Review of Army of Darkness (1992) by Luc L — 02 Sep 2012

This one is the most flawed and biggest budgeted of the three movies but this is still fun, despite it's short running time. Campbell is a hoot as always as Ash but his character is somewhat different than the two previous movies.

Since Raimi was kinda forced to re-think different the whole beginning of the previous movies with newly shot scenes! Once Ash is in the medieval times, it is where the third movie begins. It is fun to see Campbell is speaking in his modern time to the 14th century medieval era.

Now Ash has to find a way back to his own time with the help of a wiseman (Ian Abercrombie) but Ash has to get the book of the dead in a forbidden place. Not much plot like the original movie and the movie feels choppy at times and a little cheap, sadly.

Raimi was forced to cut 15 minutes of additional footage for the studio and change the original ending. Which the theatrical cut version has the amusing "S-Mart" ending while the original ending was more in tone of the previous endings of the two movies.

The 96 minute Director's Cut from Anchor Bay DVD is a horrible version. But the MGM Region 4 DVD is nearly pristine transfer, you can some of the horrible unfinished matte paintings or blue-screen effects looks unfinished.

I wish someone can restored the director's cut for Blu-ray. Maybe for the 20th anniversary edition from Universal or better yet, Shout! Factory, if they are willing to buy the rights for the DVD and Blu-ray release for the Director's Cut only.

It is less successful in the story and visual department but Raimi did try hard to make this looks different than the two previous movies. It's almost works. Die-Hard fans of the "Evil Dead" series will love this one best.