Review of Crimewave (1985) by Kelly S — 24 Sep 2016

Crimewave is Sam Raimi's sophomore movie after his astonishing punky, DIY horror debut The Evil Dead, which if you know anything is of course a big deal. His first studio movie too, in which he teamed up with The Coen Brothers themselves to co-write and co-create, which is an even bigger deal.

So you ask yourselves, why haven't I, the discerning film buff, heard of this holy union between talents, well thats because it was a painful disaster for all involved. For starters, the great Bruce Campbell, Rami's preferred lead, was vetoed by the studio and had to settle for a smaller part as well as his already in place producer role, obnoxious and boorish studio interference dogged the whole shoot and Rami was barred from the editing suite, were the movie was edited in a totally diffrent way to how he envisioned and then scored by a composer he didn't want.

To this day Rami, Campbell and the Coen's totally disown and disregard the film, a year later the filmakers would go off on their own, no hard feelings remaining, newly emboldened by their bad experience and with more creative control and turn out respective masterpieces Evil Dead 2 and Raising Arizona.

But actually finally seeing Crimewave, on the gorgeous new Shout Factory! blu release, I have to say that some flaws aside, it's a total fucking joy. It's like seeing Rami's Evil Dead slapstick accentuated and unfettered, pure Three Stooge's loving Rami off the leash, gifting us an unhinged live action loony toon's , filled to bursting with madcap invention and brilliant silliness.

It can be shrill and a bit annoying here and there, but when it gets into full swing it's a nonstop roller-coaster of violent slapstick crossed with film noir , Bugs Bunny and a bit of Tom And Jerry.

It sometimes feels like there's no limit to this films anarchic, crazy fun and wild, random set pieces.