Review of Faust: Love of the Damned (2000) by Shaun B — 12 Jul 2012

Faust: Love of the Damned (Brian Yuzna, 2000).

The words "directed by Brian Yuzna" on a film are even scarier than the words "produced by Brian Yuzna" (q.v. The Nun, elsewhere this ish). Worse, I had no idea when I picked this up that it was a graphic novel adaptation, released at a time when the phrase "comic book movies" was defined by unwatchable Batman sequels featuring such master thespians as Jim Carrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And then I thought to myself, "it can't be any worse than Batman Forever. It just can't." And while I don't want to convey the idea that this is another Sin City, you know what? I was right. I've seen a number of bad Brian Yuzna flicks over the years; this one would vie with The Dentist as my favorite of his directorial efforts.

Plot: John Jaspers (Mark Frost, recently of the TV series Hope Springs) gets picked up and thrown into the loony bin, raving about people out to get him, where he meets psychologist Jade de Camp (Alone's Isabel Brook) and tries to convince her of the danger he's in. No go, unfortunately, and John is summarily dispatched by those very folks who were, in fact, out to get him. M (The Dead Matter's Andrew Divoff) mentions, as they're offing him, that maybe they'll go find that cute doctor. As so often happens in movies like this, Jaspers then decides to deal with a higher authority in order to get revenge (viz. Spawn, The Dead One, The Crow, etc.). Once he's back on the street, well, he starts getting it, while trying to conceal his recently-deceased condition from Jade, who's starting to fall for him, as well.

Yes, it's over the top, but Yuzna's over-the-top style does make for good comic-book mayhem, just as Burton's did in the original Batman film from the eighties. And yeah, Yuzna didn't grab A-listers for this one, but again, let me remind you what happened when Jim Carrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in Batman-franchise films. It's enough to make you flee screaming to the scale department. (Need I bring up the spectre of Catwoman?) And to be fair, no one here is really a bad actor; Frost comes off as a slightly upscale Thomas Jane, Divoff is his usual scenery-chewing self, and Brook is fine when she's not killing her career by appearing in dreck like About a Boy. Some decent special effects, a few cheesy action scenes, and of course that one scene that seems to be de rigeur in comic-book films where all the bad guys are sitting around a table discussing being bad. (The Crow, Blade, etc.) I think that, while it's not a world-beater or anything, it's taken way too much flack for simply being what it is: a dumb, fun movie where shit blows up a lot. **.