all the fuss is about. I wonder if Brandon Lee hadn’t been killed while filming this movie whether it would have the cult status that it enjoys today?
It wasn’t a bad movie, per se. And it was quite stylish. But for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I, too, couldn’t understand why he put the makeup on. I assume that he did it in the comic so he had to do it in the movie but sometimes things that make sense in comics don’t make sense in movies.
And what was the deal with the baddie evicting people from their homes? What’s the point of emptying buildings? It just doesn’t make sense!
So, I’m gonna give it 5 triple chocolate chip cookies for having some style but being a bit clichéd at the same time.
Hey Joe, looking at your book list on the sidebar, you might want to add Judge to your list if you’re looking at Doubt. They’re both done by the same author and Judge is more popular lol
Although not a fan of ‘back from the dead’ movies, I actually liked this one. Prolly ’cause the Crow was superhot, god rest his soul.
Hubby just informed me that he’s enjoying ‘Suzie Homemaker’ (a.k.a. me). Working from home I’ve been able to cook more, both because I am home, and because we’re trying to save money. Tonight I made fried eggplant (first time in about 15 years). An old Italian family friend gave me the eggplant from his garden. I used Schar gluten free bread crumbs, italian seasoning, and shredded parmesan cheese, crumbled up (and an egg wash, of course). They came out delish! Served them with a tomato and cuke salad and buttered asparagus.
Now, here’s where I lose Joe. I LOVE to slather my fried eggplant in…KETCHUP!! 😀 Yeah…it’s one of those guilty pleasures. 🙂
Off to give Sleepy Hollow a try. Mostly because I wanna see the hawt guy 🙂 …who comes back from the dead. 😕
das
Further to your previous post regarding dogs, here’s another link:
http://news.ca.msn.com/canada/dog-paralyzed-after-vet-leaves-it-unattended-1
Kind of sort of in a roundabout way what happened with Ari regarding the cancer issue. He was being treated for a bowel obstruction, when he was actually dying from cancer that was going untreated because of the misdiagnosis. The vet even did blood tests and x-rayed him then told me that all of the crap in his intestines were feces, but, instead, turned out to be tumors that ultimately metastasized. Of course, the vet (different vet, same office) only found out the real problem after opening him up, and by then it was too late.
Misdiagnosed Dude, too. Had him on medication for interstitial cystitis (had to look that up on my own because the vet gave me no information – basically seems to mean they have no clue what the problem is and will throw medication at it hoping it works). Anyway, I kept telling her the medication wasn’t doing anything. He’d been on them for months with the vet just telling me that it can take a month, then two months, then who knows, before the medication starts having an effect. I eventually asked for a referral for an ultrasound, but she didn’t do anything for a week and only then after I started hounding her. I then get a referral to a clinic in Vancouver despite having told her I didn’t want a referral to Van since I knew there were ones that were a lot closer. I eventually just made an appointment on my own with a clinic in Williams Lake. They had him scanned, diagnosed, and treated in an afternoon, but he was left with permanent problems because of the delay in proper treatment.
Needless to say, I’ve changed vets.
Yeah, it was pretty good I guess. I feel kind of like Line Noise in that it really never quite caught me, but maybe I’m just not into that genre. I will say the story at least made sense, at least within it’s own universe, which is more than I can say for most superhero movies lately. Granted, it was a pretty simple premise that can be summarized: “Guy gets killed, rises from dead and kills off his and his girlfriend’s attackers while helped by grizzled cop and little girl with moxie. The end.”
I do think that using such a stylized look can often be a disadvantage to the actual storytelling, since so much focus (heh) can be placed on the “look”. This movie didn’t handle it oo badly, and there were enough normal scenes to make it move along. But, there were a number of times that it took me out of the “moment” and reminded me I was watching a movie, which is not a good thing.
One of the things that rankled me a bit was that both the cop and the girl, when they realize they are talking to a DEAD GUY, are pretty blase about the whole thing. Oh, so you came back from the dead for revenge? That’s cool, I guess. I would think they would have SOME level of surprise/shock.
I totally agree about mimes and clowns, though. CREEPY.
6 chocolate chip cookies, dipped in white chocolate that unfortunately wears off before you reach the end.
Love it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLnhuzh9uY
😀
das
“After he and his girlfriend get killed by bunch of thugs, Eric Draven take it very personal.” Well… who wouldn’t?
@ cat4444 – Sorry about all your problems. Hope your cat gets better.
@ Das – OH Das!!! 😆 I’m giggling over here.
Joe – how did you like A is for Alibi? I think I read that one – lord, can’t remember! But I think I started that series a looooong time ago, just not sure how far I got. Unless I’m thinking of the ‘cat who’ books by Lilian Jackson Braun. I know I read a few of those.
das
I just assumed Back from the Dead Guys have to wear makeup because dead skin is Not Attractive. I also assume they don’t have mad cosmetics skills. Hence the stylish mime look.
The whole movie has Native American symbolism written into it The white face paint is symbolic of the powers of the Ghost Warrior. Many tribes believed that if one took on the medicine of the Ghost Warrior and wore white paint to symbolize that, then they would be invincible. Eric Draven was the essence of Ghost Warrior medicine and he drew on the magic of the crow medicine.
A friend of mine was on the set of The Crow when the accidet that killed Brandon Lee happened.
I think people who watched the finale of TAR Canada yesterday would agree that the final challenge was pretty awesome. The difficulty level was just right. Not only did they have to match the flag to each province they visited, they had to match the flower too. Crazy hard lol
The flag thing I wouldn’t have much trouble with, the flower thing though. Eek.