Review of Darkman (1990) by Alec F — 13 Dec 2014

Clearly one of the best movies of all time and certainly featuring the best comic book action trailer of all time, "Darkman" is Sam Raimi's best work. It lies atop the crooked pyramid of Raimi works, flanked by the almost as good "Bruce Campbell Vs Army Of Darkness" and the not quite in the same league "The Quick and The Dead" while the rest of his stuff tumbles down toward the desert of almost unwatchability. Ya the first two Spidermen were OK, but they are in the same league with this movie as much as 'For The Love Of The Game" is in the same league as well, "Major League". Raimi has produced some of the best movies ever and a lot of utter crap. This one is the former.

Anchored by a (dare I say it rather Gary-Busey-esque?) performance by Liam Neeson in the role that started him out as the revenge-seeking pyshco icon we know and love in all his recent movies, and supported by a fantastic supporting cast no-names and "oh that guy"'s Darkman is both a horror movie, comic book movie, action thriller, and homage to the old Vincent Price movie "House Of Wax" with some comedy thrown in and a relentless Danny Elfman (at the top of his game) score to, well, help keep score.

You need only watch the first 2 minutes of the move to be completely sucked in for the next hour and a half. I can't imagine any human being not being entertained by this one. I recently noticed there are a lot of angry people yelling in this movie and the whole thing can perhaps be summed up in only a few out-of-context exclamations...

"Take Em Down!".

"Ventilate him!".

"He's a freak ladies and gentlemen. A FREAK!".

"See the dancing freak! Pay five bucks!".

"You gotta be shittin' me!".

"Burn in hell... a ha ha ha ha!".

It's Mine because I built it... I built it ALLL!!!".

"Julie!!".