SummaryEric Draven and his fiancé are murdered on the eve of their Halloween wedding. Exactly one year after their deaths, Eric is risen from the grave by a mysterious crow to seek out his killers and force them to answer for their crimes. [Miramax Films]
SummaryEric Draven and his fiancé are murdered on the eve of their Halloween wedding. Exactly one year after their deaths, Eric is risen from the grave by a mysterious crow to seek out his killers and force them to answer for their crimes. [Miramax Films]
The Crow imbues its comic brutalism with emotion and satire. Too raw and pulpy, it probably shouldn't be regarded as a memorial to Brandon Lee. But as an obsessive rock 'n' roll comic book movie shocker of loony intensity, it stands, or flies, by itself.
I have watched this movie probably 50 times throughout my life and it never seems to get old. Can't rain all the time & Fire it up are quotes i use often.
And the soundtrack is top notch as well!
10/10 Classic!
The Crow, the death-haunted, mega-violent, pulpy, vigorous final film of Brandon Lee, may not qualify as much of a monument to a lost life -- what film could? -- but it's a hell of a movie.
Brandon Lee's swan song is a kinetic, pounding, adrenalized feast for the senses, if not the psyche. Bursting with startling images, eclectic staging, and gorgeous neo-gothic set design.
Lee has phenomenal presence, and his movements are so balletically powerful that his rampages seem like waking nightmares. Lee keeps you watching The Crow when you'd rather look away.
It succeeds in bringing O'Barr's comic-book vision to life, but there's little else going on behind the graphic razzle-dazzle and the moody, ominous soundtrack.
Some time ago, I became aware of the existence of this film, but I decided to see it because of its somewhat dark and interesting theme. It turned out to be the movie I saw on my Halloween night, and I'm not exactly sorry. The film is set in a dystopian future, in which the city is dominated by organized crime and the authorities seem incapable of acting and there is a group of thugs that annually set fire to several parts of the city on purpose, in the so-called "Devil's Night", just for the pleasure of destroying.
In the film, a totally innocent couple are attacked and killed by criminals who break into their home. However, a crow magically in charge of taking Eric's soul to heaven decides to keep it on earth in order to give him time to do what needs to be done: find and punish the killers. It's a simple, direct plot, based on a series of graphic novels that I didn't know about, but it works reasonably well. A particular note, which made this film famous, was the sad death of the main actor, Brandon Lee, as a result of an accident with the film's weapons during a scene in which his character is hit by a bullet.
From the cast, it is Brandon Lee who stands out, with a charismatic and committed performance. With this film, the actor achieved the most outstanding role of his career. In addition to him, Michael Wincott also deserves particular commendation due to the dark, grim and cruel portrayal of a crime boss. Sofia Shinas and Jon Polito also show up and do a satisfying job.
Technically, the film has several elements of interest, mainly in terms of visuals and special and sound effects. The cinematography is suitably dense, sober and at times gives the scenes a pleasant charge of pessimism and negativity, as if we were inside a nightmare or hallucination. The props and sets help to create the desired atmosphere, gothic and a little threatening, but it is the visual, special and sound effects that deserve the most praise. The film also has good action scenes. The soundtrack, while not memorable, works reasonably well.
Perhaps it took Brandon Lee's unfortunate demise to give this movie the cult reputation it has but the question remains: is it actually deserved? Lee, the main actor, no doubt gives his best and it is really a pity that he died for he shows talent. So one can only dream what could have been.
Could have been.
And there you have it.
Should you judge a movie based on might have been? To me it seems more valid to stick to what you got: it is the only thing you can judge.
So lets take a look at what we got before us.
The crow is a run-of-the mill revenge story based on a comic. A young couple gets brutally murdered on Devil's Night by a gang of freak arsonists who can not be stopped by the law. Of course not! We all know by now that it requires a special someone to stop them, hence the police is emasculated so we can exclaim: do not expect any help from the law!
Therefore a crow invokes the spirit of the murdered Draven for reasons unknown with magical powers unknown , but for the fact that we otherwise would not have a movie to begin with. Who needs reasons anyway? We are only explained that sometimes the dead linger because the crow that guides the spirit to the other world might choose not do so. At least not yet. Hence the dead do not go to the place beyond but stay for reasons and purposes unknown, except that in this movie it is apparently for Draven to kill those that killed him and his wife.
So Draven, after painting his face white with black stripes for reasons unknown, - perhaps just because it looks cool- follows the trail of lesser goons all the way to the end boss. Since Draven is already dead he cannot be killed again, hence the thugs have virtually no way to stop the oncoming doom, but it is amusing to see them try. To make the story at least engaging a black police guy(Ernest Hudson) and a teen girl (Rochelle Davis) run the danger of their wrath and give the story some body.
Now with a flimsy story one needs something else to make amends.
The first thing that springs to mind might be great dialog. Perhaps something akin to Tarantino. One can completely forget about that. There is nothing approaching anything interesting except for the occasional quip.
Next would be, given it is based on a comic, some unusual imagery. Well, the camera sometimes is put at odd angles in the story, but this isn't used in a consistent manner nor is the lightning or imagery special.Nothing that approaches say Sin City or the Third Man.
Next on the list would be interesting characters. Needless to say, there are none. The thugs are your usual set of suspects: anti social, rude, crude and nasty. Cattle for the slaughter. The support cast, a honest disgruntled cop and a bratty teen, has been seen before. Then there is Draven himself, a tortured soul and a wronged man killed in the prime of his life who has been given special powers and is left with just one task to accomplish: revenge. Nothing surprising there either.
One could of course point to the music which has some great bands performing, but here again there is nothing unexpected. We got the usual set of alternative rock bands here. Great bands no doubt, but a totally unsurprising choice too.
At last one would expect some kind of humor in this movie, but this one is as dry as old bones.
Overall, with a meager story, uninspired dialog, shallow characters, the usual music, no humor and an unremarkable cinematography this movie has mediocre written all over it. It is only saved by the fact that the cast and crew do the best with what they got and the budget **** that the movie is no doubt a good effort, but ultimately nothing that left me with an impression of greatness. In a nutshell: nothing spectacular lies within.
Great comic book film! Very dark and very gritty! It's a shame that a great tragedy resulted from such a great film but at least Brandon Lee leaves us The Crow as his legacy!