Re: The Crow

Fine work; great to revisit. A lot of reminiscing, but still a lot of fun. I agree with Teague that the film sets out to tell a simple revenge tale with style and succeeds in spades.

My one gripe is that the action sequences aren't much to write home about. I don't think that, as Teague proposed, if The Matrix hadn't come along this would have been thought of as having the most stylish action sequences of the decade. There was plenty of Woo and Tarantino and stuff inspired by them at that time.


Astroninja Studios wrote:

Also, forget that Bruce Lee curse, shit.  Shannon Lee and Linda Lee Caldwell are alive and well.

Oh yeah? General Robert E Lee is dead.

Last edited by Zarban (2010-12-27 17:36:54)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: The Crow

*the plunky piano in the corner goes silent, every soul in the saloon stops dead in its tracks, staring at Zarban*

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: The Crow

Don't get me wrong—the film has got style out the wazoo. But consider just the action sequences.

The Tin Tin fight is basically just a brawl with a pretty cool ending. The Fun Boy scene is cool but pretty small scale. The car chase just knocks over some trash cans and then blows the car up as it goes off a pier. Now, that's followed by the burning crow imagery, which is full on awesome, but it's just a button on a so-so stunt.

Then Draven gets shot up and proceeds to slaughter a roomful of baddies in one of the most disjointed shootouts on film. It has its moments but you can hardly see what's going on.

The final confrontation starts out really cool and then turns into a pretty conventional shootout before getting cool again with a rooftop sword fight in the rain and a conclusion right out of a Hammer horror picture (Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, if I'm not mistaken).

None of these has the wild inventiveness of Desperado or the flawless choreography of Jackie Chan's First Strike or the embedded subtext of Batman Returns. Are those better movies overall? No, but I'm just talking about action sequences (altho Batman Returns is no slouch).

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: The Crow

The thing about action sequences, tho, is that they don't really add anything to a movie. Some of the most effective action sequences I've ever seen have lasted less than a minute and just did what they had to do and moved on. Having a ten minute fight sequence with crazy choreography can work in some films, like The Matrix, but a lot of the flicks that attempt that stuff end up falling flat because they aren't doing anything with the characters during those scenes beyond just having them hit each other - there was generally more going on in the matrix' fights than that (aside from the lobby scene, which was just setup for the roof scene). Die Hard is a good example of a movie with pretty short action sequences and fights that all end pretty abruptly and last only a minute or so.

Anyway, The Crow might not have the best action scenes, but you really dislike the guys getting killed. They spend the whole first half of the movie just setting up what huge assholes they are. I guess that kinda helps make fights feel better than they are. Lee's characterization of Draven helps a lot as well.

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Re: The Crow

Awesome film. In the top ten of my all time favorites. I love the story, characters and the score. Its a dark but beautiful film.

It gets better every time i watch it.

I love the look and style of the flick, from beginning to end.

Wicked commentary. You guys rock.  smile

They're only noodles Michael.

Thumbs up Thumbs down