(1992) ***
Ash (Bruce Campbell) gets sucked into a time portal and dropped into the 13th/14th century. Although he's recognized as the one of the prophecy who will help against the evil deadites, King Arthur treats him as an enemy and gets thrown in a pit where his bad ass self starts kicking some evil butt.
Eventually our hero must be a hero and goes on a quest to acquire the Necronomicon and fights an army of dead in order to be returned to his own time. He battles himself, himself, himself, himself and many more himselfs.
He also battles many many skeletons, skeleton arms moved by cast members, stop-motion skeletons, and people in skeleton costume. Lots of skeletons, lots of battles. Lots of comedy.
I'm afraid of the response I'm gonna get for this, but man was I disappointed! I'd heard good things. I loved Evil Dead II. I instantly became a big Bruce Campbell fan, and god love him, he gives just as much in this movie as he did in Evil Dead II, but somehow it just didn't hit me right. Even while writing this summary, I can conceptualize all the good things in this movie, but I just didn't enjoy them while watching the movie. The one liners were mostly annoying, and the slapstick, while perfectly executed, went on just a little too long. Oh well. Maybe it will grow on me in the future? I mean, I did really like the "This is my boom stick" scene. Hell, I don't even understand why I wasn't in fits of laughter during Bruce Campbell vs himself and many mini-Bruces. Please don't hate me for my bored and disappointed feelings on this one. I promise, Evil Dead I is still on my to watch list.
5 comments:
Wrong, Tami. Wrong, wrong, wrong. What are you even doing here?
Okay, just kidding. But since I know that's exactly the sort of reaction you fear, I'm slapping you across the face with it. Eventually you should become confident in your stupid, stupid opinions. (See? I did it again.)
Here's something I said in my review of this movie:
"After the supreme achievements that are the first two Evil Dead flicks, it's difficult not to be a little disappointed with this one. It's not the same animal....[Ash is] tossed into a pit with a couple of demon monsters in it, and watching him take out the fiends with his chainsaw does indeed feel like old times. That feeling doesn't last."
In other words, you nailed it.
My favorite line in this is "It's a trick. Get an axe."
I recall seeing this in the theater the first day it came out and just roaring with laughter. Time hasn’t been so kind to Army of Darkness. The humor is dated and a bit forced and the FX simply don’t hold up in the era of CG. Rami found the perfect balance between gore and humor in Dead by Dawn but goes over-the-top in Army. Army of Darkness is the Back to the Future III of the trilogy. Still there are parts the really work and as a whole I’m satisfied with this film series.
I think maybe you don't like Back to the Future 3 because it's a western, JPX; in my opinion it's the standout of the series. The second one is the weak link. Filming movies 2 and 3 back-to-back always seems to cheat the second one. Two Towers is the only exception I can think of.
Although Matrix: Reloaded is the only other example I can think of that proves my point (I like that movie, but it suffers from its position).
Superman 1 and 2 were filmed back-to-back and part 2 is better IMHO. I always say that I don't like westerns but whenever I watch one I always end up liking it. Weird. Part 2 is hands down my favorite of the BTTF series (of course I haven't watched them in about 20 years).
Hmm, I realize my Superman example makes no sense in this context.
I swear my allegiance to General Zod, woo-hoo!
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