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Mike Wilder brings you movie reviews. Each week a Selection of reviews for new releases and older films plus movie comparisons.

Friday, 10 February 2012

Review of The Crow (1994) by Mike


Title: The Crow (1994)

Original UK Release Date: 10th June 1994

Original US Release Date: 11th May 1994

UK Rating: 18

US Rating: R

Director: Alex Proyas

Genre: Fantasy/Horror

Plot: After he is brutally murdered and his girlfriend raped, Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) returns from the dead for revenge.

Mike's Review

I followed the making of this film quite closely after the lead star Brandon Lee was tragically killed during the making of the film. It happened when a gun used to fire live rounds was then used to fire blanks during a scene with Brandon Lee. The gun wasn’t cleaned and checked correctly and it was discovered that a round that had been previously fired had failed to fire correctly.  The bullet lodged in the barrel and remained there until the gun was used with blank rounds. The force of the blank firing was enough to propel the bullet out of the barrel and fatally wounded Brandon Lee. This led to many changes in the use of firearms on set, sadly however these changes were too late and the movie world lost a truly great rising star.

The film is ironically about the murder of the character played by Brandon Lee. He then comes back from the grave to avenge his death and the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend Shelly by a gang.

The film is a masterpiece and visually stunning. It is a very dark film and the visuals portray this extremely well. The cast includes Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson & Michael Wincott. The acting is great from most of the cast with very over the top performances by the gang members and a near perfect stand out performance by Brandon Lee. Having only seen him in action martial arts movies prior to this his acting ability really stands out here and shows what potential he had.

This is a really good film and knowing the background into the death of the lead actor helps to bring a sense of reality to it. However without the tragic accident this is still a great film. More fantasy than horror it has a great story that really draws you in and doesn’t let go until the end.

Unfortunately someone decided the film needed some very poor sequels! However a short lived TV series was made using the original characters and it was actually quite good.

If you have never seen this please give it a go, it’s a great film but give the follow ups a miss!

10 out of 10

Additional Information

Stand out performance: Brandon Lee as Eric Draven

Trailer

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