He’s no Brandon Lee
In this week’s Criticize This! we take a look at a pointless reboot, an interesting and unique thriller, and a movie that apparently requires a trigger warning.
THE BIG ONE
There are many things wrong with The Crow reboot, but our biggest gripe is with Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal of the character that Brandon Lee made iconic in the 1994 version. Where Lee came across almost poetic at times, Skarsgård is just flat and boring. Add in excessive use of blood and gore to get an R rating, along with a disjointed yawn of a story, and this officially lives up to what every fan of the original film was afraid of.
Being based off of James O’Barr’s graphic novel, the underlying story in the reboot is similar to the 1994 film on the surface. Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are a couple madly in love who get murdered. Then Eric returns from the dead to seek vengeance.
That’s about all the similarities between the two, as this version removes the street thugs for supernatural villains and it all comes to a head at the opera.
WATCH: Trailer for The Crow (2024)
The movie currently has a 21% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.1 out of 10 on the IMDb. We can’t imagine either of these ratings getting much higher, but at least it’s better than Borderlands (which is still sitting at a 10% critics score).
“The dialogue between our hero and the villains he faces down is dull and anticlimactic. Boring, unbelievable and quite frankly, too forced, there are no reasons to accept these characters or their motivations,” John Kirk wrote in his review for Original Cin.
Writing for Screen Daily, Tim Grierson said that “this forgettable new version doesn’t just fail to honour [Lee’s] memory — it never justifies its existence on its own merits.”
Adding to the negative pile up, SlashFilm said “the film is dull, lifeless, hazy, and unmoving,” and The Hollywood Reporter called it “a sluggish, overly self-serious gloomfest that never takes wing.”
Even the few positive reviews we found make it sound terrible.
The Associated Press wrote that the film “isn’t bad — and it gets better as it goes — but it’s an exercise in folly,” and DiscussingFilm sums it up as “flawed and will probably not win over diehard fans of the classic 1994 movie, but it’s the bright spots in between those flaws that keep it from being dull or forgettable.”
Our take: Don’t waste your time or money on this train wreck in the theatre. If you’re at all curious to see how bad it is, just wait until it’s streaming in a few weeks.
The Crow is now in theatres.
IN THEATRES
Strange Darling
Strange Darling is one of the most interesting and unique thrillers we’ve ever seen, and it’s got so much to unpack that we’re still thinking about it days later.
It’s best to not know anything about it ahead of time, so all we’re going to say is that Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner are both amazing in their respective roles, and you should definitely see this movie before everyone else is talking about it.
It’s currently got a 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with an 82% audience rating. In her review of it on IndieWire, Alison Foreman said it’s “a feat of filmmaking so extraordinary you’ll wonder if it could ever truly be spoiled.” Amen to that!
Blink Twice
Warner Bros. didn’t screen Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice ahead of time in Canada, but early buzz from other markets make it sound like it’s a decent directorial debut for the actress.
Starring Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan, and Naomi Ackie, the movie has a 78% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes with one review saying it’s “deliriously entertaining and ultimately a disturbing look at power, gender dynamics, and how some people never learn.”
WATCH: Trailer for Blink Twice
The studio issued a trigger warning for the movie on social media earlier this week, which many people in the comments are saying is just a marketing gimmick to stir up interest.
Also in theatres this week: The comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, and the indie horror Stream, which has a stacked cast for fans of the genre that includes Tim Curry, Danielle Harris, Dee Wallace, and Tony Todd, are both in limited release across Canada.
TOP BOX OFFICE
STREAMING
Inside Out 2 (VOD)
There’s a reason Inside Out 2 made over a billion dollars at the box office. From the animation and new characters to the story about growing up and going through changes, it’s a beautiful movie and a true return to form for Pixar.
You don’t have to take our word for it, though, as it has a 91% critics score and a 95% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 7.8 out of 10 on the IMDb based off of over 100,000 reviews!
Oddity / Longlegs (VOD)
Longlegs and Oddity are both unsettling and creepy movies that are equally effective in different ways. If you caught either of them in the theatre and they didn’t work for you, we suggest giving them another chance at home (preferably as a double feature) to see if the change in atmosphere makes them click.
If you haven’t seen them yet and need motivation to watch them, Longlegs has a 7.1 out of 10 on the IMDb, while Oddity has a 7 out of 10.
You can read our review of Longlegs in the ‘Nic Cage nightmares‘ newsletter and our review of Oddity in the ‘Can Ryan and Hugh save Marvel?‘ newsletter.
Also streaming this week: The indie horror Consumed, starring Devon Sawa, and the comedy Greedy People, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lily James, are on VOD, Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, and the R-rated high school comedy Incoming, are on Netflix, and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is on Crave.
COMING SOON
Anna Kendrick directs and stars in Woman of the Hour, a movie about serial killer Rodney Alcala, who went on The Dating Game TV show during his killing spree in the 1970s.
This is Kendrick’s directorial debut and early reviews from its film festival run are very positive (it has a 90% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.7 out of 10 on the IMDb). We’re very much looking forward to seeing this when it arrives in theatres on October 11.
Check out the trailer for Woman of the Hour on our YouTube channel and tell us what you think?
ON DISC
The 1994 version of The Crow is by no means a perfect movie, and someone watching it for the first time today could even find some parts cheesy. But it probably holds a special place in your heart if you saw it back when it was released. It’s got an amazing soundtrack, and Brandon Lee, who tragically died making the film, was the coolest movie badass to the Gen X crowd at the time.
A year after he and his girlfriend are murdered on “Devil’s Night”, Eric Draven returns from the dead to seek his revenge on the killers. Queue lots of cool, gothic fight scenes.
If you’re a fan of The Crow ’94 and you haven’t watched it in a while, do yourself a favour and revisit it on 4K Blu-ray. This is a dark movie, and the crisp 4K image quality truly highlights the blacks and helps make the shadows pop. The 5.1 DTS-HD surround sound mix brings that amazing soundtrack to life, while also making the sound effects punch you in the face (in a good way).
Special features on the 4K Blu-ray release of The Crow ’94 include a new featurette on designing the movie, extended and deleted scenes, audio commentary with director Alex Proyas, a profile on The Crow comic creator, James O’Barr, and more.
You can buy The Crow on 4K Blu-ray from Amazon.ca.
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