The Crow

The Crow (1994)

I hadn't seen it for about ten years and as the full moon came beaming through my apartment window late last night, it just felt right to indulge in some Proyas Gothic excellence.

The question still taps away at all our doors, namely would the film be the cult classic it became without the Brandon Lee tragedy? That's a tricky one to answer because we all deep down have a morbid curiosity about us, especially with films and their stars. This is why I got a lot more from re-watching the movie after a very long period of time, namely that it may have drew many of us in years ago because of the tragedy and heart aching back story to writer James O'Barr's birthing of Eric Draven the character, but it can now enthral, thri...

The following is a long form review that I originally wrote in 2011.

In the vein of films like The Punisher and Mad Max, The Crow first hit my screen only four years ago, way back when my DVD collection consisted of only about 40 films, (now it is around 500). I had $10 to my name but I was intent on expanding the thing, a girl I'd met only that day, suggested I buy it from Sanity, when there used to be one in Civic. Since that day, when I was well and truly blown away by it, we've always intended to make our tradition of "Crow and Coffee" (wherein you watch The Crow and drink several litres of Ice Coffee & Bailey's) a repeated thing.

I feel as if this one should have been known to me for far longer than it has. It's quite...

Well if you though it was wet on "Blade Runner" (1982) then welcome to a ruined city where the torrential rain never seems to stop. A series of flashbacks tells us that two graves hold the bodies of a young couple about to be married. That's before local kingpin "Top Dollar" (Michael Wincott), who had designs on their building, sent his henchmen to "coax" them out. A year after this tragedy a crow alights on the grave of "Eric" (Brandon Lee) and enlivens his corpse so that he may avenge the brutality visited on his fiancée and himself. What now ensues is a dark and menacing revenge thriller that, though fairly predictable, sees this former rock musician develop some astonishingly lethal ninja skills as he identifies and then rather entertai...

This is my first viewing of The Crow and it is a great, dark comic book adaptation that at times reminded me of Batman and moments that seemed to later inspire The Dark Knight, in particular with The Joker. It's a shame about Brandon Lee as he is amazing in the lead and this could've led to a great career. There are some poignant scenes and a genuine heart at its core. Just a home run from Alex Poyas. 4.25/5

Great! All the more impressive given offscreen events.

The awful behind the scenes stuff with lead Brandon Lee was all that I knew about 'The Crow'; I only learned it was a superhero flick in the lead-up to watching it, I had always assumed it was a straight up horror. No better time to watch it, what with the reboot out now... gotta see the sequels first!

There is a strong performance from Lee in there, Ernie Hudson is also someone I enjoyed in this. The rest of those onscreen are all positives, namely Rochelle Davis and Michael Wincott. I don't have any real complaints with this as a film, the feel is aesthetically, audibly and tonally spot on - plenty of Evanescence/Bring Me to Life and Gotham City vibes.