Overall Rating
  Awesome: 60.27%
Worth A Look: 21.92%
Average: 6.16%
Pretty Bad: 10.96%
Total Crap: 0.68%
6 reviews, 110 user ratings
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| Crow, The |
by Chris Parry
"Everything you ever wanted in a mindless revenge flick."
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A group of wackos break in to a city loft owned by a woman named Shelley (Sofia Shinas). Looking to evict her (the hard way) they beat and rape her, then trash the house. When her boyfriend Eric (Brandon Lee) comes home to interrupt the party, he’s stabbed, then thrown through a window to his death… but is he going to stay dead? Legend supposedly has it that when you die, a crow takes your soul to heaven, but sometimes, when a wrong needs to be righted, they bring one back. In this case, that returning soul would be our hero – the Crow.Had Brandon Lee not been accidentally killed during the making of this top-notch action flick, it’s conceivable that he and director Alex Proyas could have kept The Crow alive for a multitude of critically and financially successful sequels. Though producers tried to catch lightning in a bottle with a couple of ill-conceived follow-ups to this film; City of Angels, Salvation and the TV series Stairway to Heaven. They all suffered from low budgets, bad actors, terrible scripting and a lack of understanding as to what made the original such a great film, driving the franchise into the dirt in the process.
But here, Alex Proyas’ gothic-based directing flair takes a one-dimensional story and makes it come alive in a way you’ve seldom seen before. Anyone familiar with his work on Dark City knows that in Proyas’ world, the sun never rises. In the world of The Crow, you could almost imagine the film being shot in black and white, with the only occasional color being a quick spray of blood breaking the monotone.
But just as Proyas turned a one-dimensional story into something that lives, so too did Brandon Lee take a one-note character and give him a stunning array of depth. With one snarl Lee can turn your blood cold, just as his father Bruce could. As The Crow he’s in his element, dishing out two-fisted fury, pumping bullets into the night and moving around with the agility and strength of a panther. Michael Wincott delivers an ominous performance as “Top Dollar” - the head honcho of the city’s crime gangs, complete with his delectable sidekick who likes to eat eyeballs (Ling Bai) and his pack of drugged out cronies.
Sadly, everyone else is pretty much crap.
Yep, The Crow, as good as it is, was saved from being a two star affair by only its star and director. The sequels, headlined by Mark “straight to video” Decascos and Vincent “who?” Perez, never reach even a tenth of the heights that the original soars to. In fact, the director of The Crow: City of Angels, Tim Pope, had never directed a feature film before that one, and hasn’t directed one since. His claim to fame in the directing world was having directed The Bangles music video, Eternal Flame. You think he came cheap?But to hell with the sequels. So far as the real thing is concerned, if lightning quick action, great dialogue, some nasty bad guys and an ass-kicking soundtrack are your idea of a good movie experience, track down The Crow and figure out what millions of video renters found out long ago. And if action, dialogue, bad guys and soundtrack don’t interest you at all… check your pulse.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=754&reviewer=1
originally posted: 09/29/02 06:38:45
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USA
11-May-1994 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
06-Jul-1994 (MA)
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