Directed by Alex Proyas
Written by James O'Barr (comic book series and comic strip); David J. Schow, John Shirley (screenplay)
Starring Brandon Lee, Rochelle Davis, Ernie Hudson, Michael Wincott, Bai Ling
Genre: Action / Crime / Fantasy / Thriller
Country: USA
Runtime: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence and language, and for drug use and some sexuality

Evaluation: 8/10
by Greg Ferguson





The current upswing in darkly themed screen adaptations of popular comics owes a great debt to the visual mastery, adult themes, and cultish success of 1994's The Crow. Though some will doubtlessly herald Tim Burton's first two Batman features as the true progenitors of this trend, they were largely soulless fantasies (like much of his total body of work) lacking the added emotional force and grittiness with which Alex Proyas and screenwriters David J. Schow and John Shirley temper their gruesome plot and lavish art direction. Indeed, the original germs of the modern grown-up comic book film renaissance are to be found in Burton's authentic depiction of 1940's Gotham City, and to some degree Mark Goldblatt's interpretation of The Punisher of the same year, but it's The Crow that went all the way, engaging audiences on every level with a mix of style and purpose. Compared to today's more sophisticated productions, it holds up impressively well.

The story unfolds rather briskly with a minimum of character development, although what we're given is potent enough to sustain the action it precedes. Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée are murdered savagely at the beginning and survived by Sarah (Rochelle Davis), a teenager befriended by the charming couple, and Sergeant Albrecht (Ernie Hudson), the cop on the scene the night it happened. They number among the few decent people in a claustrophobic city otherwise teeming with street scum and scoundrels, the more villainous of whom were responsible as a group for throwing raping Shelly in front of Eric before throwing him from the window of his high-rise apartment and leaving her for dead badly beaten. Where we pick up is a year after the fact on Devil's Night - the eve before Halloween made notoriously popular for the very same gang's spectacular displays of arson. As we are told by Sarah in narration, when a person dies their soul is escorted to the afterlife by a crow and, on very special occasions when it is merited, is allowed to return to life in order to correct grave injustice, so it should come as no surprise that on the anniversary of his death Eric is allowed to come back so he may seek vengeance. What follows is an often violent quest to rid the city of the evildoers who choke it dry of any goodness and, by example of Eric and Shelly, stands in the way of that most sublime of human experiences - love.

To my surprise, I found the typically masochistic and masturbatory vigilante premise was afforded a good deal of charisma and humour thanks to the Brandon Lee's gleefully wicked turn as The Crow. Sadly, everything else about Lee and this film are anathema, part of a legacy of Hollywood tragedy. Most will remember this as the film where a prop gun was involved in the accidental shooting death of Lee, throwing into the question its fate and prematurely ending the life of a very promising new star in a manner not unlike the character he portrayed. Luckily, thanks to the resourcefulness of the filmmakers and procuring a body double and gingerly using special effects, Lee - through this film - was made able to live on.

As for the film itself, what ensures its continued following is its richly textured look and feel. Proyas is a gifted visionary able to conjure worlds at once stifling and curiously intricate; a sort of romanticized drabness like that done to perfection in his following film, Dark City, one of the greatest ever made. In The Crow, Detroit City feels reduced to a grimy cul-de-sac of a few menacing landmarks, with a palpable sense of apprehension heightened by his subtle exaggerations of familiar cityscapes (much in the same way Martin Scorsese did by altering the dimensions of the boxing ring in Raging Bull). After watching it for the first time, I was compelled to watch it again in order to better absorb the nuances of his images.

The Crow isn't without its flaws, though. Its mythical basis is confusing and vaguely defined (why it is not Shelly who is brought back, or both she and Eric, is never made clear), and Eric's rebirth as The Crow is an unbelievably preternatural ascent to power considering the bewilderment and turmoil one might expect from suddenly being jerked back to life. These are minor quibbles, however, as the film is much more memorable for what it does exceedingly well. While modern day films like Batman Begins, Sin City, and Blade II may have bested The Crow with their technical and creative razzle-dazzle, it is not easily forgotten.

(The Crow is available on DVD and may be rented from Spin It Video located at 15 Lewis St., Moncton.)

Directed by Chuck Bowman
Written by Stephen J. Cannell, Corey Strode, Cookie Rae Brown (teleplay); Daniel Farrands, Carolyn Davis (story)
Starring Lochlyn Munro, Chandra West, Nicole Muñoz, Carrie Fleming, Jianna Ballard, Peter New, Steve Bacic, Peng Zhang Li
Genre: Horror
Country: USA
Runtime: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: No MPAA Rating

Evaluation: 3.5/10
by Greg Ferguson






Somewhere in the third act of The Tooth Fairy, the film's token airhead comes out with a doozy of a line, delivered sincerely: "People who can recognize their faults are destined to change them." I know someone involved with this oppressive slab of cinematic ineptitude wrote that line because no less than five writers are credited for its creation, as if each one of them was clamouring to attach their name to it. How, then, would they, as well as director Chuck Bowman, explain the copious mess of faults they are responsible in large part for? At a time when truly unsettling and provocative horror films like Wolf Creek and The Descent are wilfully and creatively tapping into our most innate fears, these filmmakers are as trapped in their own outdated era ('80s SFX gore-pornos) as the purgatorial spirits in the film are in theirs. Destiny, sadly, doesn't intervene on their behalf at any time here.

Aside from its laughable platitudes, The Tooth Fairy truly damns itself with its dimwitted premise, taking a common childhood myth and transmuting it into a violent slasher flick that is obviously intended for adults yet retains a childish sensibility. Trouble ensues for the torpid collective of characters (and for the intelligent and indignant viewer) when a wicked witch (Peng Zhang Li) bent on releasing her soul from captivity begins stalking the inhabitants of a new bed-and-breakfast in a rural Californian town. She needs the teeth of little tykes in order to free herself (with the caveat that they must be outside of the mouth), and a little girl named Pam (Nicole Muñoz) who is visiting with her mom (Chandra West) has fortuitously lost one while riding her bike. In the process of getting it, the witch wreaks havoc by first picking off glorified extras in heavily masturbatory and unnecessary death scenes then finally, after much lollygagging and teasing, zeroing in on Pam, who has by now aligned herself with a young girl named Emma (Jianna Ballard) whose corporeality is dubious and precociousness suspect. Still, after her proselytizing, Emma never recommends that Pam do the most logical thing which is temporarily sticking her tooth back in her mouth to ward off the witch. Oh, but then we wouldn't have this movie, and oh what a shame that would have been.

At the risk of sounding contrary, I'm going to say that I'd have preferred another movie, especially one where the main characters are actually disturbed by the deaths of others in their company and don't instead resort to inane chatter about relationships, freshman-year philosophy, and country-rap lyrics, or doff their clothes for an impromptu round of This Stranger Understands My Entire Life sex. Furthermore, the witch's behaviour in accomplishing her mission is fatally erratic; indeed, how scary is a murderous villain who inexplicably bumbles around in its pursuit of its prey and inevitably fails to foil the defences of a small girl? This titular Tooth Fairy doesn't do her job very well, and for that matter neither do any of the filmmakers.

(The Tooth Fairy is available on DVD.)