The Crow (1994)
Last Watch Date - May 31, 2024
Total Times Watched - So many times
Comments
I put this on when good old Seanglosaxon was visiting. Turns out he had never seen it before! How is this possible?! This was a staple of my childhood/teens and I remember even going to see it in theaters. How does it hold up over the years?
It's worth noting that this movie is SO 90s. The hair styles, the gothic imagery, the music. It's like a time capsule of what was and it gives me incredible nostalgia. I remember trying to learn the songs on guitar, painting my face like Brandon Lee, and trying to find as cool of wardrobe as what he had. Spoiler: I never did. I also didn't really learn many of these songs, but you know what, I have owned the soundtrack multiple times over the years so that's something.
I guess I should talk about the movie itself. Let's start with .. hmm.. pacing! The movie clocks in at about 1 hour and 40 minutes and really starts out pretty quickly with THINGS going down. The opening and closing narration is .. fine. It's not too long, so it's forgivable. What you may notice as you watch it is that there aren't really that many bad guys that he's trying to take out. It'll make you wonder how they fill the time, but it does work.
From a casting standpoint, everyone is pretty great. Even Bai Ling, who barely speaks English in this, is good and weird. Michael Wincott is excellent as Top Dollar. His voice alone is basically an entire character. But you also get Ernie Hudson, Tony Todd, and David Patrick Kelly! You may remember him from his role of Luther in The Warriors. WARRIORS..COME OUT TO PLAYEEEYYYY. He plays a great dirtbag. I also need to mention that Lord Nikon is Tin Tin. HACK THE PLANET!
What you'll probably know of this movie more than anything is that it was Brandon Lee's last movie. Because he died filming it. It's a bizarre story and the whole Alec Baldwin Rust fiasco is very similar. I know there were script rewrites to handle some missing things and some chunks were taken out altogether. I'm very curious to see what would've been had he not died. Maybe it would've ended up being a very different movie. It's hard to know.
What I do know is that this movie has a TON of quotable one-liners:
- "I feel like a little worm on a big fuckin' hook"
- "Are we havin' fun yet or what?"
- "Shit on me"
- "Is that gasoline I smell?"
- "I thought the police always said freeze"
- "And I say I'm dead, and I move"
- "The fuck you all painted up for crackhead, huh? Halloween ain't til mañana"
- "FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!"
- "Stupid ass hair, you hit my car!"
There are more, just watch it.
Recommended?
It's still good. A modern classic.
